Tuesday night gig: Charlotte Cornfield with support from Lorkin O'Reilly, The Orange Trees

 Small venue gigs are the ones for me really. It's the intimacy with the act you've gone to see nothing beats it really. That and the wonder and surprise of discovering wonderful support acts who you might not have discovered otherwise. Those damn streaming algorithms don't always come up with the goods. Music is from the heart not numbers after all.

 It was Tuesday night at Sneaky Pete's and there were three acts to see. I bought my ticket to see the headliner Charlotte Cornfield and knew nothing of the support acts Lorkin O'Reilly and The Orange Trees. 

The latter were first up, a duo with a bossa nova influenced set of pop songs with a darker tinge but that jazzy lightness that transported me back to the early 80s when there were similar sounding bands popping up with engaging bittersweet lyrics. That's what we had tonight and yes, I fell for that light jazzy style and the lyrics with a twist. 

Lorkin O'Reilly I have to admit I'd never heard of before seeing the bill. Originally from Leith now living in New York he was a revelation. well picked guitar and a gritty world-weary voice told tales anti-social neighbours, dysfunctional relationships with a unique poetic take on these vignettes of frustrated lives. The lyrics like pins startling you with their sharpness. Echoes of Townes Van Zandt and Blaze Foley but this was something altogether different and captivating. I could have listened to him forever. He was joined on stage by Melanie MacLaren for an unscheduled duet (she'd flown in from NY) on 'Clearance Aisle'. I'll be listening to a lot of Lorkin O'Reilly from now on. 

I always like it when those singer songwriters from afar who I've found on streaming services (the algorithms sometimes work) play a gig in my hometown. It makes this big world seem much more of a village. It brings us closer; the troubadour is in town. Charlotte Cornfield hails from Toronto and here she is with a drummer and bass player on a small stage in Edinburgh playing songs from her album 'Highs in the Minuses'. They've been touring for a year, and this was the last night of that long tour, so the band dynamic was tight as they've lived inside these songs for so long. There were so many standouts on the night and here's some 'Skateboarding by the Lake' (or skate, kick thing...listen to it!), 'Headlines', '21', 'Drunk for You'. These are well drawn lyrics, and they are matched with melodies and tunes that dig into your psyche. And you wake up next morning with them embedded in your head. If you haven't heard Charlotte Cornfield, then you should. Better still catch her live.

All too soon it was over, and I was out into the night mulling over what I'd just seen. Small gigs, small gigs. They are the best.

A Big Time at the Usher Hall: Angel Olsen with Tomberlin

 It's always interesting, to me anyway, how you find yourself connecting with an artist and their art. Some it is immediate and with others it takes a time. A slow burn, I guess. That's what it was with finding my way to Angel Olsen. She turned up in my streaming suggestions and I tried but didn't quite get it though thought I should (get it). 

It was her duets with Sharon Van Etten that pushed the door open just a bit. And then there was 'Big Time' - I dove right in loving its huge melodies. She flippantly called it less bangs more twangs. Maybe that was the hook that got me in I don't really know. I think there is an honesty to that record that cut through any doubts that I might have had. 

And so, I found myself at the Usher Hall to experience that album and more at first hand. Angel didn't disappoint. Those huge songs with their gorgeous melodies filled that big big room. One thing I wasn't expecting was her humour. She wisecracked her way through the set including a hokey intro to 'Shut Up Kiss Me'. That one of many stand out moments of the evening. Her encore was an unexpected (for me) cover of 'Without You' - yes that one (Nilsson/Badfinger) calling support Tomberlin on halfway through to duet on the closing verses.

So, Angel, it's taken me a while but I'm there now and thank you for the music, that evening.

******

Contrary to what I have written about the journey to discover, to 'get' Angel Olsen it didn't take long at all to get Tomberlin. From the moment I heard 'idkwntht' I was there. It was wonderful to see her centre stage with just a guitar connect so effortlessly with the audience and importantly that the audience actually listened. It's brave for a lone singer to stand centre stage in a room this size not knowing how they'll be received and find an appreciative audience. Tonight, she got them on side quickly with her songs and the audience chatter that often mars support slots was absent. Watch this one for future wonders.  

