If you’re looking for a reliable provider of live music reviews, don’t look here: I’m terrible at it. Instead, you might want to go see my pal Mike’s site, Manic Pop Thrills – he’s been doing it far better than I ever could for ages now, but since his retirement a couple of years ago his Never Ending Tour of obscure venues and artists in places as diverse as Dundee, Berlin and Brussels has intensified. Fortunately for him, Mrs MPT seems to like the same sort of stuff and tags along. Or she’s a very patient, polite woman (it’s both, of course).

However, as my own not-working-for-money-any-more date approached, I was on a slightly less frantic run of gigs this year, and I thought it was well past time for me to write them up. Incidentally, I’ve given up taking pics at gigs, because they’re generally not very good. Instead, I’ve shared some photies of my guitars. Why not.

First up, then, to Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre in all its faded grandeur to see Lucinda Williams close out the city’s annual Celtic Connections Festival on 1st February. I always feel I don’t get the best of ‘Celtic’ – it’s a funny time of year, right after Christmas, and not being a folkie, I tend to forget the strong Americana strand until it’s too late and the best stuff is sold out.

I wasn’t going to miss out on La Williams, though, having been a big admirer of her work since I discovered her album ‘Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone,’ a few years ago (review here). Since then, this brilliant country singer has endured hard times, in particular a stroke in 2020, which, whilst seemingly increasing the rate she’s cranked out albums recently, left her needing assistance to walk to her place on the stage at the start.

If age and infirmity have taken their toll on this remarkable woman’s body, though, her spirit – and voice – remain undimmed. The gig was one long rage against the dying of the light, interspersed with rage against one D. Trump, present resident of the White House. Highlights for me included ‘The World’s Gone Wrong,’ ‘How Much Did You Get For Your Soul,’ and ‘Righteously.’ She also did a couple of stand out covers (her stand in guitarist, covering for Doug Pettibone, was outstanding,

by the way) in the shape of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps,’ and, at the end of her 3 song encore, Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World.’

Apparently some people criticised her for ending the show with that, to which I say, the hell they know. It was a rousing finish, and the crowd as one stood to applaud this great lady who, in turn, seemed moved by the love pouring down on her. A truly great gig. Setlist here. Another, longer, better review by someone else here.

It was to be a few months before the next gig, but it was one I’d been anticipating for some time: Blue Rose Code at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. on 18th April. For those of you who don’t know the wonderful force of nature that is Blue Rose Code, shame on you! The musical project of Ross Wilson, it’s one of these constantly shifting musical line ups, with Ross as singer-songwriter at its core. If you want to hear what it sounds like on record, listen to ‘With Healings of the Deepest Kind,’ a beautiful, soulful collection of songs. If you want to hear a live version, you could do worse than ‘Sold Out – Live in LDN,’ which features just Ross and Lyle Watt on acoustic guitars, having fun and getting the crowd whipped up into singing along on ‘Wild Atlantic Way.’

Given that the Queen’s Hall was a homecoming gig for Ross – he lives in London now, I think – I had high hopes of it being a special night. Sadly, however, it never quite took off for me. The Redoubtable Mrs F commented the balance was wrong, sound-wise, and I think she was right: the line up of four, with a violinist and bass player joining the two acoustic guitars, should have worked well, but the violin was way high in the mix, you could hardly hear the other guitar, and the bass player kept gurning and making faces. ‘Edina,’ the touching song about his home town, was a highlight, but otherwise, not nearly as good as that live London album. Maybe it was the Edinburgh audience’s part: we’re a reserved lot, don’t ya know.

And so to Hamish Hawk and Richard Thompson at the Usher Hall on 28th May, which was a gig that fell into my lap, courtesy of a pal sending me a discount code which meant we got tickets for £15 each – thanks, Harky! To my shame I must admit I didn’t know local boy Hamish Hawk’s music at all well, or indeed at all, and YouTube previews gave us the impression he was in the tradition of Glasgow bands of the past like Lloyd Cole, Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, those types of chappies, particularly in the mannered vocal delivery he had.

However, Hamish in the flesh with just an acoustic guitar for company was a very different proposition – charming, charismatic and with some real bite to his lyrics. I’d definitely go and see him again.

Richard Thompson I was a bit more familiar with, since we went to the Queen’s Hall to see him way back in 2015 (review of that gig here). However, I’d be lying if I’d been listening to him constantly since then, or indeed at all. It’s not that I don’t like his stuff, honestly, beret-wearing RT fans! Please don’t pile on! It’s just I always find something else to listen to, although listening now to the song he did in 2015 that stood out for me, ‘If Love Whispers Your Name,’ I wonder why that is. More on that song in a future blog piece.

In any event, RT at the Usher Hall was just great, too, as he had been at the Queen’s all those years ago (it’s interesting, isn’t it, how these ancient stars seem to move up and down venue size these days, rather than necessarily always down). ‘Vincent Black Lightning 1952’ was a stand out, as it probably is most gigs he does.

If there was any criticism, it was really around what, if anything, his life partner added when she came on and did backing vocals. Most of the time she seemed just to be singing along to the melody, which Ricky was managing just fine by himself. However, maybe love was whispering his name…

And, lastly, and leastly, since it’s a tribute act, we went to see Springsteen by Candlelight, on 3rd July at the Assembly Rooms. I know, I know, a tribute act, right? But I’d booked it to stop getting pestered by the ads on F#ckBook (they continued to pester me after I’d bought them anyway) and because it would be the Friday after I stopped working for pay, and… and… well, it’s Springsteen, and not in a stadium, right? And it was…

Mainly ok. Hella good E Street Band impression by the band. The singing was shared amongst four of singers, two of whom were really good (the female, and the bloke in the leather waistcoat, who seemed to get what the Boss is really about) and two of whom, one especially, seemed to think they were singing on a cruise liner.

My main critique wasn’t about the music, but rather about the presentation. The Ersatz E Street Band shuffled on stage first, stage lights up, and stood about looking, as we say around these parts, glaikit, until the four Bruces turned up. Speaking of the lights, part of the attraction for me was the ‘by candlelight’ thing. I’d imagined cabaret style seating, a single – real – candle on each table, and an intimate, perhaps mainly acoustic show, perhaps drawing from his Broadway performances. Instead the candles were artificial and massed on stage, which just looked wrong, especially as the band kept kicking them over every time they got a bit animated. Probably best they weren’t real candles right enough.

Oh, and one more snide comment: the music was mainly live, apart from some bits of strings that got piped in on the PA, and one harmonica solo (I can’t remember now if it was ‘Thunder Road’ or ‘the River’) that obviously none of the Bruces could manage. Which might not have been so obvious if they hadn’t managed all the other ones.

But it was generally goodish, and I enjoyed the full on rock assault. They did 3 songs from ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,’ which for non Bruce aficionados is one of his early albums: ‘Promised Land,’ ‘Badlands,’ and the title track, reminding me that, for all the brilliant music he’s done since, that one collection of songs, done in the shadow of punk, is for me perhaps his most perfect album ever. Which makes it one of the most perfect albums ever.

So there we are. I don’t have any gigs at all lined up to go to for the rest of the year, although I will be playing some. Once the Festival and Fringe are done, of course, and Edinburgh returns to what Edinburgh knows as reality.