The story is the telling - This is the Kit, plus by Nuala Honan (at The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham - 16 November 2021) and Alaw (at Bitterley Village Hall - 3 December 2021.)

In a year in which live music was touch and go, it was great to be able to attend two fantastic gigs towards the end of 2021. In November, I went to the Castle and Falcon in Birmingham to see This Is the Kit. It was a pleasure to see Kate Stables and her band play in a fairly intimate venue and the evening was made all the more special by the fact that I was joined by my nephew Tom (a Birmingham resident and, like his uncle, a fan of slightly quirky music.)

This Is the Kit were supported by Bristol-based Australian Nuala Honan and her band. I was so taken with Nuala’s infectious enthusiasm that, in the interval, I made a beeline to her merch table, had a pleasant chat with Nuala herself and bought her CD Doubt & Reckoning. The album is perfect music for driving and has been in my car’s CD player ever since. The only disappointment is that the album doesn’t include Nuala’s latest single I’m Alright which is charming and delightfully hooky. If you haven’t heard it yet, seek it out and play it on repeat a few times!

This is The Kit were very entertaining with Kate frequently spending time carefully tuning one instrument before realising she was supposed to be playing a different one, but she had a lovely rapport with the audience and the songs were as delicate and moving as they could be. Keep Going was a highlight, a song which could almost be an anthem for the pandemic age:

“The power in the naming / The story is the telling / Potential in the waiting / Movement is deciding / Forward is the doing / Keep going...”

And for anyone who has lost a loved one in recent times, the tense-shifting refrain of Keep Going took on a new power:

“This love has been ours / This love is ours / This love is still ours...”

Then, at the start of December, I headed over the hills (literally) to South Shropshire where, not far from Ludlow, the village of Bitterley nestles. Bitterley is one of a number of villages in Shropshire and Worcestershire - Alveley, Abberley, Dunley, Astley, Shrawley – that sound like adverbs. It’s tempting to suppose Bitterley got its name because, positioned on the western slopes of Titterstone Clee Hill, it must get bitterly cold in the winter.

Bitterley Village Hall was the venue for an Arts Alive event. Arts Alive promote professional arts and film events in partnership with local people, bringing high quality and affordable entertainment within easy travelling distance of people in Shropshire and Herefordshire. And so it was that I had the privilege of seeing a performance by Alaw, a superb folk trio from Wales. Guitarist Dylan Fowler and fiddler Oli Wilson-Dickson have been playing together for years and are now joined by the exceptional voice of Nia Lynn, who also provides a harmonium accompaniment. Oli is an immensely engaging front-man and the band took the audience on a journey through new and traditional Welsh folk tunes that demonstrate the Welsh tradition is unfairly neglected, compared with Scottish and Irish folk music.

So, from This is the Kit and Nuala Honan in heart of the big city to Alaw, playing over the hills and far away, live music is still out there to be had - and long may it continue. The story is the telling. Keep going.