Nadia Reid with support Lorkin O'Reilly - Sneaky Pete's

It's three years since I was supposed to see Nadia Reid play live. Covid meant a long delay to watch the creator of 'Out of My Province' in a live setting.

It was worth the wait as Nadia has recently recorded a new album so there were some well received glimpses of that album featured in the show. It was also a sold out show so a welcome return to Nadia who had finished her last UK tour at the same venue in 2017.  

I always know I've been at a memorable gig when I wake up in the morning with a tune stuck in my head. This one was 'Heart to Ride' which, like all of her songs combines beautiful melodies and singing with a bit of world weariness and a rhythm that subtly drives the songs. Her voice carries the songs effortlessly and powerfully with a plaintive shade of regret. 

All in all this was an assured return that while pleasing the crowd with a range of her best known songs - 'Richard', 'Oh Canada' while pointing to the future with four or five songs from the as yet unreleased fourth album. I'm glad to have caught Nadia Reid live after that long Covid gap and the wait was worth it as i think that new album will be on heavy rotation.

Another hook for the show was the mordant troubadour that is Lorkin O'Reilly as support. Sharp eyed readers will know I shouted his praises last year when he supported Charlotte Cornfield at he same venue. Frankly anyone that writes songs namechecking Hart Crane, the Simpsons, Columbus and Townes Van Zant is worth hearing in my book.  

https://www.nadiareid.com/

https://lorkinoreilly.bandcamp.com/

The Proclaimers - Whitehall Theatre, Dundee 1994

 

I found this article typewritten. In fact there was more than one - original and photocopies. I think I submitted it to a couple of papers but it was never published. Until now.

As part of a touring schedule that reaches the venues and towns few rock acts reach the Proclaimers show comes to Dundee. More specifically the Whitehall Theatre usually home to the likes of Daniel O'Donnell and Sydney Devine. Indeed the smiling visage of Scotland's very own rhinestone cowboy grins from posters in the foyer.

Entering the auditorium the sense of anticipation is thicker than the fug of cigarette smoke rising to the rafters. 

Opening the show the Proclaimers stamp their authority on the night with loud confident readings of 'Hit the Highway' and 'Guess Who Won't Beg'. By the time they pitch into 'I'm on My Way' the audience are on their feet, stamping, clapping and hollering along. 

A Proclaimers concert is now an adrenaline charged distillation of American music producing a release of emotion akin to a soul revue or an evangelist revival. The audience is caught in euphoric rapture as the songs hit home.

The set comes to a close with 'Don't Turn Out Like Your Mother' the band reaching higher and higher towards the finale. Taking a short breather on the encore of 'King of the Road' they finish the night with a yelping 'Oh Jean' with Charlie speaking in tongues like a man possessed. Transcendence is reached and its time for home assured in the knowledge that nothing like this has been seen in the Whitehall Theatre, ever. 

1994

 I've seen the Proclaimers countless times from their beginnings playing in hip clubs and 'hairdresser' bars of Edinburgh. I'm due to see them this summer in a big top on Leith Links. It's been a long gap since I saw them last at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange in the early 2000s.

Because the Night - in praise of impromptu gigs

There is something to be said for spur of the moment gig going. Yeah it's great the anticipation of a gig weeks or months away, the build up, listening the artists in preparation, finding out if friends are going. But just going out and catching live music must be one of the greatest thrills for music lovers. It is for me anyway.

So last night with nothing planned I'm scrolling Facebook and spot a post from my gig buddy Stewart saying Humbird and Luke Callen are playing a popup gig at the Pianodrome in the Old Royal High School in Edinburgh. 

I'd missed Humbird when she played the Waverley Bar in July - like last night finding out a few short hours before the gig. I was not going to miss her a second time. 

Bit of background, I'd seen Humbird (the stage name of Siri Undlin) when she was part of Rachel Ries 'Her Crooked Heart' project, a super group of talented female performers a few years ago in a packed bar in Leith. I'd been following her on Bandcamp ever since thanks to hand written cards they handed out that night with their socials and music links.

