Check them out!

John Almond
Los Reyes, Hitchin on Sunday 12 July 2026 

Folk rock you say? To people of a certain age that term will bring back fond memories of the 60s and 70s when bands like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Pentangle stalked the Earth (and to be fair some of those still do!) To people of my daughter’s age it meant absolutely nothing and with that in mind we set off on yet another stonkingly hot summers day to see Greensward, a brand new folk rock band, play as part of the Hitchin music fest. The setting was the lovely open courtyard at Los Reyes tapas bar – and with a glass of wine and various bowls of tasty goodies at the ready we settled in for the afternoon’s entertainment.

They kicked off with faithful rendition of Wall of Death by Richard Thompson – who some might say pretty much invented the folk rock genre. That seemed possibly an ambitious and daunting opener but it was pretty much evident from the off that this lot knew what they were doing. The bass and drums of Bob Rushworth and Robin Hall provided a solid bedrock allowing the top lines of Jonathan Roberts lead guitar, David Edington’s mandolin and Ros Woodin’s violin to weave tastefully around the melody. The vocal harmonies between Ros and David were worthy of Richard and Linda (high praise indeed). So a very promising start and the set continued with a wide variety of material from across the decades. There was the more traditional folk element in songs like Now Be Thankful, pop/chart crossover songs including Martha’s Harbour, Lay Down and Meet Me on the Corner and even a bit of Americana with Bonnie Light Horseman’s Cold Rain and Snow. A couple of personal favourites for me were the Waterboys Fishermans Blues and I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. But overall it was a really well balanced set with something for everyone and throughout the band felt both professional but also relaxed and musicianship was uniformly excellent.

So it was very much a ‘Yes’ from me and also from my wife and daughter who would not normally choose to listen to this type of music. Recommend you check them out.