Jess Morgan - Brig Below, Leith

When, as a fan, you somehow find yourself back listening to a voice that you immersed yourself in a few years ago but has been crowded out since by new voices the sensation of rediscovery can be a wonderful experience.
Needless to say that was my experience catching Jess Morgan live after a gap of three years. When I saw her live at Leith Folk Club then the honesty of her songs captivated and her music was a regular soundtrack around my house, particularly the albums 'Langa Langa' and 'Edison Gloriette'.
This new encounter with her music sees her presenting a selection of songs through the flow of  autobiographical story-telling which was engaging, humorous and poignant. The travails and travels of a creative soul finding her way in the world at times succeeding, other times facing the compromises of others and finding a way through them to a better place with a fuller sense of who she is as a songwriter and a human being.
What struck me is how much Jess's songs have stayed with me over the years and how the newer songs from 'Everything I did last year'  a collection of singles from the past year or so had stuck with me. There was not a song that did not affect me or that didn't feel like an old friend.
I love the magic of music. That way that I can't entirely tell why I like a song and singer or the sound they make. Is it the tune, the melody, the construction, the words and how they fit together to tell a story or create an impression, is it the voice and what it sounds like, bringing warmth and meaning to the words, is it the instrumentation and how that adds colour and shading to the poetry? I n a live setting is it also the human being who is sharing their feelings and stories with the audience. In truth it is all of these things.
Thank you Jess for sharing your story with the room at Brig Below. It was a joy to hear you again.

 http://www.jessmorgan.co.uk/

Ferris & Sylvester live in Edinburgh

Ferris & Sylvester at the Mash House

Sometimes it's good to have your expectations confounded. yes it can be a surprise. Yes it can catch you off guard and confuse you. But sometimes if those upturning your expectations do so with a verve and charm that is sincere that confusion is overcome.

I had this experience going to see Ferris & Sylvester. Expecting an evening of gentle folk with a dash of rockabilly swagger I was confounded. I got the swagger in spades but was not expecting the joyous straight ahead blues drenched rock that they presented the audience with.

My familiarity with the band came from their arresting debut ep 'Made in Streatham' but somewhere after that they've obviously been on a musical journey that has brought them to the muscular blues rock that sees Issy Ferris throwing classic rock chops with her red bass and showing some strong rock vocals. Archie Sylvester matches her with his blues shredding. I'd be tempted to shout 'Judas' but that would spoil the party.

They showcased songs from their forthcoming album and showed clear evidence of a summer of festivals in the audience participation stakes. Those festival appearances, though, have seen them grow and develop not just a rapport with the audience and an ability to take those folk with them on the journey.

It was, for me, an unexpected sound and evening but one where I just had to admire their chutzpah and boldness of delivery. I'm think this is a band we'll be hearing quite a lot more from soon.

https://www.ferrisandsylvester.com/

A Night to Remember - Native Harrow live in Edinburgh

You kind of know that you are likely to be in for a challenging night when you turn up to a gig and find the stage is taken up with a full stage television screen showing football.....

…...not just any screen but reputedly the biggest HD screen in Scotland. Ok.

Am I in the right place? On the right night? I check the bar staff - 'Is there a band playing tonight?' 'Sure they're on at 10' Noting my glance at the huge screen they add 'The screen rolls up.'

Suitably reassured but still slightly apprehensive I order a pint and find a seat. Scanning the assembled audience I make some demographic assumptions. Younger audience than usual at an Americana gig but who's here for the football on the big screen and who's here for the sublime sounds of Native Harrow?

Too many questions already for a Tuesday night. I spot a local promoter who looks as out of sorts as me but he does get into the football, a bit. I hear someone else ask if there is music on tonight. Napoli are playing a slow burn demolition of Liverpool so it's good to know that others are as confused I am.

Just after ten the screen rolls up as promised and Native Harrow take the stage to perform one of two sets of beautiful and mesmerising folk americana. The beguilingly gentle but strong vocals Devin Tuel manage to cut through the lifeless venue and reach the ears of the receptive in the audience. Which going from the polite but fairly enthusiastic applause which follows each songs gives me some hope that the band feel the same.

I'm not sure though and reckon that they have read the venue and audience and realise that they'll have to chalk this booking up to experience and just hunker down and get through the sets. Whatever, they do just that and with open ears I lap up the sound as is washes over the stage and through the audience catching me with its insistence and intense beauty. I'm glad I came.

It's a great shame that for their first appearance in Edinburgh that Native Harrow were in such a lifeless place with such a mismatched audience.

I tweeted them later to let them know that at least one member of the audience enjoyed their efforts and would want to see them again. Somewhere else though.

Author note: I'm not going to name the venue here other than to say that I used to come to it many years ago when it had another name and saw some packed and enjoyable gigs there from these bands - Goodbye Mr McKenzie, The Rubber Dolphinarium, the Shop Assistants, the Truth and others (ok, I did heckle a couple of those bands). The last time I was there was when I used to go to clubs that played Hip Hop and found that House music was not to my liking. 

https://www.nativeharrow.com/

The Bonnevilles at Leith Depot

The Bonnevilles are a phenomenon - a punk blues whirlwind of drums/guitar/voice that lifts the roof, blows out the walls and fills you with joy. This duo out of Lurgan purvey a form of blues infused rock'n'roll with the volume way past 11 that is irresistible, lacerating and life affirming.  If you are going to see a band play down and dirty rock'n'roll you'd be hard pushed, very hard pushed to find a better band just now.

