Carmina - 9 March 2018

A last minute spot was Carmina playing at Brockweir. I last saw them in a local pub but this was a much better setting with good sound and an attentive and appreciative audience. This instance of Carmina was a threesome with the two main protaganists (Pippa Marland vocals and saxes, and Rob King, guitar) augmented by Paul Bradley on guitar. Paul was a particularly jazzy and unorthodox guitarist and it worked really well as part of the overall sound. They have an original sound and you can feel the influences strongly, folk, celtic, jazz. The compere introduced them as Celtic Soul and the band very much liked that appellation. Of their original songs I particularly liked the opener ('Bird of Paradise'), 'Sleep', 'Song for Pepper' , 'carol' and 'Concord'. The covers were also well chosen with a sandy Denny song and 'Into the Mystic' as one of the two Van Morrison covers. However the highlight of the gig for me was a stunning version of 'Heroes' which showed a whole new side of this classic Bowie song. It had Paul and Pippa on vocals and some great guitar and sax playing and was slower and much more purposeful than the original. That was the last song before the encore of a rousing 'Big Yellow Taxi'. Excellent gig.