Sunday nights are usually fun at the Fulford Arms and the visit of Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra on 25th February maintained that magic. This was another excellent show put together by Joe Coates of Please Please You. There was only one support act and it was the ever-wonderful Dan Lucas a.k.a. the Barry White of Country (that title comes courtesy of Ginger Wildheart!). Tonight Mr Lucas was performing using his esteemed title Boss Caine, this time as the Boss Caine Trio. The mighty York troubadour was aided and abetted by Kieran on violin and Jon on harmonica. It was a wonderful set with songs that touch on every emotion on the emotional spectrum and feed your soul as well. There were plenty of highlights, but my particular highs were “Ghosts And Drunks”, “Slave To the Song” and one of my favourite Boss Caine tunes, “Lonesome Crow”. But above all of those is the sublime and heavenly “Truck Stop Jukebox”
Next, it was time for the headliners Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra. How the hell have I never seen this lot before? Rob and the boys are a party band for the times when you don’t even know that you need a party. This is proper honky tonk, country, bluegrass, blues, and very early rock ‘n’ roll styles. There are plenty of excellent originals from this band, but the choice of covers perfectly fits them and the current times. Notably “Bank Failures” a song from 1931 (the year that my Dad was born) and recorded at the time by the delightfully named Bob Ferguson and his Scalawaggers. Rob Heron and his band are obscenely talented. If any period drama from the late 1940s or early 1950s in the USA needed an authentic sounding band for their production they should look no further than Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra. I bloody love “Hangover Blues” and that is something that Mr Heron might have suffered the following day after the on-stage tequila consumption. My high spot of the night was “The Horse That You Rode In On”. If you get the chance, go and see this band, you will not be disappointed and you will leave the gig with a smile. The band is recording a new album soon with Jerry Casino in an analog studio in Berlin. You can help to make that happen by contributing to their crowd funder, click here to add some cash!
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