Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 13 May 12 - 04:22 AM

I hear what you're saying, Al - and in class terms this has always been my beef with The Revival anyway which manifests in all sorts of way. In a recent interview of one of the new VOTP releases I pointed out the hallowed & sanctified upper middle-class academic air of such things is entirely at odds with the very ordinariness of the working class women & men who made & sang these songs, much less the earthy subject matter of the songs themselves (read it yourselves in the next issue of Stirrings...)

But this is Revival Ville - and the people who sing such songs now are very different to the people who were singing them 200 years ago, and the reasons why they sing them are different as well. I even had to point out to someone the other night that they weren't a Traditional Singer, but a singer of Traditional Songs. They accused me of dabbling in semantics, but I had to insist that it was a difference that any lover of traditional song had to be aware of; like the difference between real trains and 00-scale replicas that I dare say even the most ardently deranged model railway enthusiast would never question.

Yesterday in MCR, we listened to a street musician with a guitar essaying contemporary popular songs to a generally appreciative audience. It was, in truth, a timeless scene that could have been any time in the last 700 years and longer - that of a gifted singer knowing exactly which buttons to press in his punters to get the readies. As Harker points out in Fakesong the revival quickly switched from descrition to prescription pretty early on (i.e. the 1954 Definition which still excites the orthodoxy today) but the reality is that the context and experience of Real Popular (i.e. Folk) Music has little to do with the so-called Tradition.

Once I had the honour of MC-ing a Saturday gig at the Steamer in Fleetwood during the Fylde Festival (I am the world's worst MC - I never did it again). That gig is one of the hardest in the world, packed as it is not with Folkies, but with locals. When Bruce Mathiske took the stage something amazing happened. I don't know what it was - a meeting of hearts, souls, minds... God knows what; but the audience wouldn't let him go - they loved him with a passion & the contact was deep, immediate and pure. I don't know if that's the sort of thing you're on about, or if Bruce Mathiske is one of your sort of guitarists, but that night, I believe to this day, I witnessed the essence of Folk Music as a living, breathing thing.

That said, my ideal gig is doing experimental electro-drone Jew's harp & pocket trumpet improvisations to an audience of 6 upstairs in The Red Deer at Sheffield. There, in that rarified air, where the audience would frown if I dared talk to them, am I happiest...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 07:53 PM

Dear Dave

I am a person of monumental inconsequence.

My opinions are my opinions and I can't help having them. They are possibly totally mistaken, and founded on profound misunderstandings.

Small things, but my own. My opinions and the expression of them. A right that my father fought for, against the nazi hoards.

best wishes

al

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Continuity Jones
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:16 PM

I just watched a Youtube of John Drain, mentioned above. Very funny, like that guy from Level 42 playing slap bass blues. It seemed the ultimate in style over content - extremely quick, extremely showy, but ultimately rather pointless. It got me thinking about impressionists. Mere vocal impressionists - your Rory Bremner and such - they're seen as being just that - impressionists. But stick a guitar in their hands, all of a sudden they expect to be taken seriously as a unique creation, or at least, their own thing, something new. But they're just impressionists. Pretending to be John Martyn or Robert Johnson or whoever. And often they are taken very seriously, as we all know. Rory Bremnar's never been asked to form a government though, has he? Maybe he should pick up a guitar.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 May 12 - 05:59 PM

Sorry to hear of your poor health, Al. Offer is there if ever you find yourself in this neck of the woods.

How about the other challenge though? About looking at what goes on at our club. You have accused me of liking nothing but songs about me grandad's wellies in the first world war . For around 30 years now I have laboured on keeping Swinton Folk Club going. It has cost me dearly in pocket, credibilty and mental health. Yet you quite happily seem to dismiss me and all the other club organisers who put their heart, soul, health and bank accounts into keeping their clubs going as some sort of souless monsters who like nothing better than putting down new talent. I'll tell you what. You don't even have to look at our clubs channel. Out of all the somgs on there over 90% are contemporary.

This blinkered view you have that that folk clubs only book 'traddie' acts is utter nonsense. I have been in clubs, ancient and modern, all over the country and have never had anything but a warm welcome. even before anyone knows what I sing or do. Apart from at an open-mike night just outside Newcastle where I was told that 'traditional and unaccompanied crap' was not welcome. I left after the forty seventh verse of a 17 year old lad telling me, in nearly C major, that no-one understood him...

