November Bonanza 1: Sara Watkins in Saltaire

If October was busy... something of a concert bonanza in November! The run started with Americana legend Sara Watkins playing The Live Room in Saltaire at the end of her UK tour. We saw Sara as part of the I'm With Her tour in Gateshead last year and have been much enjoying her current album Young In All The Wrong Ways. This album is quite a rocky/produced sound, so to hear the same songs from Sara alone with her instruments was a treat. It also meant that they lyrics stood out more. There were also older songs (including a few Nickel Creek tracks) and covers.

This was also our first visit to The Live Room, which is an award winning live space within Caroline Social Club in Saltaire. It's a very intimate space (a bit reminiscent of Belgrave Music Hall back in 2013 when we saw Basia Bulat), chairs, tables and low lighting. The live events are very reasonably priced and there are some great acts coming!

Sara had a local support, Serious Sam Barrett. Sam was very good, excellent chat and stories, and I was closely watching how he played his guitar. For all that - his songs were slightly genre-bound.

Sara played around 1 1/2 hours on stage with her and 4 instruments - two guitars, fiddle and ukulele. Fantastic mix of songs and instruments. I enjoyed them all - but the electric guitar Pat has a superb timbre. Young In All The Wrong Ways has been on regular rotation since! More details about Sara's many projects are available on her site.

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