The Hearth is the traditional centre of the home. Where stories have been told, tunes learned, news good and bad shared. Where tears, laughter and music have resonated for centuries. where families, friends and neighbours have gathered for food, warmth and company.
I remember people through music. I remember music through people.
Sometimes both leave your mind for years only for one glimpse of a memory to take you back to a place long ago.
A fragment of a melody appears in your mind and only begins to reveal itself when tied to a person, a place,
a smell and you’re back there in all its gloriousness or dreadfulness!
Details are gone but the important things still remain. A funny story if you’re lucky.
An embarrassing incident if you’re less so. A smile, a taste, an accent.
There are moments when the musical mind just wanders and you make ‘a thing;’ it’s not just
chords, it’s not just melody, it’s not improvisation because it has a shape but it’s not a shape you recognise.
It feels like something new but it’s not of course as you and in turn ‘your music’
are the result of a million sessions, conversations, radio shows listened to, neighbours music flooding though the walls, film soundtracks, childhood lullabies, computer games, buskers, Christmas songs, local radio on busses in far flung countries and every single sound that has ever gone into your ears.
But still you don’t recognise this shape.
That to me is ‘The Hearth’ doing its job distilling the ‘fuel’.
Forging something.
All Edinburgh Theatre - ****
“Oakes demonstrates his musical skills in the bridges between the stories, switching between flutes, guitar and bouzouki on top of the accompanying multi-track recordings.. he tells his stories with a gentle wit, warmth and respect for his subjects that encourages full engagement from the audience.”
CorrBlimey.UK - ****
“ From levity to intensity, the anecdotes and storytelling breaks within The Hearth draw us tighter together.. Oakes’ moves between wood and string to forge a bridging union of communication between nations, histories and styles through music ”
The Scotsman -
“A gentle Integrity”
The glow of the cigarette
The rising smoke
Are long gone
But yet something lingers
Like tunes in fingers
Once foreign
Now part of you
Nothing will shift it
Wash it out of your clothes
A singe in your persona
A burn through to the core of you
You
Are still a pink sunset
In another's horizon
You are still a lightning
Striking up the world
Without memory
We unfurl
— Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir
Live Audio from ‘The Hearth’ @ The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh Fringe - 23/08/23 - Show 12 of 15.
The Hearth:
Tom Oakes - Flutes, Guitar, Bouzouki, Electronics, Samples, Words
Dramaturgy and Poetry by Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir
Poetry read by Dolina MacLennan
Fiddles - Jon Bews and Joe Scurfield
With extracts from ‘Our Gertie’ by Dorothea Goode
Huge thanks to all at The Scottish Storytelling Centre, Daniel Abercrombie, Kol, Agnes and
Rikka, Dolina Maclennan, Jon and Willa Bews, Jerry Oakes, Tim Dalling, Pete Challoner,
Maggie and Rachel Oakes, Brite Theater, To all of those that have told me stories and played
me tunes and most importantly of all to Beryl, Dodo, Joe and Angus.
www.refugee-action.org.uk www.stopwar.org.uk www.tunebank.org
The Online Hearth:
You can visit the ‘Online Hearth’ on instagram to read and to see some of the background to the show and some of the continuing ideas that it’s creating. It is unplanned, barely edited streams of consciousness.
Snippets of stories and music inspired by memories of people as they pop into the brain
Here’s is just one ..
The Constant Lovers
Gavin Bird was a lovely, lovely man who was a mature student in the same year as me on the Folk degree At Newcastle University. He was into melodeons, English folk music, Dub reggae and getting absolutely baked. I would sometimes join him for the appropriately named ‘Dub in a Pub’ at the Tanners Arms in Byker of a Tuesday night (I think it was a Tuesday at least) Gavin was famous for many things including the ability to fall asleep the second he lit a cigarette leaving a long snake of ash and more importantly the most incredible repertoire of heartbreakingly beautiful songs.
This was always my favourite of his. A stunningly beautiful melody and pure poetry lyrically. I re-worked it as a slow air on my album ‘Water Street’ combining it with an old sea shanty (Blow the wind southerly) A snapshot on guitar here and the last verse of this song of love lost in the depths of the ocean. A drowned couple forever remembered by the rolling of the waves.
” And now every night at six bells they appear , When the moon it shines bright and the sky it is clear, Those two constant lovers with all of their charms, Rolling over and over in each other’s arms “
We encourage audiences to contact us via Instagram with their own stories and memories that are sparked by the show and by the snippets online.
Adding to the foundry and fuelling the evolution of the show.
Joe Scurfield’s ‘Tunebank’
A very big and very important part of the show. You should check it out wether you watch ‘The Hearth’ or not!
It is a part of the incredible legacy left by Joe.
Explore his life, travels and incredible repertoire from nearly 700 recordings made on C90 cassette lovingly digitised by his bandmates and friends. You can also read more about his adventures and see a photograph of his legendary hedge.
