pub

Crazy Rhythm with Hamer & Isaacs Gypsy Swing Band

Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band - Live and Lovely album art
Video | | Hannah Sterry


Here’s a little video of Hamer & Isaacs gypsy swing band playing at the White Horse Inn in December! I was lucky enough to guest with them and Steve Jenner (guitarist) that evening and had a great evening of jazz, meeting new people and friendly banter! 🙂

At the time the landlord was running a 12 days of Christmas event which led to this brilliantly surreal image of inn, innkeeper and camel.

White Horse Inn Camel and Innkeeper Nativity Play
I wasn’t joking about the camel…

It’s not every day that you see a camel drinking a pint of lager.

Anyway, Hamer & Isaacs have recently released their new live album “Live & Lovely” and you can listen to it all on bandcamp! Just click below to listen and download!

x

An Amazing Week

| Hannah Sterry

This is the best week I’ve had in such a long time! Mainly because lots of interesting things are happening:

Monday – Lovely walk around Mount Edgcumbe and Kingsand with great company (the image above was taken from the Amphitheatre woods at Mount Edgcumbe).

Tuesday – Meeting people, helping out and my first experience of attempting to play harmonium.

Wednesday (today) – Caught up with Laura and Charlotte from the The Carrivick Sisters (a brilliant folk/bluegrass duo), great flute lesson this afternoon (I have an exam next week!) and this evening I’ll be going to Ben Carr’s Blues Night at The Royal Oak in Malborough (I’ll be bringing my flute, but have no idea who I’ll be playing music with – it’s great fun)!

Thursday – Going to see Enter Shikari in Plymouth (and might see some other nice people along the way)!

Friday – Work and hopefully catching up with a wonderful friend!

Saturday – Going to see Hamer & Issacs gypsy swing band play at The Hermitage Inn in Kingsbridge with some lovely people!

Basically, it’s an amazing week (I’ll try to get some decent photos of all of these things)! If you’re free to come to the Royal Oak this evening, or The Hermitage on Saturday (or both), it’ll be great to see you there!

The Royal Oak Blues Night

Blues/Jazz trio with Saxophone, Double Bass and Slide Guitar/Vocals at the Royal Oak Pub.
| Hannah Sterry

On Wednesday 25th Jan, there was a brilliant session at the Royal Oak.

About a week before, my dad (Joe) and I had been asked we’d like to come and join in with some blues with Ben Carr and a few guest musicians. Neither of us knew exactly how it would work and we’d had no idea what we were going to play – just that it started at 8pm and that it’d probably be a lot of fun.

Ben Carr played his blues set first, with brother Tom Carr on double bass. Ben is an excellent guitarist and manages to organise things like this so quickly – I’m not sure that anyone else would be able to do it!

Next, Tez Locke played a set of completely original works and Ben asked if  Doug “Big Toe” Smith and I would join in . Tez was the only one who’d played the songs before, but I joined in with improvised flute fills and harmonies and generally had a good time. People seemed to think we’d been playing together for ages, so it must have sounded fairly good, and we all really enjoyed it.

The last set was made up of three the musicians from Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band (Howard, Julian and Rosie) and my dad (Joe) joined them on saxophone with fills, harmonies and improvisations. They were amazing – Rosie has a stunning voice which suited the blues/swing style perfectly and meshed really well with the guitar and bass.

The evening ended with everyone joining in for the last blues and lots of chatting! The atmosphere was just so relaxed and appreciative that I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t want to play there again.

I’ll let you know when there’s another one!

H xxx