Ringwood Unplugged – Boston Tea Party Ringwood

July 31, 2024 0 By Jon

Featuring Jodie Elms, The Ben Poore Project, Charlie Morris, Jon Bailey, Alex Morgan-Wardrop, Ryan Cronk, Rob Clamp, Aurora Duo (Alice Honey & Aaron Carter), Amie Knight and Matt Griffiths & Pete the Riviera Kid

Hosted by Kez Hinton & Elaine Richmond of The Acoustic Connection

Kez Hinton & Elaine Richmond of The Acoustic Connection curate a host of Dorset-based events supporting the local scene and giving a platform to musicians of all different styles and abilities. In 2023 they won an Original Music Award for the efforts that they put in, lovingly arranging each one. Tonight on this balmy August evening they are at Ringwood’s prestigious café The Boston Tea Party situated in a historic building called Frampton’s Mill, right in the middle of the town’s Furlong Shopping Centre for Ringwood Unplugged.

For all their other events there are microphones via P.A. system and with unplugged as you would expect, it totally strips the artist back to bare basics. The event is usually held upstairs in a huge round room, however due to the unusually stifling heat, we are situated downstairs in the café with the windows/doors open, along with fans/air conditioning to keep cool. The line-up has been hand picked by the duo and is particularly eclectic; each act gets to perform three songs, it’s a bit like speed dating with music!

As with all Acoustic Connection events, Kez Hinton starts off the evening and tonight we are treated to a trio of originals that show off his skills with both 6 and 12-string guitars. He voice is always dependable and the quality of his output is sublime, a great example for other performers and one that usually helps anyone with a few nerves. We are treated to one of his latest tunes “Shine Together”, along with the delightful lyrical gem “Just Like Sand” and final number “Feel”.

First of the guests to take to the stage is local musician Jodie Elms, a familiar face from the local scene having played a host of local festivals including Wimborne Folk, Teddy Rocks and Freezone, as well gigs for Conrad Barr at Chaplin’s. With the sound of her delicately finger-picked eight string bouzouki and her beautiful vocal range, she starts the evening off in earnest with her original compositions featuring “Oranges and Lemons”, “Thrift Stores” and the emotive “Dance Alone” showing off her fine; personal, relatable lyrical creations.

Ben Poore or for his full artist title The Ben Poore Project is someone I have been privileged to witness before in both his band and solo. His Americana meets Indie style of song creativity shows off his confidence and skills as a seasoned performer. Performing his latest single “Better Days”, which is an upbeat number with great positivity, along with a gem of a tune called “Level Up” he then turns a very different corner with a song made for a Halloween release called “One For Sorrow” about selling your soul to the devil and committing murder. The crowd loves what he has to offer and provide him with plenty of positive applause.

Next up is a young singer/songwriter by the name of Charlie Morris, a preverbial ray of light who will brighten up
whoever hears him play. His infectious smile and upbeat vocals just draw you in, the fist number “Rene” about his best friend warms your heart with some charming words. Next a Taylor Swift cover “Our Song” and one that the local bell ringers do their best to spoil, but their sounds actually enhance the song. For his final song an original “Photo Album”, the person in the place with the biggest smile I can only assume is his Mother, a great sentimental flick through growing up.

Jon Bailey steers away from originals to provide us with a set of covers, the first is a cover of a cover….let me explain. It Jon’s version of the band “The civil Wars” doing a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. He the gives us a number by his favourite band Travis, “Driftwood” before thrilling the audience with a version of Newton Faulkner’s “Dream Catch Me”.

From Salisbury comes Alex Morgan-Wardrop; a stalwart of his town’s local music scene and one who along with his wife Ellen, runs the “Sounds of Salisbury” podcast and website. Alex opens with a wonderfully insightful song, introducing himself borrowing the melody from The Frattelli’s “Whistle for The Choir”; he tells us he’s beaten cancer twice, he works in insurance, has two dogs and sounds like batman when he is drunk! Then I warm to him even further when he sings a song featuring a Star Wars Stormtrooper, he warned that non-Star Wars fans may not get it. “It’s Not All Superb Being a Stormtrooper” sounds like it has a Del Amitri-style melody and has some great lyrics that certainly gets approval from the Star Wars geeks in the audience. His final number is a nice a mash up of the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams” and the White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”. Alex gets a noisy set of cheers and claps from the well entertained and now further cooled down audience.