I've been lucky enough to see the Bonnevilles four times and each time I am astounded by their visceral attack and the sheer enjoyment they display as they storm through their songs. Tonight they started at full pelt, with hardly time to take breath between songs reaching a frenzied height with a inspired cover of 'Money (that's what I want)' before slowing things down with live staple 'Kneel at the Alter'. And that was only halfway through the set! More power to Andy and Chris who make the Bonnevilles a must see band. They'll be back - don't miss them!

Shout out too to tonight's support Mudlow. The perfect support with their take on swamp blues with a funky (in a good and dirty way obvs) backbeat they groaned, moaned and howled through a high power set and won new fans. Fabulous!  

https://thebonnevilles.co.uk/

http://www.mudlow.co.uk/

Dram Shop Gal - Carson McHone at the Hug & Pint 8/02/2019

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.

Courtney Marie Andrews, Perth 8.12.18

There is something so genuine about Courtney Marie Andrews. Tonight underlined that. Appearing solo after touring most of the year with her band in support of one of this years best albums 'May Your Kindness Remain' Courtney Marie stripped the music down to its essence - voice, acoustic guitar and piano (alternating the last two).

The intimate setting of the Joan Knight studio at Perth Theatre allowed Courtney Marie the space to concentrate on telling us some of the stories behind the songs - who inspired them, what part of her life they were from. In short she just played us her amazing songs which are stories in themselves. She took requests at one point with hilarious consequences when she started '500 Nights' only to forget the second line and having to settle for the chorus - 'I've not played that song in 5 years!'. She hadn't factored in the extent of the audience knowledge of and affection for her work!
There were a number of stand outs for me including 'Honest Life', 'Paintings from Michael' (a song about her incarcerated uncle which seems to grow more powerful every time I hear her play it), 'Irene', 'Only in my Mind' and 'Rough around the Edges'. She finished the set by unplugging the guitar and stepping away from the microphone to sing 'May Your Kindness Remain'. It was a special moment and a special way to end a wonderful night.

I'll be seeing her again tonight at the CCA in Glasgow and to say I'm looking forward to it is an understatement.

The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus, Leith Theatre

☀☀☀☀☀

There hasn't been a full theatrical production at Leith Theatre for thirty years and what a way to return. Co-director John Paul McGroarty has long held an ambition to get theatre back into the building. He and Yuri Birte Anderson have realised that ambition in quite a spectacular and stunning  way. They've reanimated Leith Theatre with an ambitious reimagining of Karl Kraus's The Last Days of Mankind a viscerally stunning examination of war and its effects on people and psyche. It captures the collective madness of a population caught up and enraptured by the myths perpetrated by politicians and the media. Kraus used material from real speeches and newspaper reports to illustrate the madness that descends and makes the unbelievable real and the real unbelievable. As Kraus said himself 'the most improbably deeds reported here really took place'. 

At turns absurd and harrowing it is chilling to know the reality of the origin of this work and breath taking to recognise the startling parallels with the present day manipulation of public opinion and the language of war.
The production is international bringing together a cast from Scotland, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, France and Ireland and in that there is a echo of an lament to the fracturing of the post war European idea that has brought peace and not the unutterable horror of total war but now faces, with Brexit and the rise of populist right wing politics an uncertain future but some frighteningly familiar threats.
The staging and lighting is impressive. However it is the commitment of the actors and the sheer physicality of their performances which hit home powerfully whether it is the recurring newspaper seller becoming increasing deranged and ultimately empty in his exhortation of extra, extra edition or the philosophical discourse between the two Kraus's commenting cynically and optimistically of the progress of the war. The most disturbing scenes were for me the one where three actors disrobed and were transformed into disabled war wounded and in doing so provided the counterpoint to the mother who said enthusiastically of her son that she would rather he died gloriously at the front than came home permanently maimed. The other scene was the dinner party where the wealthy presented caricatures,, charades style of their fellow humans in the horror of war before one of them appears naked in a gas mask.    
A masterstroke is the involvement of the cabaret group The Tiger Lillies who have scored the production with a stunning set of songs which really add to the impact of the piece, punctuating and highlighting the dramatic flow as the characters teeter off kilter into collective madness. Their songs the describe the euphoria of belief over all others and also the degradation and humiliation of the deterioration of humanity. They add greatly to the atmosphere and depict a world straight out of Otto Dix both lyrically and in appearance.
As a first production at the newly reinvigorated Leith Theatre this production has shown the possibilities of the space and the willingness to imagine that fantastic things can be presented there. The Last Days of Mankind is a tremendous tour de force and a salutary anti-war howl at time when contemporary politics needs to wake up to the threats to peace and democracy. That the opening night was on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day and staged in a theatre that was bombed in WW2 makes it even more poignant. It is also playing during the week that the neo-fascist ideologue disruptor Steve Bannon is in Edinburgh. Art imitates real life just a bit. A dramatic warning from history. Well done to all involved in bringing this timely retelling to the stage.

Text of the play https://novembereditions.com/books/the-last-days-of-mankind-by-karl-kraus/

The Tiger Lillies score https://www.tigerlillies.com/blog/2018/11/12/the-last-days-of-mankind-digital-album-release

More about Leith Theatre https://www.leiththeatretrust.org/