Following a morning spent mostly moving furniture around the house in preparation for the arrival of the plasterer on Thursday, I was picked up by Dawn on our way to the Farnham Maltings to see Jamie Smith’s Mabon.
They are a band of five chaps who play Welsh Celtic toe-tapping tunes mostly written by Jamie. And toe-tapping is right! It was very difficult just sitting and listening to them. In fact, Dawn pointed to a guy in the audience sitting stock still and asked me how he could do that.
‘Mabon’ refers to the Celtic/Wiccan word for the Autumnal equinox, something Jamie told us during the gig. Apparently the word has many meanings (not all nice) but this is the one they have chosen.
The music infects the listener, coursing through the body, making you one with it. It’s traditional and very powerful. It’s also very lively and fun. There wasn’t a lot of sadness and sorrow. Even the slow numbers effortlessly segued into lively jigs.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good tragi-ballad about unrealised love leading to tragedy and death but sometimes it’s just wonderful to sit back and be transported to someone’s Happy Place. Jamie Smith’s Mabon clearly inhabit one and they took us there with their music.
The band consists of piano accordion, violin, bass, bouzouki and percussion. All of them are perfectly in sync with each other, making the whole so much more than the sum of its parts. The band members are also very funny.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, one that will have to be repeated if they ever visit Farnham again.
Their official site, where you can listen to one of their tunes, is here.
Told you it would be great pity they didn’t dance I cant keep my feet still when I here that kind of music. love mum xs