Jim Jones started the night off and soon had everyone mesmerised with some lovely tunes and cracked vocals. The least known performer there, he was a real revelation and his new album can’t come soon enough.

Next up were The Havenots, who despite having broken up some time ago, reform occasionally for special occasions. Many people’s highlight of the evening, they deployed quite simply heartbreakingly beautiful vocals, lyrical twists and word pictures that dazzled and a general feeling of magick floating in the air around them. Frequently they’ve been a bit shambolic on stage, and while that is undoubtedly part of their charm, it can sometimes detract from the music. Tonight there was none of that and they were as good as they’ve ever been.

Thomas Denver Jonsson had a tough job following them but managed splendidly. One of the best of the surprisingly large number of Scandinavian Americana-ish musicians, he comes garlanded with rave reviews for all three of his albums from the likes of Uncut and Word. A perfectly charming troubadour, the highlight of his set was “Kingfisher”, possibly because of the guitar style or the slightly twisted phrasing.

Things were now cranked up as The Redlands Palomino Company hit the stage. A little loose when they played the Maverick festival a few weeks ago, this time out they were tighter than a very tight thing on National Tight Thing day (and also allegedly sober, which was not confirmed and would also have made them unique in the room, so perhaps this was just a vicious rumour). They’re a proper band and they tore the place apart, earning an encore that could easily have turned into two or three if time had permitted. Another “best they’ve ever been” set, they were absolutely stonking and restore your faith in beer and the power of a tune.

Peter Bruntnell and band were a fitting climax; the set was mostly new songs and each one felt like an instant friend and another reason to ponder why Bruntnell isn’t treated like the treasure he is. Never content to stand still, each of his albums is a progression from the last and each one contains as good as set of songs as you’ll hear from anyone in the year it’s released. Self-effacing on stage to the point of invisibility, he loses himself completely in the music, as do the rapt audience. Pure class, and he finished with one of the few Syd Barrett covers I’ve ever heard that made me want to hug the singer and not punch them.

Cheers must go to all who organised the show. For those of the Americana-uk website persuasion it was splendid to put names to avatars; perhaps predictably A-UKers are better at drinking than dancing and very keen to debate almost anything but there was nowt but loud and sincere praise for the night. One final point, many attendees hasn’t been to The Musician before but the praise for it and its staff was also universal - a splendid venue and every town should have one.

Morag Rose & Jeremy Searle

Electric Dustbowl links:
Electric Dustbowl Photo Gallery (Paul Villers)
The Electric Dustbowl


Other related links:
The Musican, Leicester
Peter Bruntnell
The Havenots
The Redlands Palomino Co
Thomas Denver Jonsson