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

They also played.....2019

During my gig-life of 2019 there are many other bands and singer-songwriters who I caught during the year but for reasons of time I haven't written about. My partial silence (there are often brif reactions on twitter @leithnotes) doesn't mean that they failed to leave a mark, just that I didn't find the time to jot down my impressions. And impressions they all made. I thank them here for their music and the colour, light and shade they brought to my year in music.

Amber Cross
Sneaky Pete's

When I first heard Amber's voice the directness of her delivery struck me and the ensuing songs that pulled me in were compelling. I thought, then, that I'd be lucky to see her live. I thought her audience too small to pull her across the Atlantic Ocean and these shores.
I was surprised and excited when news reached me of a UK tour with an Edinburgh date. She did not disappoint.
Performing as a duo with husband James on second guitar and harmonies her music was stark and affecting in its sincerity. These are songs of directness and deeply wrought from her life and experience.  Take 'Savage on the Downhill' a song about hunting as it turns out uses lyricism that transcends the subject the matter or 'Echoes' a song about the stresses of maintaining a relationship while raising a family and making a living (this one moved me to tears). These are honest songs from an honest and unvarnished performer and all the better for that.

https://www.ambercrossmusic.com/music

Kristin Hersh
Summerhall

Way back in the early 1990s I caught Kristin's band Throwing Muses when they played Edinburgh's Calton Studios. I got a review printed in the TLN (Tennents Live News) music magazine. I caught her again a few years later when she toured her first solo album 'Hips and Makers'. She's one of those singers whose voice and songs captivate mesmerise and pull you in. To be fair I'd not been pulled in for a long time.
A packed Summerhall awaited her return and I wondered if after all this time she'd still have the power to pull me in. She made it seem effortless. My twitter review - Two words fierce and mesmerising. It stands.

https://www.kristinhersh.com/

Her Crooked Heart

Leith Depot 

What kind of wonderful is this? Not just the fabulous Rachel Ries in concert but an incredible band of women all of whom are worth more attention. 

Rachel Ries is one of those wonderful singer songwriters who defies genres. Think a small-town American take on Kate Bush crossed with Mary Margaret O'Hara. Moments of musical and lyrical magic tumble across the room and stretch beyond the venue. On her own Rachel would be outstanding but in this ensemble setting with these musicians her songs become wonderfully layered explorations of life and the heart that reach a higher place and the whole becomes something that is very, very special.

I felt humbled to be part of the audience at this show and to experience this wonderful evening. 

https://www.hercrookedheart.com/

Also check out the band,

Siri Undlin: Humbird http://www.humbirdmusic.com/new-page

Addie Strei: Adelyn Rose https://adelynrose.bandcamp.com/

Hilary James: Bathroom Cig https://www.facebook.com/bathtubcig/

If you like all that check out,

Fiji-13 https://fiji-13.bandcamp.com/

Inside Voice https://www.facebook.com/insidevoicebandmpls/

We are the willows http://www.wearethewillows.com/bio

Anais Mitchell

The Queens Hall

My third Anais Mitchell experience and one that spoke of the journey she's been on since I first saw her at the Pleasance a few years back. Since then she's started a family and had incredible but extremely well deserved success with Hadestown her song cycle based on the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice now a successful stage show. 

It's an intimate performance tonight which covers a range of her songs including the stand out songs from 'Young Man in America' her examination of the history of modern America through the life of her father. Also included tonight is a song from her 'Bonny Light Horseman' project a super group of sorts that will be performing at Celtic Connections.   

https://www.anaismitchell.com/

Orange Claw Hammer 
Henry's Cellar Bar

The Captain Beefheart fans will have spotted the name of this band as a Beefheart song title. OCH are a band who maintain that they are not a cover band but a band that interprets the music of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.
And interpret it they do in the most powerful way weaving jazz, blues and other influences into a whole that is uplifting, powerful and quite incredible.
Now regulars during the Fringe Festival when they regularly play sold out gigs they can also be caught playing at the Click Clack club which frontman Steve Kettley hosts. Catch these zig-zag wanderers and be amazed.

https://www.orangeclawhammer.net/

The Howl and the Hum supported by Naomi Munn
Pianodrome at Leith Theatre

Some gigs just appear and are special and this was one of them. To be fair I have to ask my daughter Naomi for this one. She's ben writing and performing her own music for the past few years and out of the blue sent me a text saying she'd been offered a support slot for The Howl and the Hum at Leith Theatre as part of the Pianodrome installation.
Set in the middle of the theatre Pianodrome creates an intimate and unique setting for a performance in the round with seating created from old pianos.
Naomi commanded the space for her set of originals of voice and guitar and gained the audience's attention effortlessly building a rapport with the audience. An emerging talent even from my obviously slightly biased perspective.

The Howl and the Hum are a young band on the cusp of breaking through. They have all the components including strong and distinctive lead vocals and a group of songs that suggest that this is only the beginning for them and there is much more to come. My advice is catch them now to experience the raw intimacy of their performance as I think they'll be moving up to bigger venues soon. This was stripped back set minus the drummer which gave them an acoustic sound that matched the venue.

Thanks to Edinburgh Music Lovers  for curating and promoting this gig and to both Pianodrome and Leith Theatre for providing the setting and venue.

Naomi Munn https://open.spotify.com/artist/6PhYCEcCArdZ6ErqURnwiC?si=LeUPUWx9SnKC-0rypdnsMw
The Howl and the Hum https://www.thehowlandthehum.com/about
Pianodrome https://pianodrome.org/
Leith Theatre https://www.leiththeatretrust.org/

Andrew Combs
Pleasance Bar

This guy is something special - a singer songwriter with a sound that recalls the Laurel canyon countrypolitan sounds of the 70s and updates that lyrically creating a feel that is weirdly contemporary.
This is my second time seeing him and like the first time I am blown away by how effortless he makes it sound and just how good these songs are live. Playing with a full band (stuck on a stage the size of a proverbial postage stamp) he brings to life his recent 'Ideal Man' album and throws in a smattering of the best from his previous albums. The crowd lap it up. while it's great to see him in such an intimate venue I can't help but feel he should be commanding larger stages. Have a listen and spread the word.

Shout out too to Kirby Brown for providing a lovely support set and some very witty between song guitar tuning chat. Look out for him in the future - http://www.kirbybrownmusic.com/home

https://www.andrewcombsmusic.com/

Vetiver
Sneaky Pete's 

This was to be my last gig of the year and was one of exceptional beauty. Vetiver are a band but tonight and for this tour it was a solo show by band leader Andy Cabic.
In the intimate surroundings of Sneaky Pete's the songs of Vetiver enveloped the audience in a hypnotic lyricism. In a nod to this being an Edinburgh date Andy snuck in an Incredible String Band cover.
And with that the curtain came down on my live music odyssey of 2019.

http://www.vetiverse.com/

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/