Nels Andrews - The Musician, Leicester - 14th December 2004
Review by Jeremy Searle
The final night of Nels Andrews’ first UK tour is something to treasure. Accompanied by guitarist Jeffrey Richards (who also produced Nels’ awesome debut “Sunday Shoesâ€), he plays pretty much the entire album over the course of the set. Hovering over the mike like Joni Mitchell’s black crow, his songs take on even more resonance in their stripped-back form. He has the rare ability to conjure entire vistas and characters in no more than a couple of lines. His songs are music as landscape, timeless tales that instantly take root in your mind as though they’ve been there forever. In fact, if Annie Proulx wrote songs she would sound like Nels Andrews. Tonight’s highlights include “Jesse’s Mom†and “Denim Scarecrowâ€, with the interplay between Nels’ and Jeffrey’s guitars a thing of beauty. But it’s the characters that are the thing with Nels. The “long women in short dresses†of “Petal to a Beeâ€, the guy who spends “two weeks wages on a Winslow whore†in “Big Oaks Swayâ€, they’re all here in the Musician tonight, moving over and through a rapt audience like ghosts in the wind, seducing them into his vision. So all-enveloping is the mood that it comes as a near-physical shock when Nels says “this is the last song†and you realize that over an hour has passed. For an encore there’s Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundownâ€, an unusual choice, as the song just isn’t in the same class as Nels’ own work, but as a chillout/comedown piece it’s perfect, as indeed is the entire night. |
Ken Stringfellow - The Borderline, London - 8th December 2004
Review by Andy Riggs
Unfortunate surname and no lap dancers to start the show.Ken Stringfellow (part time member of REM, and Minus 5 and The Orange Humble Band) played a solo show at The Borderline tonight. The set-list was largely taken from his two fine solo albums Touched (on Poptones) and his latest release Soft Commands (available on Yep Roc - home of some fine music). It's hard to bracket Ken's music - and I guess that's a good thing these days, Ken looks like a young Allan Clarke (not the politician, or the Hollie but the Leeds footballer!). Alternating between keyboard and electric guitar Ken was in fine form, with his dry sense humour even waking up those Borderline attendees that tend to just talk all night. What really stood out tonight was his fine voice (without the microphone at times) and how many good songs there are on those solo releases. His songs range from love songs to anti-war songs, 'Uniforms' from Touched was an early highpoint with it's catchy chorus - it's a great pop song! Other highlights were 'Fireflies', Here's To The Future', 'Known Diamond' and When U Find Someone' - a fine evening with a sort of cult figure...if you don't have his two solo records I'm sure they can be found in the January sales in HMV, or try notlame.com who have these plus his back catalogue with Minus 5 and The Orange Humble Band. |
Hayden - The Custard Factory, Birmingham - 4th December 2004
Review by Patrick Wilkins
A small but perfectly formed set from the subversive dry Canadian. It was something of a surprise that anyone showed up at all for this show, the pre publicity having been virtually non-existent, but against the odds about 30 people found their way past some distinctly miserable and unhelpful staff to this small theatre in what used to be the Birds' custard factory just outside the centre of Birmingham. Hayden, clearly unphased by a half full theatre, in one of many humorous asides in dead-pan style, informed us that a coach load of at least another 25 people was on its way to the show, but had sadly broken down. Many songs from the hour-long set were drawn from the recent excellent record 'Elk Lake Serenade', usually introduced with a dry comment or two. The song 'Don't Get Down' he said he wrote for a friend because he was sick of giving him pep talks, 'So now he can just play this song on my CD and save me the trouble, its called - stop whining and get over yourself'. Hayden's influences are fairly plain to see, at times a pebble gargling voice inevitably reminds the listener of Tom Waits, and particularly given that he lives in Toronto, Harvest-mode Neil Young references abound. Less notable on record, but more apparent live, given Hayden's bearded shaggy appearance, is a definite Cat Stevens similarity. However having mentioned these singer songwriter icons, its worth saying that in his own quiet way Hayden subverts the genre, he just doesn't quite fit into that pigeon hole. A few of his songs are very short, a minute and a half or so, one clocked in at around 30 seconds, as Hayden pointed out 'More of a jingle really', as if Dylan was playing the Buzzcocks. For most of the songs Hayden played an acoustic guitar, again the traditional instrument of the singer songwriter, but his style was unusual, more like an electric rhythm guitarist in a band than the classic lonesome troubadour, the irresistibly infectious 'Home By Saturday', a hit single in any reasonable universe, was a fine example of this. A few songs, such as the album opener 'Wide Eyes', were played on an electric keyboard, this instrument, clearly borrowed, caused much confusion by bursting into a loud and very artificial bossanova rhythm (or similar) as soon as Hayden touched it, 'Hmmm, not really my sort of music' he muttered while pressing buttons in an attempt to silence the racket. The one cover song was an unusual choice, Otis Reddings' 'Dock Of The Bay', but it suited his voice and style so perfectly, if you had just beamed in from another planet you would swear it was an original. The only downside of the show was the presence of some annoyingly loud female fans, Hayden may not share my view on that one though. If you can track down one of his almost secret performances you cant fail to be entertained by this dry Canadian. |