I arrived at the 'Resonancy Bar' ordered a refreshing pint of Bellfield IPA and bumped into Stewart, quick catch-up and then we met Siri and Luke who were friendly, easy company. then it was show time.

The set was short, just twenty minutes. A traditional folk song, a Dolly Parton cover then one original apiece - Minneapolis for Luke and North Country Girl for Siri (inspired by the Dylan, but from the North Country Girl's perspective) finishing with a Blaze Foley cover. It was the distillation of a popup gig - this is what we do, here are our influences. If indie folk Americana were manifested in a punk gig this would be it. Here we are.

All too soon it was over.

Postscript: Luke and Siri had tickets for the main show next door in the Pianodrome and said they'd pop out and tell us what it was like. Siri was as good as her word and we joined a packed house as standing latecomers to catch part of the set by the Brothers Gillespie from Northumbria - high English folk harmonies that were a revelation for me. The headliner was Kate in the Kettle a fiddle, viola and cello trio whose take on folk was mesmerising in its scope verging on classical and jazz to these ears.

There should always be room in your life for impromptu gigs, be open to the possibilities and be prepared to be startled.

humbirdmusic.com/ 

lukecallen.com/

pianodrome.org/

Native Harrow live at the Hug & Pint Feb 1st 2022

Native Harrow have been my first gig of the year twice. Last time was in 2020 as the first in a clutch of gigs before the Covid lockdown paused live music. To be fair this gig was supposed to be in December 2021 but was postponed due the omicron variant.

It was a great way to open my gig year - a favourite band performing in the cosy cellar that is the Hug & Pint performance space. I have my favourite spot to stand so was set for a good night. And it was. Drawing mainly on their last album 'Closeness' - apt title in these socially distanced times and for an album that came out during the first lockdown. 

In their performance the songs seemed to me to have a tenderness, a softness that spoke of the distance that had been put between the band and the audience by the forced shutdown, and false starts of the last two years. That gentleness of tentatively getting to know one another again suited the songs made for an evening where Native Harrow seemed as assured as I've ever seen them. The music Devin and Stephen make together evidences as much as it hides of its influences and presents a music that is recognisable but also unique and quite itself. 

A wonderful start to my gig year.

The weekend gigs - enjoying music during the time of Covid

In this time of Covid-19 music is what i miss and what gets me through the restrictions and disruptions to the life that we once knew. The fact that musicians and venues are hit by the virus is something that to me makes keeping connected to music important.

Music is a shared, mutual experience where a musician shares their work with an audience through some means of communication - live, product, radio, streaming. There is something about live music that is special. Sharing that room whatever its size with an audience, pleasing fans, winning new converts building a rapport, a feeling a shared experience. Bringing recorded music to life and the reaction of the crowd large or small. That reaction can be enthusiastic, ecstatic, polite, joyous by degrees and creates a mood in the room which can't be found through other channels.

The abrupt stopping of live music last year left me with tickets that would never be used. Most have been refunded or held against rescheduled gigs that I expect will be rescheduled again. such is gig life (or life itself) during the time of Covid.

I've made my peace to some extent with the closedown and have sought to use what's left to connect with music. Livestreaming of gigs has to some extent filled the gap. At first, I tried to join as much as I could and to be honest found it too much. I realised after a bit that there was always choice in the old gig world - will I go to that gig? How much are the tickets? What else have I got on that night? I simply had to apply that measure and be aware that trying to join livestreams in other time-zones was unsustainable - I did have a life after all. I’ll write again about specific livestreams I've joined over the past year in a future post but to close off this one I want to use my musical journey of this particular weekend as an example of this new world.

