The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98450   Message #1960836
Posted By: GUEST,( of 10.46am)
08-Feb-07 - 04:09 AM
Thread Name: Ron Trueman Border
Subject: RE: Ron Trueman Border
Thanks for responding to my original post. As I tried to express - it feels very uncomfortable to make criticisms when you know that a) - a lot of other people are great fans and b) you feel that basically the guy was a nice bloke who just slightly missed the mark at your club. Had Ron been less experienced I would have held off altogether on the grounds that I might have unnerved him, but I thinks he's been around for long enough and has enough confidence in his own ability and acceptability to be able to take a few helpfully intented comments without suffering too much!

I take the point that he is not, and does not set out to be, a traditional 'folk singer', but on this occasion he had obviously canvassed a booking at a club which does favour traditional music (although not exclusively). The club in question is consistently cited as a favourite venue by many professional performers, so I don't think it was an unduly hostile place to play. My only intention in posting was to offer a suggestion for Ron to ponder - namely that should he find himself in a similar situation again (and I'm sure that he was aware on this night that he wasn't going down too well) it might be useful to have just one or two other types of song to pop into the set. If he largely enjoys playing folk clubs then one or two traditional songs from his own neck of the woods would go down a treat if he needed a brief change of direction. And even a died-in-the-wool traddy audience would be paying attention wondering when the next 'surprise' might come in the set.

It's only an idea. I'm not suggesting he should sell out, or even adapt his material for his audience. Only that it MIGHT be a useful option to have on a few occasions.