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Folk - Jim Bainbridge
Jim Bainbridge is a melodeon player and singer from
South Shields on the banks of the Tyne who has been charming
the folk circuit for over 40 years. He started out with the
Marsden Rattlers, one of the first bands to come out of the
folk revival in the early sixties, and he has regularly appeared
at the Lewes Folk Club since then. “It’s a great
little place, and it has a lot of prestige on the folk circuit,”
he says. “Lewes is in an area famous for its folk musicians
from George Spicer to the Copper Family to Bob Lewis and the
audience is very knowledgeable, welcoming and appreciative.”
Jim abandoned his hometown 40 years ago, and, after a spell
in London, moved to West Cork where he learnt to love the
haunting beauty of traditional Irish songs, which he started
to make the centre of his repertoire.
After a spell in the Canary Islands, where he still spends
much of his time, he moved to Glentrool in South West Scotland,
a fair way from his beloved Tyneside, but not far enough for
him to start being influenced by the music of his birthplace.
“Geordie music has got its own particular strain, influenced
by the sound of the Northumbrian pipes, and now I’d
say half my songs come from the North East," he says.
“Though there are no boundaries to my music. If someone
wants to hear ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’
or some country music, I’ll happily oblige.” Such
requests, we feel, are unlikely to come from the Lewes Folk
Club audience, but you never know. AL
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