Review: The Slocan Ramblers, Bristol Folk House – ‘With the merest pick of a banjo string, you’re dropped in the depths of Tennessee’

If the very best authors can conjure a sense of place with a beautifully descriptive turn of phrase so can the very best bands.

The Slocan Ramblers are a Canadian Bluegrass band and with the merest pick of a banjo string or pluck of a double bass they lift you up, whizz you around and put you somewhere in deepest, darkest Tennessee (or Toronto), at least as far away from a September Sunday on Park Street as you can imagine.

When Bluegrass is good you know exactly what you’re in for. Lightning-fast mandolin and banjo, deeply rhythmic train-track bass, fluid, front porch guitar playing and harmonies sung around a single microphone. Did The Slocan Ramblers deliver? They did, and then some.

They are JUNO award nominees, International Bluegrass Music Association winners, are fresh from the Didmarton Bluegrass Festival and here touring their latest, brilliant album, Up the Hill and Through the Fog.

Frank Evans is a warm, friendly front man, slightly bewildered by British ways but determined to keep the pace high and his banjo singing. On the ‘proper’ Bluegrass numbers (Dark Hollow, No Vacancy or Trouble in Mind) his voice takes on that High Lonesome of so many of the greats but it’s when things get looser that he really shines through.

A delightful cover of John Hartford’s First Girl I Loved is dusty with nostalgic love, it’s gentle and wind-blown. He edges a little closer to country pop on I Don’t Know – a lockdown song about a long distant relationship – but the musicianship is still dizzying even if it’s a bit more Laurel Canyon than those Blue Ridge Mountains.

The rest of the band are, to put it simply, incredible. Stand-in Mandolin player Casey Campbell attacks that tiny instrument with scorching intensity, smiling all night but weaving needle-sharp lines around the banjo leads.

Guitarist Darryl Poulson has a classical musician’s dexterity and adds gorgeous harmonies and bassist Charles James recalls freight trains and carefree, sunny days. As each takes their turn soloing and showcasing the audience respond; somewhere between unbridled enthusiasm, open-mouthed disbelief and awe.

The instrumental tunes allow them to flex their fingers the best, with Harefoot’s Retreat creating the perfect bed for musicians who don’t need to be overly showy, they’re just amazing.

Later tunes race around, feverish and careening, but it’s a cover of Tom Petty’s A Mind with a Heart of Its Own that proves to be a set highlight. It’s as ragged as these brilliant musicians get, tinged with doo-doo-doo power pop harmonies and lead vocals taken by Poulson.

You’re reminded that, for all of the insane playing, this is a really great band playing really great songs, lifting you from one place and leaving you – dishevelled and happy – someplace else.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

Read next:

• Review: Road Not Taken, Downend Folk Club – ‘The band remind us how important a community is’
• “I feel blessed to have grown up in a city with such a rich musical history”
• Taking Flight

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