Live review: My Darling Clementine @ The Fallen Angels Club. Glad Café, Glasgow. Friday 24th November 2023.

Glasgow’s no stranger to witnessing the odd bout of bickering between married couples and so it was that an almost sold out crowd crammed into the Southside’s Glad Café to welcome back our favourite marital sparring partners, My Darling Clementine, in anticipation of what we used to call, “a good clean fight.”

Lou Dalgleish and Michael Weston King, the two warring elements of My Darling Clementine, have long proved to be one of the UK’s favourite acts, taking the long held premise that country music can’t abide a happy pairing and transforming that into a hugely entertaining show. It helps of course that the pair have released a series of albums in which they sing superbly of the twists and turns and the ups and downs of being in a relationship, cleverly updating old Nashville tropes.

They used to take to the stage as a recording of George Jones and Tammy Wynettes’ wedding vows was played but tonight it was the stabbing keyboards of Timmy Thomas’ Why Can’t We Live Together which announced their appearance, Dalgleish resplendent in her thrift store glory and Weston King a testament to polyester, his sta-prest trousers featuring the sharpest crease in town. Launching, of course, into a divorce song, the weeping strains of faded love and regret parlayed by each on Unhappily Ever After set the scene for much of the evening’s entertainment, the pinnacle of the disharmony being a glorious rendition of There’s No Heart In This Heartache along with the somewhat redemptive I Know Longer Take Pride which has Dalgleish singing from the beyond to support her grieving husband. Performing as a duo tonight there was no sense that they needed a band behind them especially when they delivered the exotic rhythms of King Of The Carnival and there was even choreography as the pair danced to and from the microphones in step.

With no support act, the pair set out all their wares on stage tonight which meant the inclusion of several songs taken from their latest project where they delved into the country darkness they have exhumed from the songs of Elvis Costello. First off was a Costello song written with Loretta Lynn, I Felt The Chill Before The Winter Came, sung brilliantly in harmony, very much in keeping with the heartache which had come before and a reminder of how well My Darling Clementine have burrowed into Costello’s songbook. I Lost You and Either Side Of The Same Town just cemented this thought.

According to Dalgleish, Weston King has had the temerity to record an album of his own and this led to some inspired duelling dialogue before he was “allowed” to play two songs from The Struggle – The Hardest Thing Of All, a powerful description of solitude, along with his thoughts on a policeman duped by Trump on Weight Of The World. Dalgleish, bless her soul, weighed in on keyboards instead of leaving in a huff.

Of course, the pair revel in the comedy of the bickering – George and Tammy writ large on the stage. But when Dalgleish gets serious, responding to Wynette’s Stand By Your Man with her wife beating tale No matter What Tammy Said (I Won’t Stand By Him) with words such as “She’s seeing black and blue and purple because he’s seeing red,” in a rare onstage moment, she leans on Weston King affectionately. The pair are united when it comes to this.

Signing off with a great rendition of The Embers And The Flame, the duo announced they’d stay on stage for the encore, none of this false exit nonsense, and so, as the crowd bayed their applause they sang a grand version of Joe Henry’s You Can’t Fail Me Now. They would have ended there but an eruption from the crowd demanded more and so, an actual encore proceeded. Weston King dug into his past to bring up Endless Wandering Stars, a song inspired by a James Joyce line in Ulysses (“on page three” he said, he’d never got beyond that page). It was a delightful end to a hugely entertaining night.

Live review: Static Roots Festival, Oberhausen, Germany: 7th-8th July 2023

While Blabber’n’Smoke didn’t make it to this year’s Static Roots Festival, organised by our good friend Dietmar Liebecke, another good friend, Ken Beveridge did attend and he has graciously allowed us to post his thoughts on the weekend here…

The temperature is high as I walk the last few yards of my stroll from my hotel to the building that is hosting Static Roots 2023. It was only going to get hotter and hotter as the two days of the festival grew from hot, to sweltering to finally off the thermometer, as act after brilliant act raised not only the musical bar but the soaring heat of brilliance. Greetings are exchanged with organiser Dietmar Liebecke and MC Jeff Robson plus sundry friends from Glasgow, Kilkenny, Morecambe, Germany, Spain and more.

The first act to grace the stage were One Eleven Heavy, a band of mixed nationalities but with a sound that comes straight from the heart of Americana. A blistering set of psychedelic tinged rock numbers with hints of Little Feat, Santana, Steely Dan and The Grateful Dead. A marvellous opening act featuring great, tuneful songs and outstanding solos from all members of the band and a great start to the weekend.

