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.

Comments

Music, Poetry and Cake (Gateshead and Lanchester)

Piano at the ready! (by M) After a good few months prep, the concert Piano Music and Poetry (organised through the Gateshead Piano Workshop folks) came around pretty quickly. As one of the participants, I was excited and also a little nervous about the prospect of a Paying Audience. The work paid off, as all the performers were excellent! Well appreciated by the compact audience. The format was in relation to National Poetry Day which was on 2nd October. Each performer chose a poem either in direct or indirect relation to their piece. A summary of the programme: Alan - Liszt Consolation No 4 and Mozart Adagio in B minor Graeme - Chopin Nocturne Op. 62 No. 2 with 'Uncertainty' by Adam Mickiewicz me - Clara Schumann, andante con sentimento with 'Clara Wieck und Beethoven' by Franz Grillparzer Jim - R Schumann Kinderszenen 1 and 7 with 'My child, we were just children' by Heinrich Heine Ernie - Debussy Clair de lune with excerpt from 'Fêtes g...

Sounds of JUNOfest

Classical JUNOs performers Something of a musical melange weekend but an excellent set of events! Eschewing some of the bands and artists we knew, we chose less familiar sounds for our JUNOfest experience. First up was the Classical JUNOs in Concert event at the National Arts Centre , featuring both nominated performers and composers. The mix of contemporary music was brilliantly played by Christina Petrowska Quilico , Susan Hoeppner , Heather Schmidt and the New Orford String Quartet . Quilico amazed the almost 100-strong audience with her performance of Derek Charke's Sepia Fragments in a reduction for piano; I found this piece a really captivating mix of earthly and ethereal elements. Quilico's second performance was of Ann Southam's Glass Houses No. 5 , an hypnotic piece which sounded both fiendishly difficult to play but also very clean and unembellished. Susan Hoeppner's excellent performance of Eldin Burton's Sonatina for Flute and Piano got the po...

Hidden Witness

Moving house completed - for now - and we are back in the Vale of Evesham. The wonders of Facebook unearthed a live gig and St Richard's Hospice fundraiser by slow-burning band Hidden Witness so off we went for an evening out in Worcester. I honestly can't remember the last time either of us did that.... cue pleasant surprise at our venue for the evening, Keystones Cafe Bar . Quite open and spacious in terms of standing room, reasonably large stage and a bar ensconced in the remaining medieval walls - much more atmosphere than many other small bars... A busy few weeks meant I hadn't had time to check out Hidden Witness' SoundCloud page so I had fresh ears and no expectation. The support band, The Miffs , were ok, with a few engaging covers, but sadly (for my ears) nothing memorable. After a short break - in which the background music made me feel both young and old simultaneously - Dan, Chris, Neil and Dan took the stage for an interesting set. A few ...

PrettyInScarlett

Search This Blog