Come on, you are intelligent. I know you are, not only by your postings here but by your songs. Can you not see that setting someone up as the best thing since sliced bread will always engender some negativity. On here it has been surprisingly low yet you still get your knickers in a twist! I am sure that Sunjay is brilliant and destined for marvelous things yet you are doing hime no favours by suggesting that this mythical folk police, that only you and possibly 2 other peopel have heard of, will stop him doing anything at all.

Get with the times man! (Just to prove how trad I am...)

DtG

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 04:52 PM

Difficult to explain Sweeney - its not what you think.

What its to do with is this. For long years i was the guy who set his gear up in front of the dart board in the pub, or I was in the group that no one had heard of down the WMC.

And in that time, because I kept my ears open I learned about English people. What they responded to/ What they sang along tp. What made them laugh. What made them get up and dance.

And you know - much as I loved most traditional music in the folk clubs. Much of it, and its performance was confrontational to what it was English people loved in music.

And to be honest I grew quite dismayed when traditionalists started opening clubs where populist music was discouraged, running university courses encouraging young people to spend their time on the shelves of the library in Cecil sharp House and other museums looking for songs that no one sang and dances that no one danced.

All i'm saying is that Sunjay Brayne's music has got some of the other stuff. Life - rather than the memory of it.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 04:41 PM

I'm grateful very gratefuk for the offer of a gig. Thankyou. However thanks to thefact that no one would give me tumble in my younger days - I have no national profile - I couldn't fill a telephone box in Manchester! But thanks. Also my health is quite precarious - I have a heart condition, due to something I was born with, but has got serious with the advancing years. I find travel very tiring.

But seriously thankyou.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 12 May 12 - 04:15 PM

and the way it excites and relates to English audiences in the way that 'the tradition' doesn't.

But not half as much as Elton John or Cliff Richard or The X-Factor or Barry Manilow, eh? Still, in your regime of hierarchical absolutes, Al I suppose it's all a matter of scale - and knowing ones place in the conspiracy. And there I was thinking it was all a matter of taste. How wrong I was...

My favourite band of all time is Jethro Tull.

Just bought the Isle of Wight DVD (Nothing is Easy) the other week - absolute classic. I lose interest after Thick as a Brick, but this is always worth a look for Wyrdish Vibes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wT6fkDg8k

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 May 12 - 04:13 PM

Oh, and just to make sure that don't get hold of the wrong impression about our club, as you have obviously got the wrong impression about me and a lot of other people I will set another challenge.

Look at our YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/swintonfolkclub then come back and tell me what proportion of singer/songwriter to trad material you find. I could give you the answer right away and it amazed me. But I would rather you work it out for yourself.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 May 12 - 03:53 PM

yeh and i've heard it all before from your lot,Dave.

songs about me grandad's wellies in the first world war - great.

everything else - pseudo American rubbish

friends of yours, perhaps?

I find that particularly Ironic, Al. Seeing as I gave your CD a good review and offered you a gig at our club. Maybe if you continue along the same path you may just get noticed as a clever writer rather than a whinging wassock :-) BTW - My favourite band of all time is Jethro Tull. Funny you should mention Ian Anderson as being one of the few who sings entirely in a non-American accent. There are in fact loads more but as a ridiculously phoney American accent seems to feature hevily in some repertoires closer to home I guess you just didn't notice them?

How come you never took me up on the offer of a gig BTW? I am still happy to put you on at our club. Any Friday that isn't booked. You dictate the fee and format and keep the whole of the door takings. At least 2 traditional and 1 contemprary acts from the 'cat have done the same.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 09:25 AM

I was in Brum most of the time.

Jasper and Malc Stent were going great guns over at The Boggery.

The Grey Cock on the rimgway wouldn't let me play there cos i said my main influence was ralph McTell.

Ian Campbell had replaced Swarbrick with a succession of musicians Colin Tomis, Aiden Foord, Andy Taylor, and the Jug of Punch was struggling on.

You could see Christy at Digbeth Hall for 50p but there were bombs going off - I didn't give nim my patronage - I didn't approve.