Next to greet the audience is the waif-like Evangeline Gentle. A Canadian singer (via Peterhead). Evangeline played this festival last year accompanied by a band. This time she appears solo, which, for me suited her songs far better. She sings with an openness and honesty that catches you by the gut and transports you into her own emotional landscape. Fantastic songs from a fantastic singer.

This year’s act playing in the esteemed ‘Willie Meighan’ spot is Rowan, a three piece Irish-based (obviously) band, who, to me, were more ‘indie’ than Americana but, hey, none the worse for that. Both rocky and jingly-jangly they inhabited the stage as well as any of their coveted-spot predecessors such as the Midnight Union Band or The Barflies.

And so the stage is set for the evening’s final. Appearing for their third Static Roots in a row is the mighty and wonderful Cordovas. I heard someone mention a new-to-me ‘genre’ last week – Alternative Country Rock – a title that so aptly describes this band. From start to finish they play hi-energy, guitar-driven songs that have the crowd on their feet throughout. The two main men, Joe Firstman and Lucca Soria sound like they could have played for The Allman Brothers. A great finale to a wonderful day.

The next day begins with a super Dutch trio of female singers performing exquisite acapella harmonies. Woolf began their set a trifle nervously, but once they hit their stride, they had the whole audience in raptures. A fine, gentle start to the day.

Time to notch the gears up, if only slightly. The next act on stage were the husband and wife team of Mikaela and Jordan Burchill playing under the band name Beth / / James. Yet another tremendous duo playing exactly the sort of songs you would expect from a pair of singers from Austin, Texas. Their set is peppered with country-tinged ballads and rockers alike. Their obvious love of each other is evident in every song they perform. None more so than their final effort – a very special rendering of The Beatles’ Don’t Let Me Dow‘. A perfect end to a really super set.

Singer song-writer Dylan Earl is next up. Dylan hails from Arkansas, USA, and his country-tinged set reflect his strong passion for his homelands. Fresh from well received sets at Black Deer and Maverick festivals he is in superb story telling form.

This festival is one that just keeps giving and giving. With nary a moment to have a break for a bite to eat, a beer or a blether, the crowd are back in place to listen to the next performers, the upbeat and irrepressible The Hello Darlins. This Canadian band cover the whole gamut of whatever we know as Americana: a bit of blues here, a bit of old-time country there, some 1972 Laurel Canyon inspired songs over there. They play with great zest and enjoyment and have in Candace Lacina, a whole-hearted, stir-them-up dynamo of a front woman, who is amongst the best I have encountered. A very special set, in particular their blistering rendition of Neil Young’s Helpless.

So where to next? We have been to Ireland; we have been to Canada; we have looked in on America; enjoyed a trip into The Netherlands; how about some Norwegian. Please welcome Malin Pettersen.

Malin has broadened her range since I last saw her in Hackney two or three years ago. Both her peaceful easy voice and her songwriting have grown much stronger and more diverse. No longer constrained by genre she treats the audience to a pot-pourri of love ballads, R&B influenced rockers and the set is topped off by the marvellous Cry If I Want To.

An accident with a beer glass, the requirement to take in some solids and having seen them quite a few times before meant I missed the next act, Ferris & Sylvester. However, by all accounts they were excellent.

And so we reach the last act of this already fabulous festival. The mighty John Blek & The Rats. No strangers to The Static Roots audience, John and his band perform a tour-de-force of a set. With rocking blues, gospel-tinged sing-alongs and thought-provoking ballads; Blek has the audience in the palm of his hands. The resurrected Rats maintain a high-intensity back drop to a superb show-stopping performance. The highlight of the Festival; a festival where the bar was already set at an exceptionally high level.

For your writer, Static Roots forms part of a trilogy of events, including The Rambling Roots festival in High Wycombe and The Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots Festival. At all three the standard just keeps improving and improving. This year’s Static Roots line up was just incredible given the number of ‘unknown’ to me acts. It can only go onwards and upwards. I suggest that you book your tickets for 2024 now.

Thanks to Ken Beveridge for the words and thanks also to Pit Schultz for allowing us to share his pictures. And here’s a pic of Ken selling his book to Blabber’n’Smoke a few years back.

