This was Leith Notes return to live gigs in the fullest sense. A favourite small venue and a performer who had come all the way from California to be with us (and all the logistics barriers that Covid19 touring entails).
Suitably tested, masked and sanitised I entered the venue and made my way to the downstairs performance venue. When I arrived there was only one other person there - in Covid times do people actually go to gigs like this anymore? That question got its answer as the venue started to fill. The audience was, for me, surprisingly young. It's a usual rule of thumb that artists that fit the singer-songwriter Americana label usually pull in an audience older by far than the performer. Tonight looked like being an exception. The reason became evident once the support acts (Dawn Coulshed and Kirsteen Harvey )took to the stage - these young Scottish performers had brought their followers with them. Smart bit of booking and perfect for creating a lively and engaged audience when Anna Ash took to the stage.
I'd hazard a guess that most of the audience hadn't really heard Anna's music before. Perhaps sensing this Anna opened with an inspired acapella reading of the soul classic 'Do Right Woman, Do Right Man'. Anna possesses a unique and incredible voice and performing this song without any back up instrumentation certainly caught peoples attention and set the scene for a warm and appreciative rapport with the audience. It wasn't long before someone shouted out 'welcome to Glasgow' and by halfway through the set enthusiastic applause had become loud cheering. Anna had hit her mark and found a new audience and it was a delight to witness.
The set drew heavily on her recent album 'L.A. Flame' with standouts, for me at least being 'Earthquake', 'Apologies' and 'Stalemate'. She also featured her two Lucinda Williams covers 'Fruits of My Labor' and 'Righteously'. There was a story about how she had performed the latter song - if you don't know it a song about sexual desire - on a zoom performance to a fan who was critically ill. His whole family was there, parents, children. It was his favourite song and she had to play it. The other cover that she featured is her sublime version of America's 'Sister Golden Hair'. Key tracks from her previous album 'Floodlights' also featured with the title track and the slinky 'Player' making an impact on the night.
All too soon it was over and there was the queue at the merch stand. Vinyl, CDs, t-shirts and L.A. Flame candles (do you see what she did there?). There were clearly some big fans there some who'd bought their tickets for the postponed 2020 tour. I didn't do that because I thought that will never happen and I held back buying 2021 tickets but did following a social media post from Anna saying the tour was happening. I mentioned this to her and she said 'I just kept saying YES when people asked me if I still wanted to do the tour.' That positivity came over in Glasgow that night, Anna was in town and putting on a show.