The drunks at the Broadway Folk Club kept booking Gerry Lockran, but they didn't pay him the coourtesy of shutting up.

Billy Connolly, Jasper, and then Mike Harding paid Alex Campbell and derek Brimstone the compliment of naming them as their main influence bu they were working for ten times their main influences fee.

My first paid gig was to Nic Jones . he pissed the floor singers off by staying downstairs and not listening to them.

The organiser at The Old crown in Digbeth confided - he could get Carthy forsixty quid (about what I was earning as ateacher per month) cos Martin was a mate.

Vin Garbutt was the new kid on the block Very funny and a good whistle player, but the music plodded, the Ballad of lesley seemed interminable.

Alex made an album called Goodbye Booze. But he still sang the last Thing on my Mind twice and didn't seem to notice.

And the hits keep coming.....

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 May 12 - 08:33 AM

Whereabouts were you in the '70s, Al - just out of curiosity?

I was in London until 1975 and the prevailing style in many of the "folk" venues at that time was stuff in the manner of Davy Graham, Renbourn, Jansch, McTell, Mike Chapman, etc., plus the Bristol-based blues contingent. The Cousins was still doing its typical thing, and I recall getting any number of gigs solo and a regular residency in Bayswater with a jug band in those years.

When I came down to Sussex in 1976, I fell into the Dark Side and started playing jazz with the guys in Brighton - but there was still a good, contemporary scene there as well, in venues like the Marlborough, the (former) Springfield, the pub now called Circus Circus at Preston Circus - and they co-existed alongside more traditional clubs in places like Lewes. I used to drop in the Brighton venues for a bit of blues and ragtime picking now and then, and then nip into the jazz pubs for a sit-in on rhythm guitar.

But perhaps London and Brighton were more cosmopolitan in those days than other areas. What I've never done is the singer-songwriter/contemporary self-penned stuff - I always left it to others of that persuasion.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 07:33 AM

Yeh it was just 1970's that damaged us all you had to be either Ewan MacColl or Fred Wedlock - anything in the middle got the bums rush.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Hendrix
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:58 AM

take your point Al, but they do their own arrangements of songs. Basically all we are saying is that he's good now, but once he has found his own voice he'll be even better.
I think we should be encouraging him to write.
I think your comment about him being 'cheated and deprived of being the greatest living folk musician' hit a few nerves because of this. Performing very good and accurate renditions of Chris Smither and Roger Brook songs and their arrangements of other songs will only take him so far.
I'm not excluding Roger Brooks and Gerry Lockran from English Folk, for what its worth I consider the Artic Monkeys to be folk music.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:34 AM

Steve Hicks writes his own material

Martin Carthy writes his own material

Not what they're primarlly known for

Just cannot see what why you feel so negative about this young man - hardly more than a boy.

Perhaps because he points to people like Roger Brooks and Gerry Lockran - who you had no business excluding from English folk music in the first place. he points the way to the potency of this kind of music, and the way it excites and relates to English audiences in the way that 'the tradition' doesn't.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Hendrix
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:25 AM

but the thing is Sunjay doesnt write his own material, whereas most of the others mentioned do

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:23 AM

Al - can things really be as bad as make out? I never see this side of open folk combat (save from the occasional spat on Mudcat) but we get all sorts in our club, from finger pickers to nose pickers and often both. Try Ross Campbell (who isn't a nose picker) whose flawless 12-string finger-style is the joy of many...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 May 12 - 06:17 AM

yeh and i've heard it all before from your lot,Dave.

songs about me grandad's wellies in the first world war - great.

everything else - pseudo American rubbish

friends of yours, perhaps?

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: matt milton
Date: 12 May 12 - 05:47 AM

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about John Smith. Saw him live a few times a few years ago.

There's also John Drain, another young brit bluesy fingerpicker you'll find on youTube.
Tom Dale, in Cornwall, too (who I really like)

I might start a whole new thread on British fingerpickers who people ought to listen to.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Continuity Jones
Date: 12 May 12 - 03:56 AM

Looking through Sunjay Brayne's Youtube videos, he reminds me of the singer / guitar player John Smith. Both good singers, good guitar players, but neither in any way sounding like themselves, more indebt to the hundreds of others who've passed before. Not a bad thing in itself, we all do it to a certain extent. I'm sure they'll both find their voices, but right now, they're like interesting and talented mimics.

