SEASONED veterans and newcomers raised the talent bar at last weekend’s Folk On The Water Night hosted by the Bermuda Folk Club, writes Walter Brown. The evening’s opening performer was Chris Broadhurst. No Broadhurst gig would be complete without hearing a sample of his vast repertoire of jokes.

Opening with Old Tennessee, he gave a four-song set that was entertaining as always. He referred to this song as one about looking at girls. In between songs, he would regale the audience with more humorous stories before launching into his rendition of>Coltswood Love.

Broadhurst cut his teeth at the Folk Club back in 1976 and gave the revellers an indication of how time flies.

“When I started back in 1976 Val Sherwood and I were the youngest people there and now we are among the oldest,” he said, which drew chuckles from the crowd.

His third offering had an appropriate name which complemented the atmosphere in Summer’s Her$>and, in typical Broadhurst fashion, his last song was entitled The Reach. The Reach is an impressive stretch of water that runs northwest-southeast from Cape Rosier to Naskeag Point in Maine and is an area known for its lobster fishing.

Making his club debut was Bob Woodley, who found himself thrust into the limelight after being on the island for under a month. Woodley’s first offering was a rendition of the Jerry Holland tuEasy and Free. Holland is a fiddler strongly rooted in Cape Breton, Newfoundland where Scottish and Irish dance music traditions are popular. His tunes, books and recordings have remained influential wherever Celtic music is played.

His second song needed no introduction, a catchy tongue-twister ironically called the Wine Song, which had some complicated lyrics. Woodley made a fine showing and rounded out his A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square.<$>

Another club newcomer was Alan Clarke, who gave a short but entertaining set. Clarke’s rendition of Light My e <$>was pretty good for the acoustic version. His finisher was Tom Jones’ Delilah, complete with audience participation.

One would have never thought Clarke would be pressed into service as a vocalist as he is more of a musician and leaves the singing to his partner Dani. But billed as a solo performer, Clarke got rid of any butterfiles he might have had and thrilled his audience.

The next trio of performers was a cultural blend of a son of the soil, a UK national and a Bermudian performer who now lives in the States. The duo of Jackie Ayres (UK) and Dennis Eldridge of Bermuda, aka Raising Caine, was joined on stage by Bill Byron (US) to perform Ayres’ song ented Raising Caine.

This was the first time Byron (pictured)<\p>had performed with Raising Caine. Sounding very close to Madonna, Ayres performed the unplugged version of Las Islas ita <$>before rounding out her set with Surrender, which dealt with addiction.

“I wrote this song a few months ago and it is about anyone who has an addiction and you are unable to help unless that person surrenders and gets help,” Ayres exclaimed before launching into this soulful tune.

Byron opened his set with his inspirational version the Lord’s Prayer <$>set to the music of The Water Is Wide. He kicked things up a notch with a kid- friendly tune about cats fighting over a treasure trove of refuse.

“This song was written over 20 years ago when I was at the Dinghy Club and there were some cats behind the building fighting over some garbage. I found myself playing in time to the cats and I later learned that my cat was among the cats out back fighting.”

This interactive tune had the audience singing (meowing was more like it) the chorus and Byron revealed this song was a winner in the kids’ category in a song-writing contest in the US.

Two decades later this cut was still a winner as Byron proved to be a hit with the crowd.

The final newcomer of the evening was Reid Kempe, who performed a Joan Baez cover tune before making way for the artist formerly known as Val Wallace, who was the closing act. She ended with an original tune itled Without William.

In previous shows, Val Sherwood was the opening act and she was equally content being able to showcase her material as a finale.

The next BFC show will be on August 18 at the Spanish Point Boat Club, starting at 8 p.m.