This night could have been a sad one. Leaving aside the queue addled, BBC stoked country-wide grief there are other reasons for sadness. Bellowhead stalwart and folk club friend Paul Sartin tragically died on Wednesday leaving a delightfully clever, oddly amusing, oboe-shaped hole in the world. This is also the last (for the time being, they say) Bristol gig for headliners ROAD NOT TAKEN. So, it could have been a sad one.
Instead, Road Not Taken and Bella Gaffney remind us how brilliant a sing-along feels, how important a community is, how healing a damn good song can be.
If Downend Folk & Roots has a house band then Road Not Taken is probably it. They played their very earliest gigs here, have launched albums here and founder Ant Miles plays guitar and sometimes sings with them too. They are welcomed as hometown heroes, playing to a home crowd, shooting in front of an open goal.
Not that there is the slightest chance of them missing. This show is deep in extra time of their final tour and you can tell. Songs have been polished and honed, onstage banter is that of four friends that get on famously and everything is just right.
Hares On The Mountain, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose and The Blacksmith are all cast-iron folk favourites, played by hundreds of folk bands in hundreds of folk clubs. In the hands of Road Not Taken you remember why those songs are so loved. Anita Dobson has a voice as pure and crystalline as blown Bristol glass, it's infused with melancholy and longing, a beautiful focal point around which the rest of the band easily swirl. Claire Hamlen gently agitates that swirl with her wonderfully understated fiddle playing, never taking centre stage but casting delicate garlands across the songs.
In Joe Hamlen and Ant Miles the band have twin multi-instrumental mischief makers. Banjo, harmonium, guitars, bass and a piano are passed around with glee, adding colour and splashes of oddness; spooky drones, high hammerings and muted sighs. It is when Ant takes his place at the church organ, literally pulling out all of the stops, and Joe unfurls a plaintive trumpet that you realise that Road Not Taken are way more than an ordinary folk club band. Harry Belafonte's Scarlet Ribbons becomes an enormous, pulsing, lush epic of a thing. They make a huge field of sound, both uplifting and unbearably sad.
Just like any band that finds a home in the folk world, Road Not Taken are absolute masters of tweaking the familiar. Plenty of trad-arr tunes are given their gentle, cobweb-y dusting but it's some of the contemporary songs that shine. James Keelaghan's Cold Missouri Waters is spine-tingling with its acapella outro, Suzanne Vega's The Queen and The Soldier is delightfully haunting and their own The White Gown is a modern folk song with traditional sensibilities.
BELLA GAFFNEY is a member of The Magpies, the Americana/Celtic-y/folkish three piece that played here not too long ago. Back then she supplied sunburnt vocals and sublime harmonies; today the stage is all hers. Stepping out on her own you can see the John Martyn and Richard Thompson influences just a little more clearly, especially in her guitar playing that’s full of tricks and cleverness. Martyn's Seven Black Roses starts proceedings and is sublime.
A self-effacing dry Yorkshire wit hides a gorgeous, earthy voice but each passing song forces it to the surface. By the time she shreds a Zepplin-esque Hangman (also known as Gallows Pole) there's no doubt that, with or without The Magpies, Gaffney is "alright". Her new single, Blood in the Earth, is a contemplative, sensitive, bluegrass-y meditation on climate change and Australian devastation. There's that lovely voice, a social conscience and a great song.
If there was sadness in the air this evening then both Bella Gaffney and Road Not Taken soften the edges and quietly remind us that things will always be OK. Those things lost will be remembered and gently celebrated.
Words: Gavin McNamara
Photos: Barry Savell
It will be an evening of endings and new beginnings as we return after the Summer break.
The concert is the first under our new name of Downend Folk & Roots, which comes along with an extensive rebrand including a striking new logo featuring a fox. But it will be an ending for the headline guests, ROAD NOT TAKEN, as they visit the venue where they were formed for the last time (for the foreseeable future anyway), the concert part of their farewell UK tour.
From humble beginnings in 2014, the band has seen an amazing rise, finding themselves supporting the likes of Lady Maisery, India Electric Co. and Jim Moray, and spreading their wings further afield with performances at many of the country’s top folk festivals. Their album Fragment was released in September 2019, and was accompanied by a full UK tour of 14 dates, as well as a myriad of radio plays and press coverage.
