Christchurch Folk Music Club

Club concert – 23 April, by Isabella Miller Bell

I really look forward to receiving the folk club magazine and reading through to see who’s coming to town and who’s doing what with whom these days. When I read that Ruth Wyand was to be performing at the club I marked it off in my diary as a must see straight away….

We are living in truly amazing musical times with so many talented artists / musicians around who have developed their craft to such high standards. Ruth Wyand in my humble opinion is one such artist.

I was personally very impressed with her technical prowess around the fret board and her song writing & vocal ability. It ‘s a real buzz to see and hear great woman guitarists and singers out there doing it, strutting their stuff on stage and keeping alive the tradition of the past blues mamas like Memphis Minnie, Sippie Wallace and of course the very alive and kicking Bonnie Rait.

The audience was treated to a fine mix of folk and country blues with a few rags thrown in for good measure mixed with some interesting well crafted original material. I felt that Ruth was a big talent and I would have liked to have seen her with a little more stage presence and pizzazz. The evening in general was kind of understated and it so deserved more.

It is very hard to define exactly what goes into making a memorable exciting top performance. It most certainly isn’t just down to the performer, the sound technician plays a very important role in that as does the audience. I have to say that on the night of Ruth¹s performance there wasn’t a lot of magic around. It may be due to the fact that she had brought along her own sound man who was not familiar enough with the system. I think that the sound worked against her.

However it was still a great night, and I felt very privileged to have been part of the audience and MC for her show.