Reviews
Here are posting of comments and reviews. Please feel free to get in touch and let me know your thoughts about my work.
Anonymity can be good for you! From INNSCENE issue 355 21/10/09
"The jam session at the Junction.......One guy was performing original songs........which captivated me along with the rest of the people....His lyrics were masterful...full of humorous ditties. One was about the Bradford Beck, another about the Baildon Sky Rocket...."
Folk At Wuthering Heights, Stanbury, October 2009
"Thanks very much for the great songs last night. You are a wonderful performer and I'm sure everyone enjoyed it.
There were some very fine songs indeed."
"What a lovely gig" "Many thanks for introducing Eddie ... he's just brilliant." "I hope Eddie can return soon his songs were brill! He's very talented and entertaining, Great Night."
"Eddie Lawler's just ... WOW !!!"
Cowling Cottage Concerts April 2009 (with Fiona-Katie Roberts)
"...a note to say thanks for yesterday evening and how much I enjoyed the concert. The two performers, although so very different, complemented each other perfectly."
Saltairy Tales 2005
Below are some of the comments received from the audience after the premiere of my musical ‘Saltairy Tales’ at the Saltaire Festival 2005:
"Historical Show gets Rapturous Reception" Telegraph & Argus,
(Sept 2005)
“We really enjoyed the musical. It had terrific pace, poetry, rhythm.”
“The ultimate theatrical experience for all concerned, including the audience and including those members of the audience … who are not part of the locality … The overall tone and feel, the values that ran through – right on! Thanks for an admirable night.”
“Congratulations on your show – very enjoyable – erudite but held a large audience. Loved the Shut it and Someone Else’s Hands numbers in particular…”
Reviews of Saltairy Tales 2005
“I really enjoyed the show; it was fun and I loved the variety of music and wit of the lyrics. I certainly share your sentiments about Saltaire.”
“Thanks again for the super entertainment!!”
Review of my CD "The Baildon Sky-Rocket"
(from www.wovenwheatwhispers)
Saltaire based musician, Eddie Lawler makes a distinctive form of contemporary folk that merges humorous observation, social commentary and traditional themes. He already has two albums at our service and has written three musicals with themes related to Yorkshire. Here on his third album, Eddie finds us at a crossroads of change in the way we live considering the contribution past and future to our sustainable society. Of course as always with Eddie, the album doesn’t just consider one theme, he looks broadly at our lives and experiences with songs about Emily Bronte, the welfare state and the Massacre of Glencoe.
On this album Eddie’s guitar and voice is completed by keyboards and backing vocals. The settings help the listener to focus on Eddie’s always astute lyrics that can move from the whimsical to the serious in the same song. The songs are never confrontational; Eddie is far more subtle than that. It’s like sitting by the fire in the pub being entertained, his witty observations charming you more with every drink.
The songs are in a range of styles, from simple acoustic folk through to music hall. But at their core is the communal observation that runs throughout the tradition. Eddie’s lyrics and vocals stand out. This is someone singing about the world around him and able to see the humour around us. At a time of profound social change, we need a positive creative outlook more than ever.
And Praise in Verse (in Eddie's native language)
The Minstrel of Saltaire (by AW)
He’s one o’ t’ Becks, he says,
But not of beer or football fame.
The murky source o’ t’ family name
Lies underneath West Yorkshire’s cloggin’ clays.
This land-locked lubber, far from t’ sea,
Thrives, so he says, on good salt air.
“Come up and see our county fair,
Then bugger off, be wom wi’ thi.”
An’, sod ’em all, those Lancy loons,
Our purrin’ Yorkshire bulldog croons,
In rhymin’ verse an’ dulcet tones,
Ed-ee, bah gum, ’e spares no bones;
From Frizing Hall to Bradford Tyrls
The tuneful torment skips and skirls.
He tempts wi’ a smile, a bit like Wilde,
But bitter’s this lad’s drink, not mild.
Hallucination’s in his game,
Not mushroom juice, but drawn from t’ pot,
And Baildon chips wi’ vinegar, just a spot,
A pinch of salt, an t’ rocket’s all aflame.
Come down to earth,
He’s had you for a ride,
He’s spared the birds and tree tops, too,
But not Ma Thatcher, Blair or Bushes I and II.
The bells, the bells, his brazen cause.
He’s retied rope an’ rejoint tower wi’earth
In owld Ti’ Salt’s reformed united church
But keeps on skippin’ wi’out pause.
On t’ Tyne or t’ Wear he shines a star
For ladies lined up three a bar
To shape their hips to t’ silken tongue
O’ t’ Yorkshire Silver’s soothing lung.
And like the piper famed of old
He’s less on t’ track of filthy gold
Than t’ soaring tones of children’s glee
Who join him on’t Saltairy spree.
So, sup up lads, and give a cheer
For Ed-ee, bah gum, his voice is clear,
He’s freed up t’ Beck, measured Devil’s girth
And told tha tale wi’ melody and mirth.
