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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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Bloomsbury
Theatre, London, November 1st 2008
It
apparently took Eliza
Carthy seven years to produce her
new album, Dreams of Breathing Underwater, her
second of entirely self-penned songs as opposed
to arrangements of traditional tunes. Not that
she hasn’t been busy or preoccupied during
this time. She’s been dumped by a record
company. She fell out with her management, dealt
with some difficult personal stuff and, by her
own account, spent a lot of time “down the
pub”. And now she’s expecting a baby.
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| She
also released a couple of albums, including 2002’s
highly-acclaimed and award-winning Anglicana. She
has also been involved in some notable collaborations,
principally with those bastions of British folk
music, mother
Norma Waterson and father Martin Carthy. She’s
also a leading light of Imagined
Village, a very creative exploration of the
roots and identity of English music. And she featured
notably on the Rogue’s
Gallery collection of sea-shanties, making an
inspired contribution at this year’s live
piratical performance at the Barbican. As it turns
out we’re very lucky to be seeing her at all
at the start of this tour to promote the new record.
After only a couple of gigs she was forced to cancel
the tour due to a problem with her vocal chords
that can’t be treated during her pregnancy
– but like the trooper she is, she hopes to
begin touring again in the Spring. Don’t be
surprised if the baby’s on stage with her
singing along, in true family tradition. |
| The
new album is quite inspired in its breadth of vision,
‘though I have to say it’s one of those
pieces of work that is made so much more accessible
by having heard it sung in live performance. It
draws heavily on the English (and British) folk
traditions, but blends these with a disparate array
of worldly influences, sometimes not always to best
effect on record, but when once heard live, the
whole thing seems to work perfectly. |
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| Which
might explain why the album is top of my current
play list (vying for that spot at the moment, for
what it’s worth, with Willie Dixon’s
I am the Blues), and why “Hug you like a mountain”
keeps on being played on the random shuffle of that
i-Pod in my head. At the centre of everything is
Ms Carthy’s remarkably deep and expressive
voice – it owns the songs, despite the very
superior nature of her own playing, and the musicians
around her. Emma Smith (whose collaborations range
from Ms Carthy, to Damon Albarn and Hot Chip) is
playing double bass, world-music specialist Phil
Alexander plays accordion and piano, and standing
in on drums is Tim Wright. Barney Morse-Browne plays
cello, and also began the evening playing multi-looped
cello and guitar under the guise of Duotone.
They turn in a splendid ensemble performance, with
Ms Carthy joining on violin, accordion, and a hypnotic
electric tenor guitar on songs such as ‘Follow
the dollar’. |
| This,
like all of the songs on the new record, has a story
to tell, albeit some are more obvious than others.
But sung by Ms Carthy they are rich in imagery,
and her voice brings to life the colourful characters
that inhabit so many of them. None more so than
bar-room dreamer and lothario ‘Mr Magnifico’,
co-sung tonight in excellent style by guest Tim
Matthew, violinist with Edinburgh’s Mystery
Juice. It’s one of the songs that doesn’t
quite work on the album but live it is pure Alex
Harvey Gothic, dark and brooding with a driving
dynamic Latin rhythm. It would be hard to pick out
other highlights from such an all-round set, but
if pushed I’d mention ‘Two tears’,
combining strands of Marianne Faithfull and Tom
Waits, and the aforementioned ‘Hug you like
a mountain’. |
But
altogether this was one of the more satisfying,
accomplished and nicely surprising gigs of the
year. So as your Whiskyfun non-whisky shopping
adviser I can only urge you to add Dreams of Breathing
Underwater to your recession-beating Christmas
gift list. It’s a must. - Nick Morgan
Listen:
Eliza
Carthy's MySpace page |
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Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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