Live in 2013: Jonathan Wilson @ Thekla, Bristol - 30/11/13

 

 

 

 

 

The last gig of 2013! It was a nippy night when my friend & colleague Craig Hughes & I ventured over the border to England to the City of  Bristol to Thelka. The Thekla is one of the most unusual venues that I've ever been to. It's a boat with the hold containing a music venue. We had come to see Jonathan Wilson. Booked the tickets months ago and as he was only playing a handful of gigs in the UK, it was too good to miss.

 



 

 

 

First up was a young man called Omar. He played some decent singer/songwriter fare and was quite an accomplished guitarist. Only later, when he took to the stage with Jonathan Wilson, we discovered he was Jonathan's guitarist in his band! Luckily I suppose, he had a good reception.

 

 

As anyone who has heard it already, Jonathan Wilson's new album Fanfare is one of the albums of 2013. It is a brilliant album and builds on his full debut release Gentle Spirit. You can read about it earlier in the blog. Quite a few of the songs on Fanfare are piano based and JW made the decision, as he mostly played his vintage Telecaster, to stick to the more guitar based songs on the album, as seen in the mainly stuck to set list below.

 

 



http://macwoodfleet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/albums-of-2013-jonathan-wilson-fanfare.html

 

 

 

With Omar on guitar, a bass player, drummer & organ/keyboard player, Jonathan played a 2hr 20minute set that was sensational.

 

 

 

 

He played many of the songs from the Gentle Spirit & Fanfare albums - and even better, he extended many of the songs to showcase his excellent guitar skills.

 

 

 

The softly spoken Mr Wilson even managed to sneak in a new song, although I didn't quite manage to get the name of it. But here it is :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a change in the arrangements to the songs, the gig proved to be much rockier and guitar based than the albums. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I waited for this one - my favourite Jonathan Wilson song. And he didn't let me down.

 

 

 

Twitter - @songsofjw

 

http://songsofjonathanwilson.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Live in 2013: Oysterband at the Globe, Cardiff, November 28th 2013

 

 

This is the second Oysterband show that I have seen in 2013 - and they couldn't have been so different. I was present at the beginning of the year in Treorci. That was a VERY significant gig as it was the last gig that Bassist, Cellist & multi-instrumentalist Ray 'Chopper' Cooper played with the band. It was in The Parc & Dare Theatre. A lovely old seated theatre in the Welsh Valleys. It was the final date of the 2 year Ragged Kingdom Tour that the Oysters played with June Tabor.

 

 

 

It was a show charged with emotion as Chopper said goodbye to the band and the fans after many years of brilliant service. I even got to meet the man after and wish him well. He is now starting on a solo career and working on his second solo album.

 

http://www.raycooper.org/?p=257

 

 

The Oysterband at The Globe however was a totally different beast. With Ray now departed, we had Oysters supplemented by two new members, Producer Al Scott on bass and mandolin and Adrian Oxaal (ex James) on Cello.

 

 

 

 

It was a joyous occasion with the Oysters on sparkling form. They played older songs such as Deserters and Granite Years and also used the occasion to introduce some new songs including The Wilderness from the new album Diamonds On The Water due out in February.

 

 

 

 

I have to say that the quality of the new songs was excellent. Sometimes a change in the band dynamic can be a great energiser and John informed me that Adrian is also an excellent guitar player - so watch this space. John Jones is such a brilliant front man, full of passion and with such a tremendous voice. He even did his occasional, 'Singing with the audience', as he came into the crowd to lead us in a singalong.

 

 

 

They ended the show with an 'In The Audience' acoustic version of Put Out The Lights' which was just fantastic. The new album just can't come quick enough.

 

 



 

 

 

 Twitter - @oysterband1

 

http://www.oysterband.co.uk/

 





 



 



 





Live in 2013: Hayseed Dixie at the Princess Royal Theatre, Port Talbot

 

 

I've been aware of Hayseed Dixie for a few years now but as they are stalwarts of the Festival Circuit I've never really had the opportunity of seeing them live. I didn't know how a largely Port Talbot crowd would take to them as we very rarely get any major band play live in Port Talbot. I shouldn't have been worried. They were very well received and the place was bouncing!

