The Garage, Swansea, Fri 9 Dec
Beans On Toast, real name Jay McAllister, returned to The Garage for his annual Swansea gig. I had barely stepped into the venue when I was greeted by Beans’ side man Bobby Banjo. A precedent to exactly how intimate this gig was going to be.
The Garage itself is a treat: all the quirkiness of an American dive bar, with red leather booths, jazz and funk music was piped into the venue warming the atmosphere. By this stage Beans had made an entrance to the venue, unassuming in nature and grinning about how he had beat a few locals in the pool hall upstairs. Fans swarmed to get him to sign merchandise and he did it all with a smile on his face and a general interest in each individual. Fans offered to buy him a drink and he insisted he’d be buying for them.
The crowd were warmed up by honky tonk tunes from Kansas’ Sky Smeed, a singer who Beans met on his travels and invited on tour, and a few jolly piano tunes from duo Tensheds. It was well after 10pm by the time Beans took to the stage; I’d already missed my last train home but the rather expensive taxi fare back to Cardiff proved worth it.
Beans, in his own quirky manner has released an album on his birthday – Dec 1 – every year for the last 10 years so we were treated to a generous two hours of tunes. The guy has a gift, singing about cut throats political issues in dulcet folksy tones without ever seeming preachy. This went a step beyond being an intimate pub gig: it felt more like a few mates congregating around the kitchen table with a guitar at a house party. Largely an improvised set, from what I could tell, it was aided by Bobby Banjo who swapped between the banjo, harmonica and guitar to accompany his mate.
Each song comes with a story, the work of a man passionate about love, peace and the importance of a good old laugh. He sums it all up in his song Things, where he states he’s “just a guy with a pocketful of stories, a handful of songs and a three-chord masterplan”.
His engagement with the crowd is Beans On Toast’s most appealing facet. He has a mass cult following on the underground folk scene but none of this seems to have gone to his head. He’s as delighted to be there as we are.
words DENIECE CUSACK