Jay McAllister—aka Beans On Toast—has certainly had plenty to write about over the last few years. Folk music is by its nature, reflects the times in which it is created, but going back over a back catalogue – which includes an album released on Beans’ birthday every years since 2009 – there are plenty of ongoing conversations and unfinished business.
Our hors d’oeurve for the evening, is Australian singer-songwriter William Crighton. Powerful tales with a 12-string guitar, his chat between songs is amusing, but his lyrics had the strength to be deeply affecting. 2000 Clicks is a nostalgic story of driving through Australia, while Killara is an 8-minute long evocative ode to an Aboriginal woman and her strength and power in the face of European settlers. His a cappella closer, Revenge, about abuse in the Catholic Church, is hauntingly powerful. A consummate story-teller, he sets the scene perfectly.
Matt Millership enters first with luscious solo piano before McAllister arrives, straight into Faith in the Moon, an immediate offering from the latest record Wild Goose Chasers. Spirituality, he jokes, was on their mind when the album was created. “We sat down to write a bunch of pagan anthems to coincide with the end of the world. Sounds like lofty bullshit!”
Between songs, he shares entertaining stories, including a tale of a Manchester fan’s festival boyfriend stealing his lyrics. Some 6 years later, he claims, he met her again, decked out in his merch, attending another of his shows. True? Maybe, but this is the “Manchester” version of the story, picked from a list of “True, the Bedford story or the Manchester one” related to crowd favourite M.D.M.Amazing. Regardless of its veracity, it’s hilarious.
He hasn’t lost his political edge though, and sharply digs at the most topical of issues (and some of that unfinished business) with a plea to “just stop killing people!” This relates to the current conflict in the Middle East which, some years prior, had been addressed in his song The War on War. Sadly, still relevant, and likely will be for years to come. Major Oak takes aim at the head honchos at INEOS and their disregard for 1000-year old oak trees as they “survey” the landscape to generate revenue opportunities.
Tongue-in-cheek it may be, but Taylor Swift For President makes some undeniably valid points about the utter chaos that is US politics in 2025. I wonder if Swift’s folk-pop era might lend itself to a returned favour of a song about McAllister?!
Standout songs were those that leaned towards the more personal, less political fare. The Album of the Day is a beautiful depiction of memory making with his daughter, centred around a shared love of music. Send Me A Bird deals with grief and loss, and the desire to get signs that someone is still with you, even after they’re gone.
It’s been a lengthy, 23-song set, and by the end, I feel everyone’s sated, having had their fill of Beans. We’re all going home with our heads full of stories and our hearts full of piano-accompanied poetry.
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