Photo by Chris Gill

It’s semi-acoustic jazzy rock’n’roll…
No – it’s bluesy folk-rock…
with an Irish-Latin lilt
Ooo-er! It’s…
A Little Uneasy!

Heather Enid Wells writes:

I first met Rick at the Music House in Norwich in January 2000. Both of us were booked for solo spots, and he saw me doing my soundcheck, playing my guitar arrangement of Lullaby of Birdland, and also playing some of my own songs during my spot. When he played, my eyes were out on stalks I should think, as I’d not heard anybody play like that since the days when I used to see Pentangle every Sunday at The Horseshoe in Tottenham Court Road.

We met again a few weeks later at the Billy Bluelight in Norwich, playing on one of Roger ‘the Song’ Dale’s gigs. I asked Rick “Do you know a tune called Pigtown Fling?” Pigtown Fling is a tricky instrumental in an odd tuning. He said “I used to, but I haven’t played it for about 15 years…” So up he got and played it flawlessly!

The first time I showed Rick my record collection, he was pulling them out of the box one after the other: “I’ve got this! I’ve got this one too! and this one I wore out three copies working out how the guitar part was played!” We had pretty much the same musical outlook, both revelling in the challenge of intricate and complex material whilst never losing sight of the emotional power of a ‘good tune’. I think it took a while for both of us to get used to the idea that at last we had found someone who was happy to practise the same way as we each do when alone, and to stop apologizing for wanting to play something “just once more, it’s nearly there!” when anyone else would be fed up after about the tenth time through…

Before long we were playing a wide variety of gigs – pubs, restaurants, music clubs and social functions, and getting a lot of repeat bookings. Originally we each played solo sets and also had a short duo set, but gradually we added to our duo repertoire and became mostly a guitar-bass-vocal duo.

We played a mixture of well known and original material depending upon the audience, venue and occasion, but always in our own style rather than slavishly copying records, and often mixing elements from different genres to create our own sound. Occasionally we collaborated with other artistes, and played a wide variety of venues, from big theatres to little country pubs, intimate restaurants to historic houses and halls. But all good things come to an end, and now we have gone our separate ways.

Heather Enid Wells

A few of the duo's tracks, still free to play or download, can be found on SoundClick.com.

Heather Enid Wells and Rick Hayward
were A Little Uneasy