Fortyfive Vinyl Café York

The Fortyfive Vinyl Café lies in the historic heart of York. As a café, it is barely a year old and is modelled on the cafés and listening rooms found in Nashville, Tennessee. It specialises in coffee, light food and has a licenced bar. The walls and tables are covered with music memorabilia and there is a jukebox in the corner. What is not to like?

This was a very special show. Said to be “York’s biggest small music venue”, the Fortyfive Vinyl Café mostly presents Country and Americana musical acts (click here for their events list) so this was a new venture for them. Local trio White Sail suggested the venue. Ray has performed with White Sail many times before and they have become friends so when they suggested this as a venue, Ray took one look and immediately said yes. As you can see from the picture, the stage is in the front window! The sound and lights are good with plenty of seats for an intimate concert.

White Sail are multi-instrumentalists Sarah Dean, Jane Stockdale & Chris Bartram. Described as “Alt-Folk Chroniclers of Love, Life, Land & Sea”, their instruments include guitars, Celtic harp, Appalachian dulcimer, flute, trumpet and percussion. They sing original material with lovely harmonies.

White Sail performed first and then Ray did a solo set before all four played two songs together. White Sail sang Was It You?, composed by Ewan Carruthers, with Ray accompanying on cello and then Ray sang My Compass Points To North with harmony vocals and harp from Jane and Sarah. After the set they realised that, by coincidence, those two songs made a pair, the first being about the Antarctic and the second about the Arctic.

Many thanks to Ian at the Fortyfive Vinyl Café for creating such a lovely venue.

Since the tour, Ray has released two videos from his set. You can watch The Beast on Ray’s YouTube channel and also Macpherson’s Rant.

Other videos from this show may be released. These will be announced on Ray’s website and Facebook page.