Our second visit to the Snape proms last night, this time to see and hear Jon Boden, whom we’ve seen many times before but only as part of the folk collective Bellowhead who, after 12 glorious years, finally decided to call it a day earlier this year. Boden has become one of the outstanding performers of traditional music of his generation and we were intrigued to see how his one man show would compare to a Bellowhead extravaganza.
As was only to be expected, as a solo gig this was a more intimate and low key performance than a Bellowhead romp, but none the worse for that. In many ways, it allowed for a little more light and shade as Jon, performing on guitar, fiddle and squeezebox, played a mixture of traditional and self penned material, along with interpretations of a few Bellowhead tracks, rearranged to better suit the solo setting. A roughly two hour set was peppered with highlights and it’s artists of Boden’s calibre that will keep traditional music alive and well, as he either reinterprets standards in a modern setting or provides his own material in a fresh and contemporary manner whilst staying true to the folk traditions. Unexpected moment of the evening – a folk interpretation of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Want To Dance With Somebody’ that proved both strangely captivating and heartfelt. I think I’ve read that Boden has said that Bellowhead may well end up being the defining moment in his career and that nothing he subsequently delivers will match it. Although he’s said he would be ok with that, on last night’s showing I think there will be far more to come. And I didn’t miss the Bellowhead sound once.