On Friday night I had a paid for gig - a livestream from Lafayette in London by the Staves to launch their new album 'Good Woman'. I long been a fan of them and their harmonies, but it had been a long time since I'd seen them live - almost 5 years to the day since they played Edinburgh's Queen's Hall. They played with a full band and it was wonderful to see them 'live' again. Due to the lack of audience in the venue they used the whole space by leaving the stage and performing in the snug and bar for some quieter acoustic numbers. Unlike some of the other livestreams I've 'attended' for new albums this was not a run through of the album. The Staves played key tracks from the new album interspersed with songs from across their back catalogue. They even indulged in a bit of chat between the songs. It was a great start to weekend. I put the lights down as the stage lights came on popped open a beer and enjoyed people making music.

I’d been aware that there was a clash with the Staves gig – Edinburgh based Pianodrome had a session with rising singer songwriter Magpie Blue on the same night. It was a free gig so I was able to catch up with her music the next morning via Pianodrome on YouTube. The music worked well in the quietness of Saturday morning creating a reflective mood for the start of the day.

In the evening I had marked on my calendar the tv premiere of King Rocker a film about Robert Lloyd and the Nightingales by Michael Cumming and Stewart Lee. Not a live gig or a livestream gig I’ll give you but the live tie in is as follows! I have a journalist friend Neil Cooper who a few years back was posting about them on social media and the name vaguely rang a bell. The Nightingales are a band I continually feel I should have been more aware of back in the day. They were championed by John Peel and were contemporaries of bands I love like the Fall and Vic Godard & the Subway Sect but somehow, I had missed them. Neil’s enthusiasm was infectious however and got a ticket was purchased to see them at local venue Leith Depot. What a gig! Packed, loud, incedible band, crazy dancing. I was hooked – why had I not discovered them before? Never mind though I had found them at last. The film followed the path of Robert Lloyd’s creative trajectory from its origins in the band the Prefects through to the present day which has seen regular albums and a committed band. There was a lot of humour and I found even more evidence that I should have been a fan a long time ago. I’ll give you no spoilers just urge you to see it and discover the route though music of a singular creative talent. The parallel story of the King Kong statue by British Pop Artist Nicholas Monro which was originally sited in the Birmingham hometown of Lloyd and Lee and at one point bizarrely found a home for a time at the Ingilston Market in Edinburgh before stories of its demise were confounded and it now stands proud near Penrith. A metaphor.

After I’d finished watching King Rocker I discovered that I’d missed a live stream from Bryde broadcast by the Queens Hall Narberth. A big fan of Sarah Howells since she was in Paper Aeroplanes, I’d seen Bryde three times before actually live in Sneaky Pete’s and Henry’s Cellar Bar. Again, I caught up via YouTube in the morning. It was good to watch her play solo with electric guitar and hear those taut dynamic songs yearning for a live audience. I was there belatedly but thanks to the Queens Hall Narberth and YouTube I was able to connect virtually and hope for the real live experience...soon.

How long will this go on? Vaccine and Covid suppression will answer that but despite the ability to drop in on these gigs and this music I yearn for the excitement of the live gig. The feeling I remember when after a few years of no live gigs I found myself at a Martha Wainwright gig in a small venue and thought I like this; I really like this.

#staysafe #livemusic #keeponrocking

 

As the Storm Broke: the gigs of early 2020 before Covid-19 shut down live music

Reflections on the live music that brought in 2020. Before the music stopped. These gigs took place between January 15th and March 1st 2020.

 

As 2020 started my gig going was mapped out through to the summer. Tickets were booked for a series of gigs by artists I hadn't seen before. Some thought was being given to going to a festival with costs being weighed up against the roster of artists performing. Then it all stopped, quite abruptly. Coronavirus was known and its potential to shut things down was known and being trailed. 

These are the performers I saw live before the lockdown and the end of live music as we knew it.

