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Gilmore and Roberts Launch

By Allan Wilkinson - Posted on 14 September 2012

Barnsley-based duo Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts chose the Trades Club in the heart of Barnsley for the Northern launch of their third album to date THE INNOCENT LEFT. Gathering together a full house of friends, fans and followers tonight, the duo performed the album in its entirety with a little help from the Albion Band's rhythm section Tom Wright and Tim Yates on drums and double bass respectively. Already a few dates into their current tour to promote the album, which doesn't get its official release until the end of the month, Kat and Jamie were only too pleased to present their new songs to an enthusiastic audience in Jamie's home town.

Starting with Kat's intriguing nineteenth century tale of Doctor James, featuring a familiar folk ballad twist, the duo alternated between fiddle and mandolin (Kat) and standard and lap guitar (Jamie), throughout their hour-long set, which also featured Jamie's gorgeous Louis Was A Boxer, a song filled with pathos, a touch of humour and an extraordinary flair for engaging storytelling, Kat's beautiful Letters, a heartfelt song about Kat's great grandmother set during the second world war, to The Stealing Arm, a song based on a much older broadside ballad The Thief's Arm, from which the album's title derives.

The new album is made up entirely of original material with the exception of the old Child ballad False Knight, with one or two instrumentals including Kat's Over Snake Pass, a familiar local landmark and Seven Left for Dead, featuring Jamie's highly percussive lap slapped guitar. After exhausting all ten selections from the new record, Kat and Jamie returned to the stage along with their rhythm section for the final number of the night, No Rest for the Wicked, Kat's ode to the road and a great finisher to boot.

Earlier in the evening the now Cumbria-based singer-songwriter Jessica Lawson opened the show, once again alternating between autoharp and guitar in order to deliver some of her new as well as firmly established songs such as Brother and Molly of the Tyne respectively, whilst fellow Cumbria duo Hadrian's Union, featuring the fiddle playing of Danny Hart and the songs of Stew Simpson, who also incidentally illustrated the sleeve and booklet of Kat and Jamie's new album, delivered a crowd pleasing set, which at one point had the audience participation level up a notch during their protest song Stand Up.

A fine launch of a fine album and one that should see the duo on their way to their rightful place as one of the leading music duos on the folk and acoustic scene today.

Allan Wilkinson

Northern Sky