Here's John Smith - http://youtu.be/GupnKLhKT10 - but he has loads on Youtube.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 May 12 - 03:39 AM

You know, I have seen this somewhere before. Someone new , who I like = good. Everyone else = Bad, traditional, miserable, folk police. I can't think who though. Maybe a fan of yours Al? :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 12 - 08:39 PM

Review of the Seaton gig

First, it was an extraordinary night at Jurassic Folk at the Grove, Seaton, on May 2nd, with two major and highly contrasting performers entertaining a highly appreciative crowd. Starting off there was Big Al Whittle, who is big in every sense, with his individual and uproariously funny songs, such as "Buster, the Line Dancing Dog". One listener wrote afterwards " ..my first really good laugh in a while, Al. Thank you very much.." Big Al is a seasoned entertainer and is probably three times the age of the main guest of the evening, Sunjay Brayne, who's tender age of just 18 belies the maturity of his guitar playing and singing. His genre may largely fall within the "blues" category, with his powerful, resonant guitar accompanying songs with strong lyrics and evocative story lines, and if he is as good as this at 18 the mind boggles at what he might achieve as he develops. The weekend after appearing at Jurassic Folk he went on the win the Young Performers Award at the prestigious Wath Festival in South Yorkshire, and is clearly someone to watch for the future. For those of you who missed this night, you could have a glimpse of Big Al at http://youtu.be/m9Mo08whFlI and of Sunjay at http://youtu.be/XFLL2NuVVI8 and several other clips we've put up on YouTube. And Jolly's pics of the evening will be up on the gallery very shortly at http://eastdevonfolk.jalbum.net/

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 12 - 11:41 AM

No not really. I feel very defensive about him though. Currently he's doing the definitive Roger Brooks songs - at least as good as Roger did them in his prime. I'd hate to see Sunjay's talent be sidelined like Roger's was.

Roger was to me, the best songwriter of our generation. I had thought his work would be lost for ever - Roger wasn't terribly interested in the recording process. like a lot of that generation.

Listen to Sunjay singing Wild Bird Flying through a Cold dark Night - the love song Roger wrote for Nikki Haan, when they were both young lovers in Paris. Tears my heart out every time.

Nikki sings some of roger's songs too. She runs an open mic. session on the quay in Poole at the Portsmouth Hoy, every Wednesday.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 11 May 12 - 11:08 AM

the teasing out of a hidden poignancy in a pop song that you wouldn't have given a second thought to otherwise

This is the sort thing Jim Eldon does as a matter of course:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2u1SMdJ9a8

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 May 12 - 11:05 AM

No I meant Sunjay.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 12 - 07:42 AM

No I'm not really aware of what Gilbert's up to these days. i was never a what you'd call a fan. Tobe honest, I hated him - particularly after that Clare record.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 May 12 - 07:11 AM

You President of his fan club then Al ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: matt milton
Date: 11 May 12 - 07:08 AM

"That's the revival for you - forever cementing its allegiances to MOR pop-schlock by way of 'reaching out'. I have my doubts..."

hmmm, i was thinking more of, well, the covers i mention... the teasing out of a hidden poignancy in a pop song that you wouldn't have given a second thought to otherwise. Maybe the radio songs of the 30s had to be a bit more lyrical than Gilbert O'Sullivan...

You know, I don't think I've ever heard a Gilbert O'Sullivan song. Sounds like I should count myself lucky. Though I'm aware that there's a Biz Markie track that samples him, and I'm a big fan of the Biz, so I guess I've heard some of O'Sullivan's artistry by the osmosis of old-school hip-hop.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 12 - 06:55 AM

Wasn't it 'O Sullivan's Nothing Rhymed that Carthy did?

