I should really stop writing about Native Harrow gigs but they are so good I just can't. It's February so it is Native Harrow in Edinburgh gig time.
It's the Voodoo Rooms for tonight which compared to my first review of them is the perfect venue. The Speakeasy room allows the intimacy for their warm Laurel Canyonesque tunes to connect with the audience. This tour to promote the recent album 'Old Kind of Magic' obviously heavily features songs from that album. Devin Tuel introduces 'Heart of Love' as a rare love song and after it an audience member shouts out 'write more love songs'. he might have a point but really for me that song which was definitely a stand out on the night actually encapsulates what what Native Harrow do best. Their songs seem timeless - see the Laurel Canyon reference. While they do have an echo of the canyons there are a lot of other influences in there. Stephen Harms bass runs show to these ears a jazz influence in their melody something he confirms afterwards - Danny Thompson is an influence. They perform as a two piece with Devin on guitar and vocals and Stephen on guitar, bass, keyboards and they manage to make it look easy as they capture the essence of their recordings and present something really quite sublime to their audience.
Native Harrow are much greater than the sum of their influences by a long stretch and I look forward to catching them again, perhaps next February.
Shout out too for Maz O'Conner whose accomplished support helped create the mood for the night - stand out for me was her protest song 'Can't get enough of what I don't need'. She's got plenty of other songs that you should find time to hear.
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