Northumberland - The Sights & The Sounds

It is always pleasing when the region in which I live is nationally recognised for the beautiful place it truly is. Northumberland is the northernmost county in England and just happens to also be the most sparsely populated county. Consequently it is easy to get far away from the madding crowd and truly enjoy all the astonishing scenery that is to be found in the countryside or along it's magnificent coastline.

Recently the northeastern actor, Robson Green has presented his own TV series on the many splendours and the rich history of the county. This week I watched another program presented by Tony Robinson who as an actor is best remembered for his portrayal of Baldrick in the TV series, 'Blackadder'. More recently Robinson has been associated with the archaeological program, 'Time Team'.





On this occasion, he related the story of the seventh century Anglo-Saxon monk, St. Cuthbert while walking the route that has become known as St. Cuthbert's Way. This took Robinson from the Scottish borders town of Melrose to Bamburgh and Holy Island on the Northumberland coast.The scenery was fantastic and if the sight of the majestic Bamburgh Castle does not lure visitors to these parts, then I am not sure what will. 



The region has also been recently recognised in a series of songs released on an album entitled 'East Coast Fret'. The title is something of a play on words as fret can refer to the mist that occasionally rolls inland off the north sea, but also to the fingerboard on a guitar. And the artist in question, Michael Woods, is a very fine guitar player.


I popped along to see him playing a set to promote the album at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle. His opening number 'Blink of an Eye' paid homage to the Millenium Bridge which spans the Tyne between Gateshead and Newcastle and which is designed to represent a blinking eye as it opens and closes to allow shipping to pass below.






Woods plays fingerpicking guitar in blues or ragtime style and by his own admission is heavily influenced by the great American blues players, Blind Boy Fuller and Rev. Gary Davis. Consequently besides playing numbers from his latest album, he also covered more traditional numbers such as 'Mississippi Blues'.

The titles of his own newer songs mean much to me but unless you happen to be familiar with Tyneside, will mean absolutely nothing to you. So while I can conjure up images of 'Salters Bridge' or 'Haddricks Mill' such names will mean nothing to the casual listener. And even the latter required a certain degree of imagination as the beautiful song brought to mind the open fields, woodland streams and of course the mill that once dominated this South Gosforth area. Now any visitor is faced with a conjunction of four busy roads and two mini roundabouts that are death traps for cyclists.

So this is my problem with instrumental song titles. In effect the songs could be about absolutely anything. Nevertheless I enjoyed my hour in the company of this Durham born guitarist and I wish him well with his new album. As I said at the outset, it is always a pleasure to have my own region recognised.

Here is a link to the website of Michael Woods which features some song samples for you to try: http://www.michaelwoodsmusic.com/index.html