Carson McHone is a native of Austin Texas and already a veteran of the city's honky tonk scene. As such you might expect her to be a purveyor of straight ahead four to the floor honky tonk music. Maybe she is with a full band behind her. Tonight she is solo, just her and her acoustic guitar and the songs while showing classic country and honky tonk influences also have a subtlety and quality that mark her as a songwriter to watch.
The songs stripped back in this intimate setting show a spare, stark quality and a lyrical deftness that marks them out. Musically she is steeped in the Texas honk tonk tradition and possesses a voice that can yelp like a best rockabilly girl when she needs it to but can also be gentle and reflective on the likes of 'Dram Shop Gal'.
It's 'Dram Shop Gal' that stands out for me as it shows the quality of her writing offering a tale of a woman working bars with a lyricism that puts her with the best of singer songwriters coming out of the US today. There is also something about the melodies she creates which while based on the classic country she's grown up with is laced with echoes of old time Scots and Irish music which form a key root of country.
Carson McHone did not disappoint and had the audience in the palm of her hand entertaining them between songs with tales of the life and the road. I expected the country honky tonk feel of her songs and she delivered that but what I'd not expected was the references to classic American literature that peppered her show and informed the one new song she sang 'Hawks Do Not Share' which takes its title from a chapter of Hemingway's 'A Movable Feast' about the relationship of the two iconic creative impulses that were Zelda and F.Scott Fitzgerald. She also referenced Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward Angel' and Langston Hughes 'Suicide's Note'.
Recently signed to Loose Records this is Carson's first tour of the UK showcasing her album 'Carousel'. She promises to be back later this year hopefully with her band. I'm looking forward to it already - this is a new talent on the rise.