I stand corrected - as always.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 11 May 12 - 06:27 AM

Wasn't it 'O Sullivan's Nothing Rhymed that Carthy did? Maybe he did them both. Anyway - it was ghastly in any context but on the otherwise flawless Because it's There it was perverse in the extreme. That was 1979, same year as Unknown Pleasures and Live at the Witch Trials; were it not for Nothing Rhymed BIT would fit right in there, if only for The Death of Young Andrew. That's the revival for you - forever cementing its allegiances to MOR pop-schlock by way of 'reaching out'. I have my doubts...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: matt milton
Date: 11 May 12 - 06:15 AM

"! And yes I DID know that he'd recorded heartbreak Hotel and Gilbert O'Sullivans Alone Again naturally. Yeh he's all street cred is Martin..."

Actually, I kind of think that playing the occasional cheesy cover entirely straight is almost a folk tradition.

When you listen to Mance Lipscomb or Leadbelly, they just played whatever caught their ear off the radio. I really like Mance's "Shine on Harvest Moon" for instance...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 May 12 - 05:56 AM

yeh I've got my reservations about the manic toe tapping....still he's got further career wise in five minutes than I have in forty years - so advice from me is like navigation tips from the captain of the Titanic.

Thanks for the nice things yousaid Jeri. I know I'm no great shakes as a musician or Sonwriter - what did Nick Drake say - Time has told me! Still as you say, I do recognise talent.

Martin carthy being a good case in point. I love his guitar playing. Such a divergent thinker! And yes I DID know that he'd recorded heartbreak Hotel and Gilbert O'Sullivans Alone Again naturally. Yeh he's all street cred is Martin...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,JOHNCHARLES
Date: 11 May 12 - 04:59 AM

Just listened to Sunjay on youtube. Sounds good, but whatever it is that he is tapping his foot on is a real pain.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Jeri
Date: 10 May 12 - 03:10 PM

There's a tendency by some unexceptional people to resent those who break away from the pack. Realize you can't win everyone over and accept that they attack you because you're so much better than   others. They're usually pretty obvious because they try too damned hard. It's a little bit of a compliment to your own skill that it sets them off so.

Real talent recognizes real talent, and those guys see it in you. Those who can't, or won't, acknowledge it, whether they perform or just listen, are punished by their own outlook on life.

I enjoyed your playing on YouTube very much.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 May 12 - 03:03 PM

Not really one of my pupils. I taught his Dasd to play guitar - we became friends, And Sunjay turned up at odd times for a few tips.

I hadn't seen Sunjay for about a year, and we did this gig together last week at seaton. I wasn't sure what to expect . I knew he could play - but it was a revelation.

There were only about forty in the audience. At the interval there was a queue across the room of people who probably wanted to say they's spoken to this guy before he was a star - he sold 17 cds. The performers award at Wath(where I'm told he took the roof off) was the third major award. Offers are flooding in from the biggest record distribution company to various management companies.

Only someone who'd never seen him perform a full set would agree with you.

I'm not being extravagant in my language - just describing whats before my eyes and ears. steve Hicks and I are old old friends dating back to the early 70's. I knew Steve when he wasn't much older than Sunjay and really - had none of Sunjay's tecnique at that stage - and (god love him) I really wish that Steve had what Sanjay has with audiences.

Take it from me Gibsonchild: at best you are being jealous, at worst horridly malicious.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Gibsonboy
Date: 10 May 12 - 02:47 PM

So he is or was one of your pupils eh, that explains all of the extravagant language. At least Sunjay can tap his foot in time.
PS thanks for the pity but I really don't need it.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 May 12 - 12:35 PM

'he is just an average picker'

Gibsonboy - whoever you are - you are utterly beneath contempt. I would like to summon up pity for you.....

Nothing average about Sunjay. I've taught guitar for years - he's probably the ablest guy I have taught. And I would place him in ability alongside my other star pupil - Donald Ross Skinner.

Of course what really pisses you off is that he has vision - he's not prepared to accept folk music as being the stuff handed down on tablets of stone by the great and the good.


he knows what has excited his passion and he communicates thatvery well to every audience.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 10 May 12 - 12:24 PM

Want to learn guitar? Start here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDjWLwqAPY

If only more folkies would play like this there might be a future in it...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Gibsonboy
Date: 10 May 12 - 11:28 AM

Big Al, When I hear people using language like "teenage sensation", "playing old guys can only dream about", "deprived and cheated of the being the greatest folk muscian", etc when the reality is that he is just an average picker, (and if he's honest he would agree with that), grates with me a bit.