Native Harrow

A welcome return from Native Harrow the collective name of Devin Tuel and Stephen Harms whose music causes me to use the word mesmerising to describe it because it simply is. I'd seen them before in a badly suited venue where they'd soldiered on while the audience dwindled and the casual drinkers wondered why the football was not on the screens. I'd stayed to the end of that gig out of solidarity but was too embarrassed for them to stay and chat afterwards. I did pen a review and hoped they'd be back soon.

And they were. This time they were in the more appropriate surroundings of the Voodoo Rooms and played a wonderful set of songs drawn from their breakthrough album 'Happier Now' and the at that point unreleased follow-up 'Closeness'. I stayed and spoke to them thanking them for coming back so soon and sharing a joke about the previous gig. It was a great start to the gig year and I left full of hope for a great year of live gigs.

https://www.nativeharrow.com/

https://nativeharrow.bandcamp.com/album/closeness 

KT Tunstell

What a night! Part of the 'Burns and Beyond' festival where attendees ticket allows them access to various venues across Edinburgh for a night of music and poetry celebrating Robert Burns. I decided to stay at the assembly Rooms for the evening and catch 4 sets from KT Tunstell and band. It was worth it. Yes I heard some songs several times though thanks to some skillful rearrangements I was well entertained and got the jokes.

KT's all woman band played at full pelt throughout never lacking for energy. KT herself respendent in tartan encouraged the ever-changing crowd to join in. This was a party and eveyone was invited. As I said at the start what a night! 

Postscipt: I came down with a flu-like illness following the gig hich saw me take most of the week off and I slept mostly. A precurser for the Covid-19 pandemic to come? 

Ginger Cowgirl

I'd spotted the name Ginger Cowgirl on the listings of upcoming gigs at local bar the Leith Depot and was intrigued. Quick research revealed that Ginger Cowgirl was the stage persona of Stacy Antonel a young appropriately flame haired American singer/songwriter with a liking for honky-tonk music. I was in!

Touring alone she was backed on some songs by members of the support acts for the night and performed a set centred on the country honky-tonk styles of her eponymous e.p. On the song '6 weeks in Nashville' you could almost smell the bourbon (it possible did help that she was performing in a bar in Leith). There was an infectiousness about the performance as she drew the audience into the songs. The songs had swing to them that showed that she'd absorbed the various styles that make up country music - swing, country blues, honk-tonk vis Bakersfield and more besides. This is a talented songwriter with surely more to come.

https://gingercowgirl.com/epk

https://gingercowgirl.bandcamp.com/album/ginger-cowgirl 

Ira Wolf/Izaac Opatz  

This was a first for me - an actual house concert. One of my newfound gig buddies Kendall had invited me and so a weekday journey to Stirling was undertaken. Ira Wolf is a singer/songwriter I'd found online and loved but didn't think I'd get the chance to see but here she was along with Izaac Opatz who again I'd found online (thanks to the random choices of Spotify).  

By its very nature this was an intimate gig audience and performers mixing beforehand like any house party, getting to know one another, laughing, exchanging anecdotes. 

To hear Ira and Izaac's songs so stripped back just voice and guitar was an experience I'll not forget quickly. Ira has a lonesome sound all of her own that no doubt comes from her solo touring round the states like a restless troubadour - another town, another audience, another set of songs, new acquaintances, thank you and goodbye see you later. 

Izaac Opatz songs are a mix of wry observations of life and the things that happen that induce a smile and the occasional nod of recognition of some insight.

The two worked well together and the night was a good one with some other gig buddies there to chat to before the drive home. 

Badge news: Ira wore an enamel badge that bore the legend 'Listen to Townes Van Zandt'. Good advice. She also had her own badges that say 'Ira Wolf made me cry'. True.

http://irawolfmusic.com/ 

https://irawolf.bandcamp.com/ 

https://www.izaakopatz.com/

https://izaakopatz.bandcamp.com/merch 

My Glass World

This gig was the surprise in my early year gig schedule. In fact it wasn't scheduled at all. I got a text from a neighbour as I was returning home from a day in Fife saying he had a spare ticket and was I interested. To be honest I had to look up the band and was intrigued. The leader had played with various bands and other members had been in a variety of groups. It was Sunday night and it as the Voodoo Rooms (a certain symmetry there) so why not.

