Josephine Foster and The Victor Herrero Band at Cafe OTO

Josephine Foster and The Victor Herrero Band at Cafe OTO

05 October, 2010
by: Alexholley

An Intimate Night of Spanish Folk Songs

Tucked away in a side alley of Dalston, behind the steamed up windows of Café OTO, one of the most intimate gigs I’ve been to is going on. The place is jam packed and feels something like a cross between a jazz club and a community hall, with the lucky groups around candle-lit tables but others on fold up chairs, leaning against pillars and even perched on windowsills.

We’re here to mark the release of ‘Anda Jaleo’- a collection of popular Spanish folk songs that American folk singer Josephine Foster has rearranged and recorded with her Spanish musician husband Victor Herrero. Originally written by famous Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, the songs were banned under Franco’s dictatorship and were last recorded in 1931: but who could be better for the job of bringing them back to life than the lady who NME has dubbed ‘the new first lady of folk’?

I wouldn’t normally mention the support with such enthusiasm, but the night’s opener Frank Fairfield is really incredible. In a respectfully quiet atmosphere, he squints into the lights in between songs whist making unassuming small talk about his influences in old plantation songs and how even something with such sad roots can be twisted to become a song about love. He switches from his fiddle to guitar and back for his earnest blues and country influenced Amaricana, with no accompaniment but the stamping of his foot. He makes you feel like you’re not in North London anymore, but out on a porch in the American south with crickets chirping in the shadows.

His momentum gradually absorbs the crowd, and as he reaches the climax of his final song they begin to clap along with the rhythm – not only in appreciation, but what feels like encouragement as the strings of the bow to his fiddle ping and snap with the strain. I’ve honestly never been to a gig before where the crowd can not only clap IN TIME, but are in touch with the artist and his music to the extent that he can control them and slow their clapping down with his playing.

C Joynes has the difficult job of providing the follow on. Playing really interesting instrumental electric guitar floats you away with the complexity of his music his style is rooted in traditional country-blues but incorporates elements of Spanish classical guitar and English folk song. The line-up has obviously been carefully thought out, as all this is the perfect lead up to Josephine Foster and The Victor Herrero Band.

Taking to the stage quietly and looking elegant in a long blue dress she comes across like some colonial pioneer seated between the three rugged Spaniards around her. With no small talk the foursome launch into ‘Anda Jaleo’ – which, roughly translates as ‘Come on, Commotion.’ As it is the actual day of the record’s release, this is the first time that most of the crowd will have heard the music, but it flows beautifully and you never get the sense that you’re listening to something that’ll get better with familiarity. The rearrangements seem familiar already, but are fresh and full of enough life to do justice to the history of the music, with Foster switching between guitar, harmonica and even a harp to do battle with beats created by castanets, the odd kick-drum and some amazing syncopated clapping.

I’ve sometimes found that hearing songs in a language you don’t understand can be a bit tiring – but the emotion Foster pours into each phrase is hard to look away from. It sounds like a cliché, but her voice actually sounds angelic- at times it’s almost operatic, but still pure and without any pretentious trilliness.

Even more remarkably, she makes this incredible sound with her voice with seemingly no effort, while the harmonies of the three Spaniards on either side of her are much harsher yet complement her perfectly. The overall effect is a bit like a modern Joan Baez fronting Antony and the Johnsons. With castanets.

Josephine Foster&Victor Herrero Band Myspace
Looking for more London Live Music?

Alexholley