Sunjay, I have been watching Folk Blues guitarists for over forty years, not only in the UK, but in its own back yard the USA, and in that time I have gathered a pretty good understanding of what Folk Blues Fingerpicking can be, so I'll take no lectures from you.

I will wait with interest to hear your new CD, hopefully it will define what you are, and help you evolve as a player and performer.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 May 12 - 07:07 AM

I just took exception (strong exception) to the idea that someone who had obviously put in hours and hours and hours of practice and was playing not merely from the traditional cannon was somehow -'getting getting away with it'.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 10 May 12 - 06:45 AM

Sunjay is really good at what he does and I'm sure the longer he does it the better he'll get.

I think it's a bit disingeneous, Al, to set up this fake scenario pitting one 18 year old against the whole of traditional folk. There are loads of 'young people' playing folk music of one sort or another other than straight English/Scottish/Irish trad (including finger picking guitarists). Some of them are brilliant. It's just that they don't play at folk clubs. And why should they? They won't usually find their peers there, just their grandad's peers :-)

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 12 - 05:58 AM

@Will - I get the impression he is - and I believe he is 18.

Shixty eight? Shome mistake shurely? :-)

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 May 12 - 04:49 AM

One of the unconscious paths of any developing musician is the trajectory of learning from, and copying role models to acquiring one's own voice. If we've any aspirations whatsoever, we all start with being inspired by others. As time passes, the influences sink in and the varied experiences of playing mold us into something other than what we started off as. How long that process takes and where it takes us is something that we can't predict.

I've never seen or heard Sunjay, so I can't comment on where he is on that trajectory, but it seems a mite hard to get picky with someone who, it appears, has great talent at a young age (17, do I hear?). I first picked up a guitar at the great age of 20 - that was 48 years ago - and I was obsessed with the playing of a number of people, from Hank Marvin to Lonnie Donegan to Davy Graham to Brownie McGhee to Leadbelly to Django Reinhardt to Eddie Lang and many, many others. I still enjoy the music of these people but I can't say, after all these years, that I play like any of them.

I just do my own thing and hope it comes out as me, and I'm sure Sunjay will do the same - if he isn't doing it already...

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: stallion
Date: 10 May 12 - 02:26 AM

Oh, and one more observation in general, people that pack them in are not always the best technicians it will drive you mad at times!

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: stallion
Date: 09 May 12 - 06:51 PM

high school musical!

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST
Date: 09 May 12 - 01:40 PM

lol

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 May 12 - 01:40 PM

so who knows.....will he 'get away with it'?

Watch this space......

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: stallion
Date: 09 May 12 - 12:31 PM

Firstly, Sunjay it wasn't your voice that grated at me it was my granddaughters in whom it is very pronounce and drives me mad you just got tarred with that brush (a la "high street musical"), Secondly, I said that I hadn't heard enough to pass a valued judgement and then commended you for plying your trade and working at it, I may not have said, but implied that you would develop your career and be a success because you undoubtably have talent.
Thirdly, I thanked Al for giving us the heads up, I think you would easily get a gig at the Black Swan Folk Club in York, give Roland a call.
Please do not lose sight of the fact the people will pay good money to come and see you, treat them well. Don't make the assumption that all criticism is negative carping nor should you take it personally, there are some mean spirited people about but generally speaking people in this place try to help

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Brian Peters
Date: 09 May 12 - 11:38 AM

Martin C. claims to have been influenced by Elizabeth Cotten if I remember rightly.

And what about Shirley Collins & Davy Graham....?

Sunjay: don't rise to it, just let your music do the talking.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Folkiedave
Date: 09 May 12 - 11:28 AM

Its not the tradition that Martin Carthy recognises as such.

Judging from his recorded repertoire Martin Carthy listens to a much wider range of material than you give him credit for I suspect. And he bought his first guitar to learn to play like Lonnie Donegan. And talks lovingly about the first song he learnt - Heartbreak Hotel.

I doubt there is little that people on here can teach Sunjay who seems to be learning very quickly as he is.

Except perhaps to avoid Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Sunjay Brayne in Poole free gig
From: GUEST,Sunjay Brayne
Date: 09 May 12 - 09:29 AM

Thank you also to Matt, (who posted while I was writing).