In 2017 - Beatrix Players took the Prog Magazine Limelight Award - the award for the best up and coming band or artist in the Prog sphere. Tonight, they showed the Acapela audience exactly why they were worthy recipients of that esteemed Award.
Beatrix Players are - Amy Birks on Lead Vocals, Amanda Alvarez on Cello and Jess Kennedy on Piano & Backing Vocals. Accompanying them on Violin tonight was Maria Kroon.
At present, Beatrix Players have released one album, called Magnified and released several singles from said album. The majority of the album was played live tonight. And there were a couple of new songs put in the set. Even a cover song. Of which later.
rushlight
It's quite hard to categorise the music of Beatrix Players. If you check on their website - link at the bottom of the page - you'll see they describe it as an adventurous mix of Folk, Prog, Singer/Songwriter Acoustica, and Quasi-Classical Baroque Chamber Pop. Quite a potent mix, I think you'll agree.
Never Again
Showing very little sign of nerves but an engaging vulnerability, Amy Birks leads the ladies through a set of two halves. Anyone who has Magnified and enjoyed it would have appreciated that the majority of the album got an airing tonight. And it sounds even lovelier live than on record.
Obviously, with a limitation of instrumentation, the live sound is a perfect fit in Acapela where acoustic instruments sound particularly impressive. And Maria's violin added another colour to the sepia beauty of the arrangements.
Lady Of The Lake
During the show, Amy commented that they had been playing in pubs up to a couple of years ago and it was nice to have an audience who were actually there to listen. And listen they did. You could hear a pin drop as the Ladies performed, broken only by the rapturous applause when they finished. The Acapela really is the place to go if you want to 'hear' the music. The sound quality is always excellent and it's not often that you can get Artists and Audience commenting on how good the sound was during the performance.
Molehill
To say the evening flew by is and understatement. Part One was over before you knew it. But not before the ladies presented us with a couple of surprises. A cover (the only one they play live, and one they released digitally with All That Thinking, the cover of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt - more recently made famous by Johnny Cash.) This was followed by the last song of the half, a new song called Elsa.
It's always a pleasure to see the artists doing brisk business at the Merch Table - sign of a good gig - and the Beatrixes chose the half time interval to ply their wares to great effect.
I've tried to include several videos of the songs played in this show to give you a taste of the evening. In fact, the Beatrixes like Acapela so much that have returned there to record a video for a forthcoming new song.
Part Two included more songs from Magnified. One of my friends who attended the show commented on how much he enjoyed Amy's explanation of the lyrics and how they had enlightened him and made the songs more enjoyable. He wasn't wrong.
The ladies even managed to include another trio of new songs in the second half. First up was Road To Gordes, which was received rather well in with the more well known album tracks. Highlights of the evening for me were the really gorgeous versions of Lady Of The Lake and Molehill. I'm sure I saw a grown man wiping a tear from his eye at one point.
Road To Gordes
Part Two went as quickly as Part One and very soon it was that the trio of new songs, Road To Gordes, Ships In The Night and Catherine ( a Henry VIII song - we were told to expect a few on the new record - I hope Sir Richard Of Wakeman gets a call from the girls, as he has form where this is concerned and would be a lovely cameo) that lead us to the end of the show.
But we weren't going to let the Ladies off the hook without an encore and sure enough they returned to give us a spine tingling version of Roses to finish off a rather special evening of music. What was also pleasing was that the ladies all took a turn in the limelight, although it is obvious that Amy as vocalist will always get the spotlight, the backing vocals and Piano work by Jesse was such a pleasure throughout. Amanda & Maria provided the colour throughout the evening adding glorious flourishes and drama as they intertwined through the vocals and piano. Oh and a special mention for Amy's special little device which provides a thunder-like drum sound for added dramatic effect.
Roses
It was great to see the ladies go from strength to strength as they build up their growing portfolio of live performances, post Prog Awards. Word is starting to get out and I'm sure they'll be playing to huge audiences of their own. But Ladies, remember you promised to come back to Acapela and I'll hold you to that promise.
Twitter - @BeatrixPlayers
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