As we travelled to venue we talked about Covid 19 restrictions and the possible threat to gigs not really knowing that this gig was likely to be our last of the year.

My Glass World are lead by Jamie Telford (who my neighbour knew from University days). Jamie is a musician who has had a varied musical career that includes playing on hits by the Jam among others which would explain the quality of a band that also includes Sean Read who's worked with Beth Orton, Edwyn Collins and Dexy's Midnight Runners.

This was sophisticated music that showed flashes of influence from across the decades but was and is its own sound and song writing. It said to me this is what live music should and can be - something you've not heard before played well with life and exuberance matched with lyrics that both amuse and make you think, played by a band steeped in music playing their tunes their way.

As my last live music event of 2020 this was an unexpected delight. 

https://www.facebook.com/MyGlassWorlds/ 

Spotify 

Where now? After the lockdown I joined the livestreams online at times finding it difficult to keep up with the various Facebook, YouTube and Instagram 'live' gigs. I started watching the pay to view gigs increasingly put on by many musicians but became choosy - I craved the event, entering a space with a group of musicians and sharing that space with them, the best of these gigs give you that albiet a strange distanced intimacy.

Laura Marling 'Live' at Union Chapel 6/6/2020

After the Covid-19 lockdown it seemed that playing live was out of the question for who knows how long. Artists took to Instagram and other platforms to 'live stream' from their homes, sofas, gardens, playing for tips via Venmo and PayPal.  
Laura Marling in partnership with the venue Union Chapel and event ticketing/streaming platform Dice proposed a live concert - Laura playing solo live at Union Chapel filmed in HD via multiple cameras and streamed live on the evening of 6 June 2020.

Laura Marling live at Union Chapel

It was with some anticipation and trepidation I joined the live stream. Expectation was high. I've seen Laura Marling play live many times and she never disappoints always seeming to effortlessly outdo the previous performance with ease.

As she opened this gig she was filmed, a singer with guitar and mic gazing at a stage set up for a concert. Was this the longing for the live concert denied her fans and a longing from the performer to mount that stage and perform for the assembled crowd. There was no crowd, no audience, just the beautiful empty space of Union Chapel and Laura singing and playing. After the opening song she did mount that stage and unseen by her the crowd gathered in homes across the country in ones and twos, maybe more to watch and listen to this most captivating of performers.

She sang her songs from this space, this room with precision and warmth never missing a beat and, perhaps in the absence of an audience, she did not speak between songs. An acknowledgement of the distance between her and the unseen audience who knows. Let the songs speak. And they did. Stripped of all but voice and acoustic guitar the songs she played from across her canon displayed her artistry beautifully.

The set was formed mainly from her new album 'Songs for our Daughter' (released early in digital format as a thank you to fans who'd bought tickets for her cancelled tour) and songs from 'Once I was an Eagle' it also included 'Tap at my window' from her first album and personal favourites of mine 'Goodbye England (covered in snow)' and 'Rambling Man'. There was a song I didn't recognise 'Daisy'. She finished the set with 'Once'. And that was that. Laura Marling does not do encores. Thank you and goodnight.

Before the stream closed I was able to 'rewind' and re-watch some of the show. It was perfect and that's not just me reacting to not being at a gig for months and this being closer to a gig that the intimate bedroom live streams I've watched since lockdown. The sound, the setting, that feeling of being in a room with a performer, the performance all were perfect. There wasn't the sense of audience. Though when I went onto twitter and Instagram I found others watching and enthusing. Plus point I didn't have to put up with folk around me talking through the songs about their holidays what they were going to next (to talk through). I clapped quietly between the songs alone.

If this is the way most of us will be able to experience a 'live' performance then Laura Marling and Union Chapel have set the bar high. A satisfying night.

FIN