Duckpond
House Concert No. 2
Danny Spooner
14 May 2011
For our
second house concert we welcomed Danny Spooner on 14 May 2011.
Spending an evening in the company of Danny reminds us how essential it is
to preserve the art of story-telling, both in the spoken form
and as traditional song, passing down through the generations.
Beware - it is an endangered species!
Danny began learning these stories and songs at a very early age and his music
filled childhood
perhaps gave him the foresight to begin storing them into his seemingly limitless
memory.
Many of his sea stories and songs were learnt during his apprenticeship as
a deck hand
at the age of 13. Few men have such a rich logbook of life from which to draw.
It is quite astonishing to find that we can fit 30 people into our living
room - all seated at tables.
Of course there are a couple of spots where it's not so easy to hop out
and help with the dishes (pity eh?)
Danny began with some sea stories and songs, then on to traditional songs
of Scotland
and England. After a break, the second set was devoted to traditional Australian
songs and poems, including some wonderful songs from the outback and
the shearing sheds (where of course he has spent time working)
Jonni organises the seating around three tables - one for my family members,
one for his family members, and one for the 'locals'. Whichever group has
the
most members wins the biggest table closest to the action.
This time it was the 'locals' turn to enjoy the box seat.
Jonni tore himself away for a few minutes to take
a couple of photos from upstairs. It's a bit hard to get
a good shot of a moving target, but this is Danny
with his wonderful wooden spoons in action.
As you can see, there isn't a lot of space to spare!
And whenever I think of Danny, I always visualise him
with his beloved little concertina.
You can read more about Danny - and listen to several tracks of his music
on his website at www.dannyspooner.com