music at the baa – devizine.com

By Ben Romain. Images: ©Alice Rose Photography

Following a stand out long weekend of blues and americana at the Hillbilly Hootenanny, Victoria and I managed to squeeze most of the Saturday of Flocksteady Bleats into a busy weekend of grown-up stuff and birthday dinners…

Neither of us would declare an informed opinion on reggae, other than knowing we like some reggae, but not educated enough to know what sort of thing it was in a very wide genre (perils of genre pigeonholes shortly!)

So, we expected some familiar themes and sounds, we have classic reggae down with some Trojan records box sets I’ve had decades, most of Bob’s original albums, and a few more here but that’s all- old school traditional reggae; mellow, principled, full of steady beats, and rhythm and love for music.

Before I waffle on a little about some wonderful bands, I want to touch on genres, briefly…

Obviously, reggae and ska have been infused in popular culture, as well as roots music for generations; original punks I know love reggae, and ska, and vice versa. That’s perhaps about identity, attitude, and lifestyle delivered from different angles.

It occurred to me immediately that the first band we caught, Technicolour Steam Train were reminiscent of The Beat (saw them a few times and love them) or The Selector.. they certainly had the brass and the skanking vibes down; yet they were rubbing shoulders with the lively presence of Da Fuchaman, perhaps a current take on a diverse scene maybe and more traditional laid back grooves of The MCAuff family and The Ligerians..

In all fairness the Baa team had been clever in all things marketing, the colours and some of the great names on the flyers gave a ready impression of reggae and beat-laden tunes to someone like myself ignorant to the detail or in fact to any of the bands other than sadly not being able to make the Friday for The Intercepteurs, who a good friend of mine was there to see, knowing them as she does very well and I was assured they played a blinder!

Other than some Google searching which had us tapping our toes, and feeling like this would be educational, we would unavoidably come away with slightly improved knowledge and likely new music to play at home!

The headline in all of this is to try something different. The line-ups here stretch across broader styles, I imagine deliberately so, and by doing so, broaden our horizons within a comfortable and fun environment. There are kids dancing, there are older couples relaxing in comfy chairs together, there are whatever we are variously dancing (especially Vickie!) or enjoying the spectacle with a cocktail! It’s a wonderful way to experience music, perhaps the best way.

Try something different and surprise yourself, at the Baa, if one band is not your thing the next one will be different enough… perhaps they will be?

We found ourselves enjoying most of it; meeting many of the musicians, chatting about their sets, and buying CD’s, which I have been listening to all week. Certainly to someone like myself for whom the soundtrack to my life provides the much needed balance to remember all that is good about humans, that life is good, even if the world can be more immediately thought of as bad or difficult..this music has a relaxing and positive impact, which is well suited to our times.

By the way, we got exactly what we envisaged, armed with the knowledge from our first visit, a different crowd, largely, I think but the same relaxed, safe, fun atmosphere, and great music.

So, here are some thoughts on the most impactful of the day’s bands for us:

Technicolour Steam Train-

A young looking band, a confident, bouncing, literally frontman delivering great songs, to long time fans of The Beat, like us, his getting the crowd skanking was great.. and they certainly did that!

Awesome musicians, hard-working brass musicians on one side were holding much of the core sound, something that is a delightful part of this kind of music for me.

Like my previous opinion stated, seeing live music is different gravy, their enjoyment, and instruments to the fore, which are not a part of, or at least so front and centre of the sound as they were here in many bands. It’s great seeing how or what they play when you are appreciating the music.

At times a sort of more modern sounding rhyming, not necessarily so much our thing but impressive none the less, as it’s certainly an amazing skill when the lyrics are delivered with such haste!

Da Fuchaman & the Fire Blaze Band-

Lyrics exploring music as a conduit to leaving your troubles behind, and positive thinking can probably resonate and lift most people who experience the huge presence of this amazing collective.

The larger than life stage presence and energy of its Jamaican born front man and singer, the awesome way he brings his singing troupe to the fore, taking the lead, and ensuring they have a strong voice.. doing their own tracks in the set too.

Not sure what an expert would call the particular sound but we loved it, uplifting and certainly updated over our limited previous knowledge of reggae, with seriously good vibes.

Dancing about in the audience, getting them lifting, bouncing, getting us singing a few songs in his set you can only respect. We had the pleasure of a brief chat with him after, and there is another thing about this sweet spot in festival or venue size, you can experience a huge range of bands with different followings, and you can often say ‘Hi’, you can talk about the music, you can share appreciation if you’ve had a great time, get your CD signed as a reminder of the first time you saw them.. none of that goodness is available outside the live experience.

The McAnuff family & the Ligerians –

This was an astounding headline set from an incredibly accomplished band, The only UK date so it would appear on this tour.

An incredible ensemble of Jamaican singers, and a French band. Taking to the internet the following day we learned Winston McAnuff visited a session recording of his daughter, Nadia and the Ligerians, who she had been working with, from a spontaneous experience that day. A family tour was envisaged, bringing his son Kush alongside them all to form something truly special from some of the leading lights of Jamaican reggae.

The band are incredible, a tightness you can readily recognise in any good band who have toured together, the experience and confidence in musicianship was evident, we were completely blown away, danced through much of this set too, and bought CD’s which have barely been off the hi-fi this week!

Whilst we learn more about reggae, this will be a baseline experience.. this is the sort of reggae we could listen to all the time, it’s so relaxing, the positivity and calmness of the overall sound is amazing.

So, there’s the verdict, music is good for you, live music is even better, live music in a field near home is a valuable and exciting addition to regular gigs in permanent venues, and get out there support the amazing humans and try new things, you will likely find if you trust your instinct you will open doors to new things and good people.

We spoke to and danced with people all over the place, with a common appreciation.

This week The Baa posted a general open statement inviting enquiries from bands, and who people who follow them and attend festivals want to see, inviting us to drop top picks to consider for next year.

They were inundated, many of us attendees were finding ourselves returning with more comments excited to see bands we love that would be a good fit for the venue considered; that’s what a community building momentum looks like, isn’t it?! It’s a big part of what makes the local scenes what they are, that respect, support, and adulation for the artists and the promoters who work so bloody hard to make our chances to make memories happen.

I covered my general favourable and appreciative thoughts on The Baa as a place and team well in my recent piece for the Hillbilly Hootenanny, but all the same I would like to say a huge thanks to all of them; you are all hard-working, but appeared very happy! You certainly know how to run a great event, we didn’t come last year, but it seems clear that the Baa has built a solid community, which is growing and we will be back next year.

When dates and details are available, we will be plotting to see some part of all three events with luck.

Apart from the one souvenir shot of the authors, all of the amazing pictures of this weekend are used with kind permission from Alice Rose Photography, check her out, the pics from all this year’s events at the Baa are next level, and as they say ‘a picture paints a thousand words.’

Thank you and ‘Happy Gigging’ from Ben & Victoria!