Monday Night in a Record Shop with Beth Orton

 Music in shops should be a thing, a big thing. In my experience it is usually found in records shops and book shops (very few coffee shops for some reason).

Anyway, I digress. Monday night found me in Assai Records to see and hear the wonderful Beth Orton share some tracks from her new album 'Weather Alive'. The crowd file in packing themselves into the space after the scanning on tickets and the presentation of the appropriate vinyl or cd pre-ordered as part of the entry to this event. 

There is some gentle jockeying for better positions and folk behind me are probably saying 'got a tall bloke in front of me'. Then suddenly she's there in a faded denim jumpsuit beaming smile and curtain of fair hair. Beth is accompanied by a saxophone/flautist player for an intimate and affecting airing of four tracks from the new album. We hear 'Fractals', 'Friday Night', 'Forever Young' and 'Weather Alive' which is as good a snapshot of the new album as you can get. Beth plays keyboards, sings, whispers, speaks her way through these songs and the sax and flute are used to add colour and emphasis almost like another voice. These songs are impressionist paintings bursting through with colour and emotion creating moods and shades. The four songs done it's time for orderly queues, signing of appropriate merchandise and Monday night restaurant recommendations nearby.

I head out into the Edinburgh night effervescent with the music and the event. Music in record shops lets have more of that.  

Hot Air and AirBnBs

 I was mildly amused but not surprised when I read that Tory MSP Miles Briggs was calling for the licencing of short term lets to be paused. If anything epitomises the free market it is short term lets. Property owners are encouraged to maximise the profit they can make from the homes they own by exploiting the short term let market. In Edinburgh it has seen the private rental market hollowed out as property owning landlords move from long term rentals to workers, families, students, elderly and the unemployed to the short term let market. The knock-on effect is higher rents in what remains of the private rental sector, more pressure on the socially rented sector, council and housing association waiting lists, and a loss of community especially in shared stair tenements and modern flats. 

Miles Briggs MSP make the case that the businesses that run short term lets are still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and now have the cost-of-living crisis to contend with. He argues that this new licencing scheme will add costs. 

Aside from effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the market is that really true? If these small businesses are renting out what are actually homes shouldn't the owners already be registered as landlords? If the property was previously a long-term private rental, shouldn't it be up to safety standards? Indeed, if the property was rented to a shared group of people previously shouldn't it already have a Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) licence? 

The new legislation to regulate and control Short Term Lets (STLs) is designed to make sure properties have standards akin to HMOs which have been regulated for nearly two decades. There is also the requirement to apply for 'change of use' permission under the planning system as the property is being taken out of use as a home to become a, no doubt, lovely 5-star TripAdvisor apartment for transient visitors. Property is a responsibility and not merely an investment to be maximised. Unfortunately for some housing is now unobtainable to rent or to buy in the overheated property market and the drive to short term lets has helped fuel that overheating. It is no surprise that Edinburgh is also looking to introduce rent controls (a common tool in other countries but an anathema to free marketeers).  

The legislation to regulate short term lets has been lobbied for by local politicians and local authorities like Edinburgh for too long while communities have suffered. The legislation has been passed and it is now time to put it into practice. Enough hot air.

The Weather Station + Circuit des Yeux - Summerhall, 31 August 2022

 This gig was like a double bill - two strong female performers taking their music to new areas and pushing the boundaries.

I was there to see headliner The Weather Station (aka Tamara Lindeman). I'd seen her play four years ago when her sound was decidedly guitar based indie. Since then she's been on a journey from the early folk stylings that when I first heard her duets with Daniel Romano put me in mind of Emmylou and Gram. Ever restless she has moved on through the companion albums 'Ignorance' and 'How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars' with their shimmering melodies and pop sheen. 

