A new venue for me - the utilitarian but not unpleasant St David's Hall or Neuadd Dewi Sant as they call it here in Wales. Front row seats helped.
Steve Earle started promptly at 7:30 with no support. It was a great band with Alison Moorer on various instruments and vocals and a duo called the Mastersons (Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore) also playing various instruments and on vocals and with a rhythm section of bass and drums.
They kicked off with a few tracks from the latest album and Steve and the band were instantly in the groove. 'Waitin' for the Sky' and 'Gulf of Mexico' were good but 'Mollie-O' was sublime. Live the track gained some real power and I can now see what he was aiming at when he wrote it. They moved on to some classic Earle tunes including another very powerful performance of 'Jerusalem' and the always good 'My Old Friend the Blues'. Everyone in the band was an accomplished musician and they all moved seamlessly between various instruments. Steve plays everything with strings superbly - he delivers what a song needs whether he has an old acoustic guitar or a bazouki. Eleanor played a lot of atmospheric fiddle and also guitar and Chris played a twangy guitar with a hint of Duanne Eddy and pedal steel. Right after a rousing version of 'Guitar Town' Steve and Alison sang a duet 'Day's aren't Long enough' and then Alison took centre stage and delivered three songs, the last of which just took my breath away. 'A Change is Gonna Come' is a classic and she extracted every ounce of its yearning. It was faultless.
The second half had more stuff from the new album and more Earle classics and songs from the bassist and the Mastersons. Highlights for me were 'Meet me in the Alleyway' which is just a great song that perfectly suits Steve's gruffer vocals and also a duo of songs from his album with Del McCoury 'Harlan Man' and 'The Mountain'.
The encore was three songs and then we got a second encore which delivered a couple more highlights, firstly Steve Earle doing one of my favourite ever Dyan songs, 'It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry'. That was a privilege. He finally finished off with 'Devil's Right Hand' around three hours after he started or more than two and a half hours of music and his inimitable chat which included how he had finally embraced gun control, labour unions, mining tragedies, Iraq and many other subjects. As always a privilege and a great pleasure.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Cara Dillon 16/10/11
My wish to see Cara Dillon in a bigger venue with better sound was fulfilled a lot quicker than I expected, having seen her in June this year when the sound mix was not ideal.
There were a couple of extra members in the band with an additional guitarist and an accordion player. There was no support and from song one it was clear how special her voice is when listening to it through a quality mix and reproduction. It is velvet and sweet but with plenty of layers of emotion within it. The band were also much improved over last time, again due mostly to the mix but also the additional musicians were both good and added a richness to the overall sound. For many songs the three acoustic guitarist laid down a subtle but driving rhythm with the violin and the less-used accordion adding some great Celtic phrasing on top. Emma on violin was less prominent than last time which was a shame but she again did the business with a slightly unusual fiddle sound. Some tracks were just Sam Lakeman on grand piano with Cara on vocals and that worked beautifully as well and Cara singing gaelic acapello was also a real treat.
She did a number of songs from her last couple of CDs - a lot of the stuff was traditional Irish songs. There songs stood out for me, all in the second half. She started the second set with a gaelic acapello song 'Fil Fila Run O' which was stunning. She also did the song that really hit home last time I saw her. I have now worked out that it is 'Shotgun Down the Avalanche' a Sean Colvin cover. (Unfortunately I can't find a recording of it by Cara). The other track that was particularly memorable was 'Hill of Thieves' which is haunting and beautiful and powerful all at the same time. Great gig.
There were a couple of extra members in the band with an additional guitarist and an accordion player. There was no support and from song one it was clear how special her voice is when listening to it through a quality mix and reproduction. It is velvet and sweet but with plenty of layers of emotion within it. The band were also much improved over last time, again due mostly to the mix but also the additional musicians were both good and added a richness to the overall sound. For many songs the three acoustic guitarist laid down a subtle but driving rhythm with the violin and the less-used accordion adding some great Celtic phrasing on top. Emma on violin was less prominent than last time which was a shame but she again did the business with a slightly unusual fiddle sound. Some tracks were just Sam Lakeman on grand piano with Cara on vocals and that worked beautifully as well and Cara singing gaelic acapello was also a real treat.
She did a number of songs from her last couple of CDs - a lot of the stuff was traditional Irish songs. There songs stood out for me, all in the second half. She started the second set with a gaelic acapello song 'Fil Fila Run O' which was stunning. She also did the song that really hit home last time I saw her. I have now worked out that it is 'Shotgun Down the Avalanche' a Sean Colvin cover. (Unfortunately I can't find a recording of it by Cara). The other track that was particularly memorable was 'Hill of Thieves' which is haunting and beautiful and powerful all at the same time. Great gig.
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