Singer/songwriter Ryan Cronk has been out of action for a while after breaking his collar bone, however tonight he is back fighting fit and ready to entertain. He shows himself to be a fine all rounder with some lovely stirring lyrics, coupled with a powerful vocal that radiates his emotive words right into the hearts of the listeners. Tonight the audience are totally silent as Ryan performs and you can literally hear a mouse sneeze. Their attentive manner is not only polite, but very much appreciated by the performers. With tracks like Ryan sings you need to listen with your full attention to really appreciate all he has to offer and in a noisy pub you won’t get that. Ryan’s final song he performs is one that he wrote in lockdown about his Wife and Son, which is touchingly powerful.

Tonight I am here on the absolute insistence of Elaine, as at an earlier Acoustic Connection I attended in Poole she told me that the line-up tonight was one of the best they have had and I especially had to watch this next artist. Rob Clamp is a name that has been synonymous with the South Coast music scene for a while and after winning a host of accolades, he released his debut album Lost Soul in March this year. Sadly I’ve never crossed paths with him until now and I’m so glad I finally got to see him live.

His confidence is evident, along with the quality of his songwriting and the freshness and the clarity of his vocal. His song introductions are classically Folk style, with in-depth stories that give them background. “The Rules Of The Gig” is a observational song that any regular gig attendee can associate with. “All Quiet on The Western Front” is a song that is set deep in the heart of Rob’s family history and one that describes losing a family member in World War One. His final number is the title track from the album; a love song about a dream of running away to chase his musical dream and this three song set cements what Elaine said about his musical prowess, an accomplished guitar player and one I hope to see perform again sometime soon.

Next up are Aurora; a duo featuring vocalist Alice Honey and on acoustic guitar Aaron Carter, who kick off with a fine, stripped-down cover of Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life”. Not the easiest song to recreate, but these guys do a great job. An original track entitled “Viper” describes a character that is nice on the surface, but cross her and she’ll have a sting in her tail. The duo show off their combined creative abilities that include some nicely put together guitar melodies and some warmly delivered vocals. For their final number they offer another cover in the form Greta Van Fleet’s “Black Smoke Rising”, where once again Alice and Aaron entertain the audience with a impressive adaptation and one that earns them plenty of supportive applause.

For the penultimate act this evening we have a duo who are usually found in the band Route 66 and they are both solo artists in their own right. The duo though have become used to performing together and have a cordial chemistry that allows them each to second guess each others musical styles. Amie Knight and Matt Griffith are both seasoned performers and have played in front of a host of different audiences.

Tonight’s intimate setting sees the duo just take in their stride and wonderfully deliver three Country-tinged songs that show their fervent musical delivery. The first is a newer song written by Amie called “What I did to You” about admitting fault from a wrong doing. The second is one of Matt’s featuring one of his favourite lyrics he has written with the Country cliché-styled “When The Whiskey and the Beer drowns the Salt Water tears”. The song is called “How Did it Feel”, and watching the duo harmonise is just a sheer joy. The final number is another of Amie’s called “Hold On” and gives out a message to hang on in there, despite what negativity is going on.

For the final act of the evening, I was taken by surprise as Pete the Riviera Kid sits down and takes out an acoustic guitar and absolutely wows everybody with some wonderfully atmospheric, flamenco guitar. His finger work must have taken many hundreds of hours to get right and his rehearsals show us just what this young man is capable of. Pete seems to lack a little in confidence as he kept doing himself down, which was so unnecessary as everyone in the room thoroughly enjoyed this live injection of Spanish music.

My limited flamenco experience is seeing Juan Martin perform “Cavatina” (which I thought was called Cantina”) on TV when I was young and hearing the theme tune “Out of Town” on the Jack Hargreaves show of the same name. Pete turns this café into a Spanish Tapas Bar and his infectious personality, along with his nervous smile stuns everybody into complete silence and is a perfect way to end this wonderous evening.

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