The last two years over which time these two albums were recorded and released have also seen her star shine with the albums being highlighted by reviewers and seen as among the most important of recent years. She seems at home with these songs and is certainly relaxed, inhabiting the songs with a casual intensity as she moves between instruments and paces the stage. She talked of dancing and wanting to write songs to dance to and a number of the songs have the kind of rhythms you can move to, even her quieter numbers have melodies you can slow dance to. I'm listening carefully and think that despite the exceptional quality of her songs and performance there remains a striving for something that is just beyond her grasp, yet. I expect the next music from The Weather Station to move the boundaries further forward and the next time I see her I feel she'll have reached a new peak of creativity further up the scale - I look forward to that. 

Circuit Des Yeux were a revelation to me. Sure I'd listened to her album '-io' but that did not prepare me for the cathedral of sound that Haley Fohr and her two supporting musicians drenched us with. A maelstrom of foreboding as she fills the stage with her presence seeming like a giant as she prowled the stage looming over the audience before descending to pace back and forth in front of the stage then darting into the audience, climbing back onto the stage and literally hanging off the walls. It was spectacular and the sound was huge invoking glimpses of late period Scott Walker, darkest Billy McKenzie and Diamanda Galas. She did take it down a notch for the last beautiful song and left us there contemplating what we'd just experienced.

So in summary an evening of music by two emerging women talents who are creating the music they want pushing at boundaries and what is expected of women performers, moving at their own pace. Different approaches, yes but both reaching for new sounds and tonal qualities and creating something wonderful in both cases. I've little time for nostalgia, who should when new music like this is available?

http://www.theweatherstation.net/

https://circuitdesyeux.com/ 

Shawn Colvin - University of Calgary 1993

 From the vaults: found this unpublished review of Shawn Colvin at the University of Calgary in 1993 when I was on a trip in western Canada. There were two handwritten versions and a typewritten which may have been submitted for publication. It remained unpublished until now. 

Looking fragile under heavy lidded eyes Shawn Colvin takes to the stage to face a boisterous audience at the University of Calgary. She leans on the band for the opening couple of numbers while she finds her level and then picks her way through her repertoire delighting the audience with selections from the albums Fat City and Steady On. The up-tempo 'Round of Blues' gives way to the delicate 'Shotgun Down the Avalanche' as she silences an initially noisy crowd with her skill.

Years of club dates have not only taught Colvin how to capture an audiences attention it has also seen her develop into a fine guitar picker. she is ably assisted by her band, particularly the excellent Steuart Smith formerly sideman to both Rodney Crowell and Roseanne Cash. His playing is unobtrusive but you're always aware that he is doing more than just playing guitar. T-Bone Wolk is a revelation. For some time I'd been under the delusion that T-Bone Wolk was the bass plying pseudonym of T-Bone Burnett. This delusion is nixed when a tall be-hatted Texan* with a Hofner bass arrived on stage and proceeded to play the most melodic bass I've ever heard - truly sublime!

In recognition that she is playing in Canada Colvin includes a couple of Canadian friendly covers in the Band's 'Look out Cleveland' and 'Restless Heart' by Steve Earle - though a Texan Earle is something of a star in Canada. The reaction more than suggests that the audience appreciates her consideration and when it finally comes time to call it a night the shouts for more are certainly for real.

Shawn Colvin has something very special in the combination of songs, voice and music which live she builds slowly, almost stealthily until you're hooked and you don't want her to stop. Wonderful.

*Postscript: above is what I wrote at the time word for word including the continuing T-Bone Wolk delusion - he was not a Texan (T-Bone Burnett is a tall Texan) but from Yonkers, New York. I saw Shawn Colvin live one more time in 1994 in Edinburgh at La Belle Angele. Same sublime and at times fragile performance. I think that performance prompted me to marshal the thoughts I'd scribbled down on her Calgary performance into a presentable review. I turned down the chance to meet her afterwards. I still hold Fat City and Steady On as two of my favourite albums. 

  https://shawncolvin.com/

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/