Live Review: Danny George Wilson + Katy Rose Bennett. Glasgow Americana Festival @ The Glad Cafe. Thursday 6th October 2022

It’s time for the second post pandemic Glasgow Americana Festival and this writer was especially impressed by the inclusion in the line up of Danny George Wilson who was appearing without the safety net of his excellent Champions Of The World band. Danny & The Champs, as anyone who has seen them can testify, are simply one of the best live acts around (with two brilliant live albums available to support this) but, having released his first solo album for 16 years in late 2021, this time Wilson is appearing under his own name with a fresh band and a fresh sound.

It’s not a radical makeover. Champs mainstay, guitarist Paul Lush remains in place and he continues to thrill with his scintillating playing while bassist Joe Bennett has been an occasional Champ and tours with Wilson’s other famed troupe, Bennett Wilson Poole (the Bennett here being Joe’s brother, Robin). Completing the line up are Steve Brooks on drums and Henry Garratt on keyboards.

The two opening songs from Wilson’s solo album opened the set. A short instrumental flurry of sound led into a driving and confident Lost Future which segued into the loping Sincerely Hoping with Lush launching into the first of many incendiary solos of the night. This was impressive playing, the band tight and the songs rousing, a beefed up delivery of an old Champs song, Those Days was power pop heaven. The pace slowed down on Right Place, another song from the new album which had more than a hint of cosmic country in its gentle lilt which eventually grew into an epic guitar swathed climax.

Recalling that the last time he played Glasgow it was in this venue with Bennett Wilson Poole, Wilson and the band launched into a worthy rendition of Not Forgetting (Just Not Remembering) with Lush’s guitar flourishes making up for the absence of Tony Poole’s Rickenbacker chimes. It was followed by an acoustic interlude with Lush picking on mandolin which found Wilson revisiting two songs from the first Danny & The Champs album. The Truest Kind and Red Tree Song. These reminded one of The Champs’ folksier days and when Bennett played a mournful trumpet towards the end of the latter song it was reminiscent of that peculiar melancholy which Roy Harper used to mine so well.

All amped up again, Wilson quipped that they now intended to play their way through Yes’s Tales Of Topographic Oceans – a cool joke given that he admits that in his day job as a record shop owner he has had has his eyes and ears opened wide to a number of past acts and genres (although that Yes album is still a bit of a stretch), some of which influenced the sound and textures of Another Place. The next songs were more kaleidoscopic and, dare one say it, almost psychedelic. Heaven For Hiding glistened and Can You Feel Me (with its Carly Simon intro) had a Big Star like jangle to it before evolving into a lengthy “space rock” like jam with Garratt’s keyboards sounding as if they had been beamed down from Hawkwind’s orbiting spaceship. A cover of Spirit’s We’ve Got A Lot To Learn (with some George Harrison licks thrown in) compounded the thought that Wilson is hugely enjoying his access to his shop’s “pre-loved” albums. They wound up with a rollicking and raucous Jukebox, an old Grand Drive song which was followed by an even more glorious slice of jangled and boss infused rock’n’roll as they sashayed powerfully through Every Beat Of My Heart. This was a thrilling close to a great show. Proof that Wilson, with or without the Champs, is a most engaging and powerful force on the stage.

Opening the show was another Bennett, Katy Rose, sister of the aforementioned Joe and Robin. Playing a fine looking Gretsch electric guitar, she sang a short set of songs which ranged from folk nostalgia on the delightful Jack & Ivy to a Billy Bragg like sense of outrage on the savagely delivered She Was Just Walking Home. Clearly the Glasgow audience had warmed to her (her T-shirt, adorned with the slogan “ Tories Lie Bab” – bab being a Birmingham term for babe – undoubtedly helped) as Bennett was able to cajole them into singing along with her on two songs from her recent acapella album, Alone On A Hill. To hear the low thrum of “yoy, yoy, yoy” repeated by the crowd throughout Trees, so early in the evening, was somewhat akin to, as Bennett said, being at a singing workshop, but it was also quite uniting, a theme repeated in the other sing-along, Growing Peas, where we all sang “I really need to see you and sing the songs out loud, being in a place with the people I love and playing to a real live crowd”. A lovely post pandemic nod to the power of live music.

Jerry Joseph and Our Man In The Field. The Fallen Angels Club @The Glad Cafe, Glasgow. 10th September 2021

Well, here it was, our first live gig since March of 2020. Trepidatious yet somewhat excited,  our loins were girded. Double vaxxed and with a negative test result safely nestled on the smartphone, a short bus trip (another first!) allowed us to check in to Glasgow’s Glad Cafe (via an app) and, suitably masked, head to the bar. What a palaver. However, if that’s what it takes to keep us safe then so be it. At least there would be someone on a stage, with a guitar, and singing. And so it was.

