Duckpond
House Concert No. 53
Martha Spencer & Archer
15
January 2025
Jonni
and I have been enjoying Martha Spencer's singing and guitar/banjo/fiddle
playing,
mostly as one half of the Whitetop Mountaineers, for many years now. And so
it was
a great delight when we had the Whitetop Mountaineers booked to play here
at The Duckpond
in 2020. Covid put an end to those plans, but Jonni is relentless in his pursuit
of artists
that he likes. So, when he found out that Martha was coming back in early
2025, he promptly
contacted her regarding a house concert. Because her tour this year was so
short,
Martha could only offer us a Wednesdy evening. We were doubtful that we could
get a
decent crowd on a Wednesday but beggars can't be choosers, and we accepted.
This time Martha was to be accompanied by Victoria's own Archer Shepherd,
a country blues crooner with a unique and captivating voice.
We
don't usually put on concerts in January or February because of
the risk of having to cancel close to the date if a Total Fire Ban day
is declared. When early bookings were slow, this added to
Jonni's worries. However, bookings slowly trickled in and gradually
they built up to a full house. We were amazed and delighted.
As wel as a wonderful singer and
terrific musician, Martha is also
an award winning flat-foot dancer, a talent that she showed off on
the night and which required Jonni to bring in the stage from
storage after nearly two years.
Archer is fairly new to us but there
were a number of his fans in the
audience and he captivated the rest of us with his unique singing
style and his humour. His 'Where Do Flies Go' was a highlight.
There was a large contingent
of first timers at this concert, fifteen in all. Nine of these
were fans of Martha or Archer or both and found out about our concerts from
social media.
One fellow who came had even been to their only other show in Victoria, in
Lockwood,
the night before. For most of the rest of the audience Martha & Archer
were a new experience
and they were captivated. All in all, the venture into a Wednesday evening
concert
proved to be a great success.
To
find out more about Martha Spencer, go to her website
Archer has a Facebook
page
Jonni has put up a video
on YouTube.