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01 February 2012
My heart sank at the end of this gig but only because it had been such a glorious two hours in the presence of the man of many monikers, currently happy with his present guise. He was brilliant and sheer greed made me wish for even more.
With impish, wild-eyed charm, innuendo and no shortage of beguiling tracks he enthralled throughout, teasing and pleasing his audience with his enthralling stories of sex and lust, horses and dust, religion, humanity and his dark world albeit with a wry smile and arched eyebrow to make you wonder how seriously he takes it all, and suggesting we shouldn't take anything at face value either.
Front of stage he stood on one leg or two, jigged disjointedly or held his trouser legs: a mish-mash, as I’ve written before of Joe Cocker and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson with Shirley Bassey-type hand gestures thrown in. As a performer, the Kentuckian commands attention, as does his voice, which is cracked and soulful, gentle and careful, delivering crystal clear lyrics that vary from the profound to the extremely go-and-stand-in-the-corner naughty.
A moody and wanton ‘Beast For Thee’ from the 2005 'Superwolf' CD benefited from the beautiful harmonies of Angel Olson, The Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly, whose guitar playing was exquisite for the entire performance, and the deftness of Ben Boye on piano and harmonium. “Billy” reworked his majestic ‘I See A Darkness’ – Johnny Cash also covered this ace– transforming it into a gentle whisky-swilling, bar-room stomp the likes of which The Felice Brothers would have delivered with boyish relish.
His stunning vocals and skewed song compositions endlessly take the listener by surprise. The pace of a tune with profound lyrics would be slow, arguably. However, in the skewed world he lets us share with glee no such rules apply as amplified by ‘Quails and Dumplings’ from latest CD ‘Wolfroy Goes To Town’. There was total hush through the six-minute plus ‘Black Captain’ from the same album as he glided through verses, wrung out delays to keep us hanging on every word in the story.
Simple songcraft, notwithstanding the imagery of his fertile mind, cloaked in an alt.country appeal all of its own – plus amusing between-song banter – ensured an unforgettable evening with the “Prince”: it was precious and one to savour. My first gig of 2012 might well turn out be the best of the year.