Music at the Shed

What a wonderful, inspiring night!  I went to see the Kathryn Tickell Band at the Shed - actually it wasn't a shed, but Hovingham Village Hall - but organised by The Shed. 

The Shed is a pint sized music and peotry venue on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors created by Simon Thackray in 1992.  Described by Time Out 'One of the few venues in the country with a location as inspiring as its programme of live music and performance art'. 

The shed has been outgrown, so events are now held in Hovingham, a very pretty village with fascinating history.   The village, formerly a market town, is situated in the vale of Ryedale.  The area is generally hilly and wooded.  There are three mineral springs, yielding respectively sulphurous (resembling the waters of Harrogate), chalybeate (similar to those of Scarborough) and clear water (remarkable for its extreme coldness, and formed into a bath, in a secluded spot, surrounded by trees).  Evidence of a Roman bath, tesselated pavement, hypocaust and coins of Antonine were found there. 

Back to the Village Hall and the Kathryn Tickell small pipes.  What a beautiful sound they make, haunting and evocative of Northumberland, hills and brooks, bleakness and beauty - a mix of traditional and contemporary.  The fiddles, melodeon, guitars and pipes drove us through the scales of emotion, one minute vibrant and energetic and the next transported to wild, lonely and sad.  Wholly absorbing and uplifting and left me feeling in awe and inspired.  I've ordered a cd.

 Kathryn Tickell - Credit:  Reed Ingram Weir

The music has been playing in my head all day whilst I've been in the workshop, so the seeds of an idea are sown, of creating a sculpture based on how the music makes me feel, it has given me a sort of energy which I feel will outpour into a beautiful carving!