 

 

 

 

The band played an amazingly energetic set which included all the favourites such as Highway to Hell, Shook Me All Night Long, Ace of Spades.

 

They also sprinkled in a few self penned songs which also went down well.

 

Their version of this song brought the house down with the whole crowd singing along.

 

 

 

 

 

But the boys didn't play this one :(

 



 

 

The band played a great version of the Aerosmith smash - walk this way - & this is the Port Talbot performance.

 

 

And they ended the gig with a fantastic version of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. This is the version they played in Manchester a few days later.

 





 

If you get a chance to see them, GO. You'll have a fabulous singalong (& dancing) night out.

 

http://www.hayseed-dixie.com/Home.html

Live in 2013: The Temperance Movement



One of the great discoveries of this year has been The Globe in Cardiff. It's a tiny little venue that holds about 300 people (at a push) and is upstairs. According to my mate Robert Hurley, it used to be an old cinema. I have been to several gigs there this year before I started the blog but none so rowdy or raw as the gig by The Temperance Movement last week.



Now the rock scene has been crying out for a really great band who can reenergise the genre and with The Temperance Movement, I think they've found one.

But I must admit that I was especially looking forward to the support set by one Joshua James.

I was blown away by his set. Just Joshua, guitarist, bassist & drummer. He played a really passionate set and the crowd's reaction was nice to hear. He has released several albums and played tracks that covered most of the bases.

twitter - @buffalojames

http://www.joshuajames.tv/



Now the rock scene has been crying out for a really great band. . With The Temperance Movement, Rock has found a band who can re-energise the genre and will definitely pull in fans from right across the musical spectrum.

Live, the band have a swagger that few rock bands have at the moment but it can't be just be down  to attitude. They also have a great stage presence and some brilliant songs to go with it.



The band were really much too big for this tiny venue, they are going to go stellar very soon. In fact, Classic Rock Magazine voted them the best new band this year and I think the word is now out so the chances that they will ever play a gig of this size in the future is almost zero. So I feel privileged to have seen them in such an intimate venue. Next stop in Cardiff will surely be the Motorpoint Arena.

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/the-classic-rock-awards-live/



So if you get the chance to catch them live any time next year, then go, because the next time you'll see them in a couple of years time, they'll be pretty far away!!!

Twitter - @TTM_Tweets

http://www.thetemperancemovement.com/



Live in 2013: Blair Dunlop Trio

Live at The Greyhound Inn, Llanrhidian, Gower, Swansea

November 17 2013

The album that has been the nearest to my music playing devices in 2013 has been Blight & Blossom by Blair Dunlop.

I caught on to the album in January and have been playing it almost every week. Released late last year, it followed a couple of EP releases that introduced Blair onto the music scene.

I have talked about the album in the Albums of 2013 section http://macwoodfleet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/albums-of-2013-blair-dunlop-blight.html   

so let's get straight to the live show.

I've waited all year for Blair to come down to South Wales to play a gig and I have to say that the wait was worth it. At the moment Blair is recording his second album and he can now showcase several of the new songs in his live shows. The gig was split into two 50 minute sections and covered several songs from his debut release, traditional songs as well as new material and a couple of unexpected covers by contemporary artists. Blair was joined by Jake on Keyboards and Angharad on Fiddle which make up The Blair Dunlop Trio. 

Blair showed just what a brilliant and vibrant young guitar player he is. He stated that he was clearly influenced by the great folk guitarist Nic Jones but I can also detect the other Nick - Nick Drake, in his 

playing.

Blair was well supported by Angharad & Jake, who give a new dimension to the songs and will also be appearing on Blair's new album.



The new songs bode well for the second album and on first hearing, the songs earmarked for the second album are every bit as good as the ones on Blight & Blossom. Talking to Blair during the halftime break, he hoped the album would be ready by the end of spring.

Blair mentioned his parents during the show and even sang a song by his dad, Ashley Hutchings, called The Song of Two Bridges. He also played a superb version of the Nic Jones interpretation of the classic Canadee I O Tab.



Now I'm aware that Blair has a bit of a soft spot for Jackson Browne and he didn't disappoint as he played These Days.

He is such a talented young man and deserves huge success.



http://blairdunlop.com/

Twitter - @blairdunlop