Gillian Welch 13/11/11

A much anticipated gig after listening to her recent album 'The harrow and the harvest' and it fully lived up to my expectations. Not only is she one of the best songwriters around but she can sing superbly and also has as guitarist Dave Rawlings who is one of my current favourites. He definitely has strains of Jerry Garcia about him and that is as good as praise gets on the guitar front. The thing is that he is always edgy, utterly fluid and his playing builds on and elevates the song. I loved the way the gig was just the two of them, there was no support and the guitars (and banjos) were properly acoustic and just fed through a mike to the PA. There were two sets totalling about two hours. There was lots of stuff off the new album and some off 'Soul Journey' and also off earlier albums and a couple of covers. There were a lot of highlights. Perhaps the most powerful track was early on , 'That's the way it will be' which was raw and deep. 'Miss Ohio' was a slow and more haunting version than the studio version and also hit home. Dave's vocal lead was also strong - 'I hear it all' from his album which segueued into 'This land is my land'. 'Everything is free', 'Dixie', 'Elvis Presley Blues', 'Tennessee' - all strong performances as well. In fact thewhole gig was great, great guitar, great songs, great singing. Contender for gig of the year.

Alison Krauss 4/11/11

With Alison Krauss and Union Station you always get an astonishing level of musicianship. Alison's voice often gets the attention but her fiddle playing is exemplary and with Jerry Douglas, Ron Block and Dan Tyminski in the band as well there is always incredible musical skill on show. Ron Block spent the half hour before the show started fine tuning his instruments and his trademark precision is unerring. My particular favourite is Jerry Douglas, partly because I love the Dobro and he is the other end of the scale from Ron, assured and relaxed at all times.
There was no support and the band just launched into 'Paper Airplane' followed by 'Dust Bowl Children' which are the opening tracks on their new album. Immediately her voice is captivating, never strained but always powerful and emotional. The gig included quite a few tracks of the new album but a great range of old favourites as well. 'Ghost in this House' for example early on had the hairs on the back of the neck standing up - the power of her voice on that song is astonishing. This gig also had a good compliment of older bluegrass favourites and Alison's fiddle playing was noticeably more prominent than in previous gigs. Jerry had a session as usual to show off his dobro playing where he elides several tunes and where his hands end up pretty much as a blur across the strings. I also particularly enjoyed Ron's banjo playing and had the impression he was spending more time than usual on the banjo. His style is distinctive and he is my favourite banjo player.
Despite the great track selection and the sheer joy of listening to such talented musicians there was something missing. I think it is the feeling that it would be great if they were let off the leash and improvised a tune or two. Jerry Douglas comes closest to it when he does his solo piece but at the other extreme the encore tracks were almost a medley with shortened versions of 'Oh Atlanta', 'You say it best...', 'Down to the river to pray' and a mere fragment of 'Whisky Lullaby'. I want to her this band get drunk and go mad but I don't think it is going to happen.