Made up of singer Anita Dobson, fiddle-player Claire Hamlen, guitarist Ant Miles (the founder of Downend Folk & Roots), and multi-instrumentalist Joe Hamlen, Road Not Taken perform a mix of original material and inventive and atmospheric arrangements of traditional folk songs and tunes, "songs given enough of a twist to make them something new. It feels as though they’ve been draped in glittering cobwebs and that is a very fine thing indeed.” Their music was hailed by FATEA Magazine as “folk with all the feels of the romantic period composers.”
Opening the evening’s entertainment will be 2016 Celtic Connections Danny Kyle Award winner BELLA GAFFNEY, who writes and performs folk inspired songs along with her own original arrangements of traditional pieces. 2022 will see the release of Bella’s new album which is inspired by connections made over the lockdown period. Her latest single Fair and Tender Ladies, a duet with Sam Kelly, was released in April to great acclaim along with airplay on BBC radio. Bella is also part of sought after folk band The Magpies who were the headliners at Downend last September).
Tickets for the event, which takes place at CHRIST CHURCH DOWNEND on Friday 16th September 2022, are available online HERE and from MELANIE'S KITCHEN in Downend (cash only). They are priced at £14 each in advance or £16 on the door. Doors open at 7.30pm and the music gets underway at about 7.45pm.
There will be a bar, stocking cider, soft drinks, wine, hot drinks and locally-brewed real ale from locally-based HOP UNION BREWERY (formerly GWB). Audience members are encouraged to bring their own glass/mug/tankard, as well as reusable bottles for water, as part of our drive to be more environmentally aware. There is a 50p discount for those that do. There will also be sweet treats available at the bar courtesy of the Radstock-based GREAT CAKE COMPANY, as well as a prize draw, which helps to fund the support artists for each concert.
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As you can see, we’ve taken the opportunity this Summer to give ourselves a bit of a glow-up.
We’re thrilled to reveal our new look, as well as a slight change to the name. We’ll now be known as Downend Folk & Roots, and we’re sure you’ll agree that our new images, featuring a fox and accompanied by the strap-line "The Village in the City" give us a striking new presence. All of the logos and images were designed by NICK SMITH ILLUSTRATOR DESIGNER, and we’re very grateful to him for all the time and effort that he’s put into getting this just right for us.
Regulars need not worry, though… all the things that you’ve come to know and love over the last eight-plus years will still be in place when you head back in September.
Why change?
When we started back in April 2014, we used the name Downend Folk Club… but in truth, we never really were a folk club at all! What we do is put on monthly, professionally run concerts, and we’ve found that the words "folk club" conjures up certain images for some people… images that aren’t really a reflection of what we do.
We’ve also had our original logo since we began, and whilst it has served us well, the organising team felt that it was time for something fresh. The fox, and the idea of urban wildlife, and "The Village in the City" strapline are both intended to nod to the idea that Downend has its own identity as well as being part of Bristol. In the silhouettes in the background you will see factories, houses and our Christ Church Downend HQ.
What’s changing?
As well as the name and the logos etc, there are a few other minor changes that you’ll spot. Firstly, all of our concerts will now be held at Christ Church Downend, which becomes our permanent home. Frenchay Village Hall has served us well, and we loved it there, but the flexibility that the church gives us, and the better accessibility, has made it an obvious choice to relocate there on a permanent basis.
The church also offers the plasma screens, which we’ve been using to preview future concerts… and we’ll be doing more of that. The website will be moving to a new home at downendfolkandroots.com (although the old address will redirect there so you won't lose us!). Our main contact email address moves to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (but again, the old one will still work).
Finally, there are a few changes behind the scenes and to our constitution but nothing that will make any difference… please ask if you want to know!
What’s not changing?
Our concerts will still feel very much the same as they always did. We’ll still have two artists each month (a support and a headline), there will still be the same great beer and cakes on offer, and the “stealth raffle” stays too, although it will now be called the monthly prize-draw. You’ll still be welcomed in the same way that you always have been, and the other thing that’s not changing is that we still need your support! Downend Folk & Roots remains “not-for-profit”, so without you, it doesn’t work!
We hope you like the new name and logos. Please let us know what you think!
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