Final day of a three night stand this week and we close with Allison Russell and Bristol’s finest Lady Nade. Back to the Omeara and I wonder how many were caught out by the early start, 7.30 for the support and 8.30 for Allison. It’s a massive bug bear of mine of the reluctance to share stage times with venues obviously wanting punters in as early as possible but when both sets start in my experience a good thirty minutes before the norm then I am guessing a lot of people missed Lady Nade’s classy opening set. We saw her supporting War and Treaty earlier in the year and if you haven’t listened to her then don’t miss out on one of the future stars of the UK Americana scene.
Onto Allison Russell, formerly of Po Girl and Birds of Chicago but now touring on the back of her much and rightly lauded debut solo album. It’s an easy review this one.
WOW just WOW. That’s it. Nothing to add.
OK if pushed, from note one to the final steps off stage this was a musical tour de force. Her voice is a thing of absolute beauty, her songs are full of personal details and deeply moving and I’m not ashamed to say I had a tear or two through the show. We laughed too but you will rarely see an audience so invested and just rapt for ninety minutes in awe of what we are witnessing.
The band provide the perfect setting to showcase that voice and Russell is a mean banjo and clarinet player to boot. It’s an interesting setup with no bass or drums with the guitar providing the rhythm accompanied by organ and viola completing the quartet.
Impossible to choose a highlight from this show but the funky beat and harmonies on ‘4th Day Prayer’ were exquisite as was the beautiful ‘Persephone’. Of course most if not all of the new album was played along with a couple of tracks from her Our Native Daughters project and the set below is broadly in line with what we saw.
A great way to end my three days of gigs, 6 bands, all female led showing the men how it’s done.
Keep on delicate Americana rockin’ y’all.