onionbagblog

To On the Corner! …on Sunday evening for some strumming, finger picking, droning and deep throat seduction. It was a little different from Sunday service across the road at St Mary’s earlier in the day.

The Sunday On the Corner sessions is an incredibly informal gathering bringing together locals musos with local muso lovers. Add in a little booze and some vegetable samosas, and it comes up trumps when compared to Countryfile back at base.

But how do you go about putting the bill together?

Always start with your star turn; always start with a man that knows his European pop from his fake imported Americana.

That must be Mr Mule then.

Yer man has been on fine form of late. Sunday saw tales of lost Soho tangles from a different age mixed in with women and whiskey. Quite some narrative. Like a fine wine, etc, which must mean that the *ahem* rather significant celebration coming up for Mule should be vintage.

Follow that.

Which was precisely the instructions for young Oliver Daldry, an Ipswich based singer songwriter. The one man and his guitar approach may have resembled Mule from earlier, but the sound couldn’t have been any different. A light touch on the frets and a finger picking session of incredible dexterity from young Mr D.

A samosa chitter chatter later revealed that Oliver has a classical guitar based background. If you can pluck your way through a concerto, and then translate this to the CRAZY world of Rock n Roll then you are on the money.

Or even On the Corner.

Or perhaps elsewhere. Oliver is keen to keep on gigging anywhere around the hyperlocal-ish patch. He plays a strictly No Covers policy. Why sing to someone else’s tune when you have your own songbook to draw upon?

The On the Corner Sessions probably won’t go down in Rock history as being on par with the Pistols at the 100 Club etc, but it was significant in that it was a return to the Wivenhoe stage for an old fresh young faced artist for the first time in 18 years.

Phew, Rock n Roll.

MW Bewick has been in bands for the past two decades. The amp obsessed Wivenhoe wall of sound of previous bands is now stripped right down to one man strumming on an acoustic guitar.

It suited Sunday night to perfection, much in the same way that MW’s Strange Brew fits the Friday feel on Radio Wivenhoe. The song remains the same (sorta) with the Wivenhoe wall of sound working just as well in an ambient setting.

The one man and his band added in the accompaniment of a drone box for the final song in the set. Purchased from Guru Sounds in Barking, the eastern echoes resonated well with… the samosas.

And then finally it was time for Fiona and Nick to finish off the On the Corner session. This was Hobo Chang / Bone Chang / Drum redacted further still. You don’t need to hide away when you have the voice of Fiona Harman, but reduced to a no amps approach upstairs in a tapas bar really leaves no hiding place.

Absolutely no worries.

You don’t so much listen to Fiona as get involved. It wasn’t an out of body experience, but *that* voice carried the entire room from the floorboards up. The limited stage space meant wanders around the audience. Walk it like you talk it in a tranced state for a Sunday evening.

And so that was the On the Corner session. What else are you gonna do on the Seventh Day?

Strum, finger pick, drone and seduce.

Sorted.