This was only the second show put on by the Glad Cafe and only the fourth promoted by Glasgow’s Fallen Angels Club since restrictions were loosened, so everyone’s kind of dipping their toes in the water right now. Never mind that a few miles down the road, several thousand folk were tripping at TRNSMT, they’re young and invincible (hopefully). In the confines of The Glad Cafe, those of us less invincible were well looked after with mask rules gently applied (I went to the bar at one point for a quick look at the tap beers on offer and was rebuked by the barmaid as this five second reconnaissance mission was unmasked). The long and short of it is that this was a most enjoyable night, the music grand, the audience mindful (and for most of them this was also their first outing) and the venue quite brilliant.

If anyone was still feeling anxious they would surely have been calmed by the soothing sounds delivered by the opening act, Our Man In The Field. Their debut album, The Company Of Strangers was an engaging collection of country rock flavoured songs which packed quite an emotional heft while gliding smoothly into the ether. It’s a slimmed down duo who are accompanying the headliner, Jerry Joseph, on this tour but Alex Ellis, frontman, vocalist and writer, and Henry Senior, on Dobro and pedal steel are more than capable of transporting those songs into a live setting. Ellis’s voice is mellifluous and Senior’s contributions are, at times, quite removed  from simply adding pedal steel licks or Dobro slides to the show. On many of the songs Senior was using his instruments to provide ambient shimmering sounds, a glowing bedrock for Ellis’ fine songs.

Setting the scene for the night, Ellis explained the genesis of several of his songs. Easy Going Smile, for example, is his riposte to John Denver’s Leaving On A Jet Plane, a bittersweet favourite song of his mother. Renditions of this along with Thin (I Used To Be Bullet Proof), Don’t Speak and It Was Ever So reminded one of how good the album is and were gamely reproduced by the duo. Held hostage by that pesky pandemic, Ellis has a slew of new songs and plans to record them soon and we were treated to a few tonight. Go Easy was dedicated to London’s Betsy Trotwood venue while The Road was an intricate exploration of foibles. Come Back To Me was described as a “lockdown” song written when Ellis had to decide whether to hide out or help when the curtains closed on all of us. The new songs bode well for the next album.

Jerry Joseph’s The Beautiful Madness was one of our favourite albums of 2020. It opened a door into the quite incredible world which Joseph inhabits, with a slew of albums behind him alongside a globe spanning crusade to reach out to war torn refugees, to spread music and hope amongst them. Having The Drive By Truckers as your backing band and Patterson Hood in the producer’s seat does help lift one’s career and Joseph is the first to admit this. He’s toured here before but never got the attention now being lavished on him.

That attention is well deserved. He’s flying solo on this tour (apparently Henry Senior has joined him on a couple of songs on the tour but not tonight) and he’s quite a revelation. From the off he’s brimful of energy, a coiled spring primed to unleash, a force of nature as several others have noted. He’s raw and unadulterated, his guitar is thrashed by the second song as a string snaps as if insulted or scared by his presence. The sense that Joseph is kind of like an amalgam of Joseph Conrad and Warren Zevon with a shitload of Sam Peckinpah images in their baggage was immediately summoned as he opened with War At The End Of The World, a song inspired by a Mario Vargas Llosa novel. It’s a powerful song, screaming with vivid images and it sets the scene for much of what was to follow.

It was an exhilarating ride as Joseph sang songs inspired by treks into some of the world’s most dangerous locations. The killing fields of Mexico’s cartels and the war wracked bone towers of Iraq featured as the songs piled on, with Joseph’s introductions at times quite chilling although leavened with a fantastic course humour. Much of the album featured with Days Of Heaven quite anthemic in a Springsteen sort of way, and San Acacia a riveting commentary on the murderous border towns in Mexico. (I’m In Love With) Hyrum Black – described as a sort of Mormon cowboy outlaw song- came across as light relief in comparison. A couple of older songs rang out. Ten Killer Fairies, a song written in the knowledge that Joseph’s addictions meant his coins were going towards someone in a cartel who was saving up for his next yacht rang clear as a bell with a Dylan like honesty. And then there was Wisconsin Death Trip, a glorious song and delivered perfectly to a somewhat gob smacked audience as Joseph totally commanded all attention. Quite brilliant and a perfect reintroduction to the magic of live music.