Gretchen Peters 23 May 2023

This gig was part of her farewell tour and looking at her arthritic finger joints I don't blame her for not touring any more. She has always delivered top notch gigs so we were pleased to be sitting in the front row of St David's Hall for the show. First up was Kim Richey as for the last tour and she is a class act singing mostly her own songs with a clean strong vocal.

Gretchen came on with the same band as last year and the set was fairly similar as well. She kicked with 'Blackbirds' and then 'Witchita'. Her classic songs just kept coming 'The Matador, When all you got is a hammer', 'Pretty Things', the amazing 'Disappearing Act' and then a cover she has done before 'Guadaloupe'. I find it difficult to pick highlights but I really enjoyed 'Pretty Things' and 'Guadaloupe' and 'Disappearing Act' is just superb. In 'Everything Falls Away' which is perhaps my favourite on the night, there was a great soloing between Barry Walsh on Piano and Colm McClean on lead guitar. They alternated on extending playing which is something they did a few times during the gig. Both were excellent. Connor McCreanor on bass was also on the money and Kim Richey was brought out for backing vocals on a lot of the songs. Of course she did 'Five Minutes' before what was a very upbeat couple of covers to start the encore, 'Why you been gone so long' - a Mickey Newbury song followed by 'I ain't living long like this' - my favourite Rodney Crowell number. At the end she sang the old time 'One for my baby' accompianied by Barry and that was that. The sixth and final time I've seen Gretchen Peters and every time was outstanding.

Vri - 18 May 2023

A last minute decision to see this trio playing traditional Welsh music at the Borough Theatre in Aber paid off handsomely. On Violin and Viola and Harmonium there was Patrick Rimes who we have seen several times as a member of Calan. Also on Violin was Aneirin Jones and on Cello was Jordan Price Williams. They all also sang with some lovely harmony singing to accompany the tunes. There were a lot of songs featuring horses and one featuring farm machinery but as any vocals were in Welsh I can't give any details. All three are excellent musicians and this was a stunning gig in front of a three quarters full Borough Theatre audience. I'd definitely take in Vri again next time they come round.

Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi - 13 May 2023

We are stopping long journies to London or Birmingham for gigs as much as possible but there are exceptions and Rhiannon Giddens is one of them and it was nice to back in Birmingham Town Hall - a great if underused venue. First up was Phillipa Zawe a singer songwriter with a great voice and playing with a flautist and a cellist. I missed some of her set but she was an interesting act. Rhiannon Giddens kicked off with 'Calling Me Home' - that's the way to start a gig! The set list was wide ranging and interesting. There was a brilliant Italian ballad 'Quante stelle nel cielo con la luna' sung in the original language, a Cuban song sung in Spanish, instrumentals played on combinations of Viola and Banjo, Accordion and Viola and Drum with either Banjo or Viola, 'I shall not be moved', an obscure Paul Simon song, 'Underneath a Harlem Moon' etc. All this plus the main attraction the incredible voice and singing of Rhiannon. Just an outstanding and eclectic gig and already a contender for gig of the year.

The Beat - 6 May 2023

I decided last minute to see The Beat at the local theatre based really on a couple of their singles that I liked from the late seventies and found a single seat available at was pretty much a sold out gig. I knew that the Beat's vocalist Ranking Roger was no more but as his son had replaced him on vocals I thought that would be OK. I hadn't realised that the original drummer and sax player were also no more and that an original guitarist had his own version of the band based in the States. So what is left is probably more of a tribute band although that information is nowhere to be found even on the internet where the history of the band is referred to widely in the promotional material for the tour. Having said that the band were OK and the sax player was outstanding so the sound came across as pretty authentic although Ranking Junior's vocals left me unmoved. The audience had come for the memories and the dad dancing so they didn't care. I really enjoyed the long version of 'Mirror in the Bathroom' and one or two other tracks were good but overall I felt a little compromised by the line-up and the audience.

Katherine Priddy (+ George Boomsma) - 3 May 2023

We saw Katherine as support for Richard Thompson about 18 months ago and were impressed enough to take in her gig at the Acapela Studio. First up was George Boomsma who was a singer songwriter with a nice touch on the acoustic guitar. His voice was very good and it was a nice intro for the main act. He came back to accompany Katherine for most of her songs and with her beautiful vocals, very pure and clear and with him singing backing vocals and duets when called upon the whole sound was brilliant. He switched to electric guitar for her set and played an understated subtle guitar and she was pretty handy on the acoustic. She sang her own songs which had interesting themes and right from the getgo the songs were top notch. She started off with 'Wolf' from her album and indeed covered most of the tracks from it. Highlight for me was 'Eurydice' which I loved from the first time we saw and that was preceded by 'Icarus' another outstanding song from the Greek Myth collection. 'About Rosie' and 'Letter from a Travelling Man' were also memorable and this was another very good show and I will go again to see when she is next in town.