Reg Meuross and Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne with Karen Gledhill
Devoran Acoustic Sessions

SOME aspects of events, past or present can be too appalling to contemplate, so ambitious work such as Reg Meuross’s song cycle Stolen From God has a significant job to do leading our attention into and through the realities of a part of history that still has enormous implications in the contemporary world: the slave trade.

It does it well.

Meuross is currently touring the piece in the UK. His performance at Devoran was with Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne on anglo concertina, melodeon and voice. Other tour dates will also feature Suntou Susso on kora, and different narrators.

Meuross’s recording of Stolen By God has already been enthusiastically reviewed in the Morning Star, yet in performance the narration element (rendered with feeling, yet with chilling clarity this evening by actor Karen Gledhill) brings new insights to facts and personalities explored in the songs.

The first, The Jesus of Lubeck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWZ7t6oGZGw, revealed a masterful balance of sound between acoustic guitar, concertina and voices. In this small Village Hall amplification was unnecessary so the communication between performers and audience felt direct and personal as we heard the stories of victims and perpetrators of truly obnoxious crimes against humanity, beginning with John Hawkins, instigator of Britain’s trade in people, and also in tobacco, to be fulsomely rewarded by Elizabeth Tudor for his legacy of, as the narration put it, “slavery and cancer.”

This venue was once a locomotive shed on the quay of what was until 100 years ago a substantial port. The significance of ports in the south-western part of Britain in the history of the commercial dealings in human lives was an inspiration for Stolen By God.

Tonight the intense atmosphere of the performance was heightened by the sounds of Storm Isha outside, reminding at least some of us of the kind of extreme conditions African people were subjected to in the “Middle Passage,” the voyage across the Atlantic from Africa to the Caribbean, during which many of them would die.

Braithwaite-Kilcoyne’s playing deserves special mention, with the ability to sink into the musical mix adding rhythm and emphasising feeling and then to soar into solo or harmonising. A highlight was his Cajun melodeon playing in Stranger in a Strange Land https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUFihzrt2Y8, the song that closes the cycle.

The show is an intense experience and the variety and skill in its performance enhances its power. There was some release at the end when Reg Meuross invitated us to join in with his encore, Peace, Love and Understanding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQMr_oxo1c. Then it was out into the unforgiving Cornish night and Storm Isha.

Reg Meuross is currently touring until June 8 2023 — for details visit regmeuross.com/events