Words of a Fiddler’s Daughter – final Folk Thursday event at Yorkshire Festival of Story
Lockdown has forced many of us to spend more time with the people we live with. But, for father and daughter Adam and Jessie Summerhayes, it’s been the starting point for an incredible piece of art, combining music, poetry and folklore into one spectacular performance. Adam specialises in creating music in the moment, playing the fiddle along with master accordionist Murray Grainger in their band The Ciderhouse Rebellion. Now, their performances have been joined by Adam’s daughter Jessie, who reads her original poems as they play. This sparked something incredible, recorded over the seemingly out-of-date landline telephone, with history and folklore seeping through their performances. We caught up with all three of the artists, to talk about their free online performance for Yorkshire Festival of Story on Thursday 27th August at 7pm.
How does folklore and history influence you and your work?
ADAM SUMMERHAYES: I am also fascinated by the historical figures behind us all – not the ‘important’ figures, the workers in the black and white photograph, the uncomfortable looking young couple next to each other by the steps in faded sepia. And, further back – the folktales that give a hint of the way that our ancestors see the world.
MURRAY GRAINGER: I react to the sentiment and emotion of stories and events. When working with singers, or in this case poet, I find that I am swept along by the feelings in the words, often almost without processing them. I think that the old stories help us to connect with the past and to engage with the emotional side of history rather than just the dry facts.
JESSIE SUMMERHAYES: Folktales seem to me to personify aspects of nature into entities with distinct personalities and intentions, the sea, the skies and the flowers – all beings who can interact with each other and enter into a dialogue with my imagination. These tales and beings are often ancient imaginings, so, many of my starting points are historical moments.
How have you found working together, especially during lockdown when you are physically separated?
AS: It’s not been as much fun as when we can sit up til 4am afterwards drinking cider and being silly.
MG: Adam and I decided in the very early days of lockdown that it was not going to stop us and so we put our combined energies into finding a way round the technical issues. Eventually after much experimentation we found that by using the old landline telephone combined with a complex series of headphones and microphones we were able to hear each other, albeit very badly, in real time..
JS: For me, this period of time brought me close to the natural world around me, in such a moment of social upheaval, the trees weren’t paying attention – their natural cycle was continuing undisturbed, reminding us of their constant presence through humanity’s struggles; and so, surrounded by improvised music in an ancient folk idiom, plenty of time for detailed research and the world waking up – a set of folk style poems emerged from the tips of my fingers.
What is your favourite part of what you do?
AS: I just love the moments when my fiddle seems to play itself and I listen to the music it is making.
MG: I think for me the most exciting part is listening back to a track after we have recorded it. So much is a reaction in the moment that often I am almost unaware of what I have played. When I get to listen back it is almost as if listening to another person!
JS: I love writing, telling stories that seem to me to be whispered by the land around us, and giving them a louder voice. This feeling is intensified by the addition of the musical improvisation, another voice weaving its way through the narrative and enriching and expanding the tale that is being told. It feels like a moment of channelling ancient echoes that none of us quite understand, in a way that is equally an expression of our own unconscious preoccupations.
Is there a specific memory that sticks with you of working together?
AS: An enraged squawk of “for ****’s sake” through the headphones from Jessie after she had carefully explained that the next poem would need to have a lively bit when she got to some section or other … and we burst immediately and spontaneously into inappropriate high speed Gypsy music, before she had finished trying to explain.
MG: Recording our very first album, Untold, was a revelation for me. To record an album, completely unplanned, unwritten and unrehearsed was something I never thought I would do. After the first track, which is over 30 minutes long, I remember standing with Adam almost in shock at what we had just done, played for 30 minutes without a pause, pouring out every emotion into the ether. It was a completely moving experience.
Is there a message you’re looking to convey to your audience? What would you like them to get from your performance?
AS: No message. I hope they will find something that really speaks to them from this, but what it is that they find in the music and poems should be personal.
MG: I hope that people find some emotional connection. I would never want to direct the specific emotion, I just hope that it moves them, connects with them, provokes thoughts and felling.
How have you adapted to an online audience for Yorkshire festival of stories?
AS: The project grew out of The Ciderhouse Rebellion’s adaptations to an online audience during lockdown – online has been its only channel so far.
MG: We certainly miss the audience, that extra performer in a show that brings its own energy to a performance. When we recorded the video we therefore had to try to bring some of that energy ourselves, I hope that we did our audience justice!
If you want to experience this incredible performance, you can watch ‘Words of a Fiddlers Daughter’ on Thursday 27th August, at 7.00 via Yorkshire Festival of Story.
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Written by Annabel one of our Young Reporters for YFOS
We are Young Reporters from across North Yorkshire aged between 12 and 19. We are passionate about writing and are reporting on Yorkshire Festival of Story for valuable experience, to use as a stepping stone for our careers in journalism. We are working together with Charles Tyrer (Settle Stories) and Chloe Thwaites (North Yorkshire County Council) who are supporting our work. If you would like to know more or to get involved in our Youth Voice groups get in touch: chloe.thwaites@northyorks.gov.
