ROBIN AND BARRY DRANSFIELD POPULAR TO CONTRARY BELIEF (FREE READ RECORDS 1977)

By Zeke Staten 

One Friday night in 1962, I was at a dance in the art school in my local town of Harrogate where I met a chap called Roger Knowles. Recognising my love of music while listening to the jazz band, Roger advised me to “get along to the folk club at the Empress Pub tomorrow night”, which I duly did. There, to my delight, was my newfound friend on stage, playing guitar and singing American bluegrass songs with a banjo player called Robin Dransfield. We became firm friends and Roger and Robin quickly built up a reputation for themselves and, almost as quickly, enlarged to a five-piece band, the Crimple Mountain Boys. 

He also, under the tutorship of local Irish musician Paddy Bowland, began to play the fiddle and both he and Robin played regular visits to the Irish centre at the Roscoe pub in Leeds. Barry also perfected the American, “old timey” art of playing the fiddle resting on his chest, which enabled him to sing without biting the instrument! 

Gradually, both Robin and Barry began working separately, doing gigs up and down the country whilst holding down day jobs; Robin teaching in Shropshire, and Barry working at a harp-makers in London. When they met, they’d do numbers together and, before long, they both gave up their jobs and began working as a full-time, professional duo. 

They played their first professional gig on July 20, 1969, hit the stage running, and took the folk world by storm. The close-knit clubs of the early 60s had changed a lot by then with most of them having a booked guest at least once a month and some every week. They still had their hard-core floor singers and up-and-coming youngsters, and these provided the in-between acts or support to the guest performer. 

From the mid-60s onwards top-class acts were emerging from all quarters of the British Isles, not forgetting Southern Ireland. Harrogate folk club moved with the times and, in 1966, staged at Harrogate’s Royal Hall, the folk concert, as part of the first Harrogate International Music Festival. The acts were Anne Briggs, Carthy and Swarbrick, the McPeak family and the Stockton Morris. On the heels of this change came the electrification of folk music with groups performing traditional songs in the style which became known as Folk Rock with electric guitars, fiddle and bass, plus drums; the over effect, for me, being LOUD!! 

I was never a great fan of this genre, but they certainly became popular, and brought folk music to a much wider audience. It was difficult for folk clubs to accommodate these groups with all their equipment, and so acoustic acts still had plenty of work, leaving the concert hall to the likes of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Pentangle. 

Robin and Barry came at just the right time, I think. They were different, almost unique, weren’t “rocking the songs up” and much of their material was not generally known at that time. To quote Robin “we sort of just slotted into place, the Watersons had just split up, so had McCarthy and Swarb and there was nobody to take their place”. On top of this, their singing was sublime. Fantastic harmony is an honest, down-to-earth, unobtrusive accompaniments. Their harmony singing in particular gave them the edge, a “uniqueness”. 

Their style of singing was a follow-on from their bluegrass days but without the strident sound of bluegrass and people loved it. In 1970, they released their first LP Rout of the Blues which blew everyone away and was voted Melody Maker folk album of the year. 

This was quickly followed, in 1971, by Lord of all I Behold their second LP, which was snapped up by their eager followers. 

For 2 ½ years they worked their socks off, often with as many as 25 gigs a month plus concert tours. They established themselves as a top act, but not without their critics. They sometimes came across as brash and overly confident, a bit too cocky for their own good. 

To quote Robin again “we had a reputation for being a bit mouthy with swagger, I suppose we never quite fitted in, in a way”. 

There had plenty to swagger about though, they were GOOD – extremely – and unique, even down to Barry’s fiddle on his chest. Some club organisers felt they were a little over-the-top in their manner and even their dress which, again, was different. 

They were going places though. America for instance; a tour with a top-class deal with Warner Brothers in the offing (1971) and then… BOOM. The bubble burst with Barry deciding he didn’t want to become part of the establishment and so, after a heady 2 ½ years, Robin and Barry split and went their separate ways. 

They continued doing solo work and eventually came back together with the bass player and drummer as The Dransfields, although this was relatively short lived; but in 1977, Neil Wayne of Free Read Music suggested they make another LP in the old Robin and Barry style and so Popular to Contrary Belief was born, the title being the brainwave of John Tams, Robin tells me. 

There are a number of instruments, featuring not only Barry’s fiddle work, but Robin on banjo, his first love. There are a couple of reels, a hornpipe and a jig, with my particular favourite reel Down the Broom, which shows off Barry’s playing perfectly. They each have a solo on the album. Robin’s masterful handling of Bogie’s Bonnie Belle, a simple but remarkably difficult tune to get right, poses no problem, together with Robin’s perfect guitar accompaniment. 

Barry meanwhile, contributes a longish ballad, The Banks of Sweet Dundee, a song which manages to include almost every eventuality to be found in traditional song! Barry has always found particular delight in the longer, narrative songs and this one does not disappoint. In all cases the accompaniments never override the song, a basic requirement stressed to all up-and-coming singers by Ernie Green, the organiser and father-figure at Harrogate folk club. For all their instrumental prowess they’re not afraid to present a song unaccompanied if the song demands it, and so we have My Man John, a lover’s gift song with the suitor eventually winning the heart of the lady and John, the servant, rewarded handsomely for his belief in his master’s result and the lady’s cunning. A near unaccompanied track is The Seeds of Love, given Barry’s slant on the tune and his solo, until the last verse which is preceded by a tender fiddle and guitar accompaniment with Robin coming in for the last verse in perfect harmony. 

Peggy Gordon is the only accompanied track which doesn’t have the fiddle and it loses nothing for that. A beautiful tender presentation with two guitars as much in harmony as the voices. The final track is a haunting rendition of The Two Ravens with Barry playing dulcimer and fiddle (I told you he was clever) and Robin, guitar. This is preceded by a shorter than usual version of Cold Blow and a Rainy Night which in turn is preceded by The Holmfirth Anthem, a Harrogate folk club favourite in the 60s, often the closing saga Saturday night, with harmonies abounding. 

My particular favourite is I Sowed Some Seeds, a jaunty rendition of a familiar theme in English folk song – young man falls for a beautiful young girl; young girl falls for a handsome young man; young girl falls pregnant; young man runs away; young girl is left to mourn and bring up her young son! Now it’s not the subject I’m particularly fond of but the tune is wonderful, it skips up the scale only to tumble back down again, pick itself up, and climb again, fall again and again – a real musical snakes and ladders. Perfectly sung and accompanied, like the rest of the tracks. 

So, there you have it, the album was rereleased by Free Read on CD who also produced another CD Up to now, a history of Robin and Barry Dransfield which contains 39 tracks on two albums with, in true Free Read style, quite a few previously unheard tracks. 

The folk world is so lucky to have experienced these two lads, a shame they're not available now but at least we still have the recordings... They influenced many performers amongst them Phil Beer and Paul Downs and the music is still spoken of in hallowed terms by those in the know. Listening to my well-worn vinyl copy in order to write this piece has brought back many memories of us all growing up and learning so much at Harrogate Folk Club, travelling to other clubs in Leeds, Bradford and York.

How pleased and proud we all were when Robin and Barry had such success and spread the appreciation of our beautiful music. 

Finally, Roger Knowles, who in some way started us all off, went on to have a very successful professional career with banjo player Pete Stanley playing bluegrass. Roger is still playing and so am I. 

Lots Of Little Soldiers - Barry Dransfield