Review: Hack Poets Guild, The Folk House – ‘Invention, innovation and intimate storytelling’

During the short film that, sort of, supports Hack Poets Guild, Lisa Knapp says that she loves Broadside Ballads because you can “hear the humanity coming through”.

Broadsides were single sheets of news, sometimes in the form of songs (the ballads in question), sold cheaply on the streets between the 15th and 19th century. By the end of their incredible set, the “humanity” inherent in these songs of the working class spread an unutterable joy out into the night.

Lisa Knapp (singer, violinist, BBC Folk Awards winner), Marry Waterson (Folk royalty, daughter of Lal Waterson) and Nathaniel Mann (multi-instrumental genius from the Dead Rat Orchestra) make up Hack Poets Guild.

This evening they are also joined by Laurence Hunt, on percussion, and Barney Morse-Brown on cello and, between them, they settle that clichéd “is folk music relevant?” thing once and for all.

They settle it with invention, innovation and intimate storytelling.

The invention comes early, Lisa Knapp using an old printing press as percussion adding a deathly thunk of finality to Barbara Allen. A ghostly cello and Knapp’s exquisite voice silence the busy room, allowing a heart-breaking story to be told.

Then, just as you feel that you know where this evening is headed, there’s a burst of radio babble, a swift swap of instruments and Mann blasts the Devil’s Cruelty.

The spectral, ethereal moments are banished by his warming hug of a voice, his banjo and Waterson’s perfect harmonies. He sings “I’ve been tempted by the devil” and, in all honesty, you’re not entirely sure that he didn’t succumb. It’s a great song.

Waterson’s harmonies are simply a precursor to the songs that she sings by herself. Ten Tongues is shadow-dark, Waterson’s voice leading us deeper into a tale of death, weird clockwork percussion only adding to the unease.

The story is adapted from a 17th century song but the mood, the malevolence, is all Waterson’s own. Equally, her version of her mum’s The Welcome Sailor is glorious. Totally unaccompanied – although you’d swear that her voice vibrates the cello strings next to her – she is the living embodiment of the Folk tradition, a pure, uncomplicated teller of tales.

Lisa Knapp’s ability to tell a story is well known but, here, she allows each character to totally inhabit her soul. On Cruel Mother she is desperate, pleading, accompanied by her own strummed violin and a wisp of a mournful cello.

On Birds of Harmony her voice is light and avian, trilling and swooping in time with the Chinese pigeon whistles that Mann and Waterson twirl. Then, on Daring Highwayman, she half-speaks-half-raps, she is rogue-ish, rake-ish, filled with fun delivering a performance that Waterson called “Madam and the Ants” – a dandy highwaywoman, indeed.

The innovation continues to peek through all night. Mann uses a custom-made Hemp Break (literally a wooden contraption for breaking hemp) to add a relentless prison-song rhythm to Hemp and Flax and then turns a dark Rare Receipts into something fun and funny.

Replacing the recipe for keeping safe from the gallows with one for an improbable, impossible love potion is the perfect contrast between some of the darker songs this evening.

Hack Poets Guild might start their extraordinary evening with an informative film but there’s nothing po-faced or dry about this particular history lesson.

Broadside Ballads stop being dusty and archival and are, instead, the songs of the people. They become what they were supposed to be in the first place, they are scary stories, scurrilous titbits, working class news full of humanity. They are filled with today and yesterday.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

Read next:

• Review: The Haar, Downend Folk & Roots – ‘More than a little intense’
• Review: Three Cane Whale + Firelight Trio, St George’s – ‘Achingly beautiful’
• Review: Loyle Carner, O2 Academy – ‘Versatile, pioneering and always amiable’

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