Will Kaufman/Zoe Mulford

Grateful Fred’s is a monthly roots and acoustic night at the British Legion Hall, Formby, near Liverpool. It has a firm accent on American roots music and tonight was no exception.

After a rousing set from the Grateful Fred’s House Band, the capacity audience was treated to a well-received support set from Zoe Mulford, an American singer /songwriter ,now living in Manchester. As well as her fine voice and songwriting skills, what makes Zoe standout is her claw-hammer banjo technique, which she used to great effect on a marvellous version of Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning “. Zoe also performed several of her own songs ,including “All of the Songs Were Road Songs” about travelling [in song] to the mythical places of North America.

Following Zoe’s set, Will Kaufman[another American living in the North West of England] took to the stage to present his multi-media “live documentary” called “Woody Guthrie : Hard Times and Hard Travellin’. ” With the use of evocative images ,narrative and live music [ sung and played with great skill by Will] we were taken back to America in the 1930′s ,to the Dust Bowl, Migration, the Depression and the New Deal . Will’s show set the songs of Woody Guthrie and his contemporaries in the context of those times and took us on Woody’s journey along the Dust Bowl trails to the hardship of the work camps of California. Stand out songs included ” How Can you Keep On Movin’ [Unless You Migrate Too ]“; “Do Re Mi” ; “Brother Can You Spare a Dime ” ;This Land is Your Land” and “Pretty Boy Floyd “. For me, however, the stand out performance was a stunning version of “Vigilante Man” with bottleneck guitar that would give Ry Cooder’s version [on "Into the Purple Valley "] a good run for its money.

As well as being an academic [professor ,actually] ,Will Kaufman is a brilliant performer. As an eminent singer-songwriter has said, “Will does it all so well that you can taste the dust and hear the freight train whistle blow”. I could not have put it better myself! I would urge anyone who has any interest in American history and/or music to see this show.

All in all, a marvellous evening of Americana at Grateful Fred’s.

Peter Cowley