Hall appeal wins band's support

Feb 20 2009 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Friday

A ROOTS music band fresh from appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York will pack them in at a smaller venue next month.

Tiny Gartmore Village Hall will host The Groanbox Boys as a fundraiser for the community.

The band pulled in a capacity crowd when they appeared in Glasgow last year and impressed BBC Radio Scotland presenter Mary Ann Kennedy so much that she invited them into the studio for a live session.

The Groanbox sound is a blend of roots music performed on accordion, acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica and myriad pieces of percussion.

Their sound features unconventional arrangements woven together by tight vocal harmonies.

Although the trio – Cory Seznec, Paul Clifford and Michael Ward-Bergeman – have appeared on some of the biggest stages, including Sydney Royal Opera House, they like nothing better than to get “up close and personal” with Scottish audiences.

And when fundraisers in Gartmore asked if they would play for them to raise vital cash for their village hall improvements project the band agreed.

Multi-instrumentalist Cory said he and his musical sidekicks love to get the chance to appear in smaller, more intimate venues such as community halls.

He said: “The first time we toured here we played in village halls in Renfrewshire and Aberdeenshire, where the hall in question was called the Tin Hut and is literally that.

“These are places that hold up to 100 people and when you get a full house in a performance space such as that the atmosphere can very often be much, much better than some of the bigger concert halls and theatres.”

“We just love these old places and feel very strongly that they should be fully functional as they serve such a useful purpose in helping to forge a stronger community spirit.

“As it happened, we had free night and were real pleased to be able to play there.”

The Groanbox Boys are coming back to the UK to promote a new album that was entirely inspired by their first Scottish tour.

All of the tracks took shape while they were on the road here and eventually developed for the new project, entitled “Gran Bwa” or the Spirit of the Forest.

Among things that inspired them were bones found scattered in a Perthshire woodland, an ancient door of The Tolbooth in Stirling and the Fortingall Yew, said to be the oldest tree in Europe.

The Gartmore Village Hall fundraiser is on Sunday, March 29, and tickets, priced £10, are available from The Village Store.