I confess I have never thought of stinkhorns dancing reels, but I will now!

Hannah Read, Vera Van Heeringen and Michael Starkey

with support from Ben Baron

at ACE Space, St Nicolas’ Road, Newbury

on Friday, February 21

Review by BRIAN HARRINGTON

ANOTHER wonderful night of folk music at a near-capacity ACE Space tonight.

Newbury musician Ben Baron, who has appeared here both in open mic nights and as support, opened the entertainment.

Ben has now re-located to Scotland, but was clearly happy to be performing back in Newbury. Accompanying himself on banjo he started his 30-minute set with the traditional Appalachian track Wayfaring Stranger, Ben included both cover versions and several self-penned songs.

I particularly enjoyed Oyster Catchers and Four Years On, a song Ben wrote in memory of his late father.

The murder ballad (a theme common to both American and British folk music) Wild Bill Jones, which dates back to 1924, was also excellent.

Hannah Read and Michael Starkey have been performing and touring together for several years and have been more recently joined by Vera Van Heeringen.

The trio are each accomplished multi-instrumentalists and songwriters in their own right and vocally have some superb harmonies.

Opening with one of Vera's songs, Dinah, they were able to showcase both their individual skills and their strengths as a combo in a set that included both self-penned tracks and covers and instrumentals and vocal numbers.

Explaining the history and/or inspirations behind the songs as they went, the trio captivated the audience, maintaining interest with frequent changes of instruments and positions around the mic.

There were two tracks from Hannah’s funghi-inspired album, Silverphae and Stinkhorn, not as random as it may first sound she explained, because it links to her father’s profession. I would confess I have never thought of stinkhorns dancing reels, but I will now!

Highlights for me included Cross The Rolling Water, Delta Queen Waltz and On A Good Day.

They concluded with a well deserved encore Old Kentucky Whiskey.

Fantastic.