Way back in October 1972, Elektra Records released ‘In Search Of Amelia Earhart’ by Plainsong. With its soaring harmonies and intricate guitarwork, it was a compelling blend of traditional folk music from England and America. Record Mirror named it “Contemporary Folk Record Of The Year”; the New Musical Express hailed it as “one of the classic albums of 1972”. And, looking back years later, Record Collector enthused: “Plainsong was the closest the UK ever came to producing a rival to The Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young”.

The line-up of that original band was Andy Roberts, formerly of The Liverpool Scene and GRIMMS; Iain Matthews, from Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort, whose cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’ had topped the UK charts in 1970; piano and bass player Dave Richards and American guitarist, Rob Ronga. Despite the critical acclaim, the album didn’t sell well and at the end of the year the band split up. Since then, though, Plainsong has reformed in various incarnations. Following the deaths of Richards and Ronga, other musicians were brought in both for live events and a subsequent album of Richard Fariña songs: ‘Reinventing Richard’. But tonight, at the Greys, it is just Andy Roberts and Iain Matthews who take to the stage.

Plainsong in Amsterdam in 1972. Iain Matthews on far right (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

Brighton-based Andy kicks off proceedings, his banter warm and amusing, and setting the tone for this intimate, sold-out gig. The first six songs they play are solo numbers, alternating between the two of them, and starting with Andy’s version of ‘Wash Me Away’, with its memorably off-kilter line, “It rains down snow that doesn’t thaw.”

Next up is Iain, performing ‘Southern Wind’, off his 1971 solo album, ‘If You Saw Thro’ My Eyes’. Back to Andy with ‘All In Good Time’ by Pierce Pettis, generously described as a “songwriter’s songwriter”. Iain, singing the yearning ‘Right As Rain’, provides proof, if proof were needed, that his songwriting skills have not diminished. Back to Andy, and he gives us ‘Bottom Of The Garden’, a light-hearted take on the Cold War, and how he’ll bury his guitar at the bottom of the garden should the Russians invade. Then, “… when the war is over, we’ll see what the future brings, and I’ll get by unless they try, to put rationing on strings.” Written in 1973, it was “a song I thought I’d never play after ’89 – but then along came Putin!” Last up in this part of the show is Iain’s ‘Fourteen Months’, a wry take on the Covid lockdown which he recorded with a Dutch performer under the name The Matthews Baartmans Conspiracy.

With the solo sets complete it is time, as Iain says, “to morph into Plainsong”. This, of course, involves playing tracks from ‘In Search Of Amelia Earhart’, and they start off with Jerry Yester and Judy Henske’s ‘Raider’. Also, they explain, “we’re gonna be leaning heavily on Richie Fariña this evening.” Both of them, it transpires when we speak afterwards, were fans of the Appalachian dulcimer player back in the 60s. Iain got Fairport Convention to play a Fariña track, ‘Reno Nevada’, live and subsequently recorded it on his first solo album. Meanwhile, Andy, still with The Liverpool Scene, wrote a song inspired by Fariña called ‘Burdock River Run’.

Richard Fariña was a spectacularly talented musician and songwriter, whose wife, Mimi, was Joan Baez’s sister. While Joan Baez was seeing Bob Dylan, the four of them spent much time together and, by all accounts, Fariña’s influence on Dylan cannot be overstated. Fariña was also a writer and it was after a book-signing event for his novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, that he took up the offer of a ride on the back of a fan’s motorbike. There was a crash. The driver survived but, tragically, Fariña died outright. In between tracks, Iain reads out Rod McKuen’s tribute poem to the man, the jarring final words eliciting a sad groan from the audience.

“Twenty-nine is young enough to dig a well
and sow at least a dozen kids
and leave another song or so for us to sing …
But when you straddle a machine
to race along the sea
you should be prepared to die
when the machine dies under you.
I hope he was.”

The first Fariña track they play – ‘House Un-American Activities Blues Dream’ – deals with McCarthyism, and highlights the songwriter’s political and poetic stance as he imagines an America unleashed from a rabidly anti-communist government. Next up is ‘Sombre Winds’, which is on the ‘Reinventing Richard’ album and that, as Iain explains, they had originally acquired in its original sheet music format. After ‘Yo-Yo Man’, a Rick Cunha/ Marty Cooper song from the ‘Amelia Earhart’ album and John Hartford’s amusing ‘No One Eats At Linebaugh’s Anymore’, it is back to Fariña, and his and Mimi’s chaingang-style ‘Lemonade Lady’: “Get hungry, eat a little gravel; Get a thirst, suck a puddle from the ground.”

Plainsong in 1992 (Photo by Dave Peabody)

Paul Siebel’s ‘Louise’, again from ‘Amelia Earhart’, comes next, followed by the song that triggered the whole project: Red River Dave McEnery’s ‘Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight’. The 1937 song was dedicated to the pilot and her tragic disappearance somewhere in “the ocean far away”. The final Fariña number they play – ‘Sell-Out Agitation Waltz’ – was another 60s counter-culture favourite. “Society is not geared to people who grow beards, or girlies with holes in their ears; They’re liable to hunt you down and dress you in a wedding-gown, and offer substantial careers.”

Iain and Andy have put on such a great show, their voices sweetly harmonising; their guitar playing superb; the banter between them revealing that time has not spoiled their close friendship. Throughout the evening we’ve learned about Plainsong, about Richard Fariña, about folk music on both sides of the Atlantic, the whole lot delivered in a way that’s been so much fun. For anyone wanting to know more about Plainsong, there is a book that was published earlier this year: In Search Of Plainsong by Ian Clayton. Up on the stage, though, it is time for the band’s encore – a sublime version of ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’, written by another tragic figure who died far too young: Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse. Afterwards, we ask Iain if he’d have played perhaps our favourite Plainsong track, ‘Call The Tune’, had we shouted out. “Probably,” he says with a chuckle. Next time, then!

The Greys, Monday 12th December 2022
Photos by Andy Lock