Sutton Coldfield Festival of Arts

• Venue: Sutton Library, Meeting Room 2

Sutton Coldfield folkie Bob Allaway, one of the town’s best kept secrets, steps under the spotlight at Sutton Library (Meeting Room 2) on Saturday July 12 from 1pm to 1.45pm.

Bob, a professional sign-writer, is far from the household name he should be, his CD Sundry Notes Of Music revealing a fiercely intelligent talent whose original songs sound like traditional folk standards. The hour-long disc, released by Sutton label Celestial Sound in 2002, was a long time coming for Bob, resident performer at Cheque Mates Folk’n'Roots Club in Hopwas.

Bob has a rustic, individual singing voice that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but which puts him in a grand folk tradition where performers like Bob Dylan, Martin Carthy and Dick Gaughan have divided the public with their gritty, gravelly approach.

Put him in a studio, and there’s no doubting the confidence of the man. Vocal quirks are turned to Bob’s advantage, the fireside intimacy shining through in a cappella numbers like Martinmas, Saint Monday and Apple Of My Eye - a lovely, light-hearted ode to cider.

The songs crackle with wit and spirit and tackle a wide range of subject matter, the unifying factors being their lyrical excellence and distinctive personality. Bob’s use of words captures the timelessness at the root of the best folk music.

Gaughan or Pete Seeger would have been delighted to have written A Better Morning’s Coming, a pillar of support for the working man, while the more impressionistic Splendid Waste Of Time - sung by fellow Suttonian Serena Howard-Douglas - has a relaxed drift recalling some of Fred Neil’s finest moments.

The Murder Of Mary Ashford, a ballad about the girl whose body was found in Sutton in 1817, is particularly captivating as it unrolls the tale of how the accused Abraham Thornton escaped to Baltimore after he challenged Ashford’s timorous brother to Trial By Battle. Allaway evidently has a well-developed sense of drama.