In what was the old Hoxton Square Bar and Grill now renamed Colours I complete a trilogy of female led gigs this week after Lissie on Monday, Sunflower Bean on Thursday and tonight it’s the turn of Irish global celebrity teen pop sensation, (her words not mine), CMAT. What she really is, is a talented artist who writes catchy pop songs with a country twist.
Fresh off the back of her debut album ‘If my wife new I’d be dead’ we are treated to the whole album plus a new unreleased song ‘Rent’ which was performed solo with acoustic guitar as the first song of the encore.
I’m not sure if it was because it was a Saturday night but the crowd were ‘on it’ from the opening bars of Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I feel like a woman! ‘which was played as the band’s stage entrance music. The room literally erupted and the ‘Oh Oh Oh’s’ were probably heard back at Old Street station.
It was then a joyous seventy minutes of country pop songs played by a tight band (nice to see Josh from The Strypes on lead guitar) fronted by the larger than life CMAT. You couldn’t remove the smile from hers or our faces throughout as she belted out tune after tune. Its Kate Bush meets Dolly meets Shania with her huge vocal range. The connection between her and her uber fans is clear as they already know every word to every song even though the album has only been out for a couple of weeks.
Highlights for me were probably ‘Peter Bogdanovich’ and set closer ‘I wanna be a cowboy Baby’ which is an ear worm you can’t get rid of and probably to Anne’s annoyance I sang until we got home.
An excellent night out to top a return to live music proper this week after so long away and I will certainly look to get ticket for her next London show in December. If you want a great night out and you love a bit of country and a bit of pop then look no further than CMAT.
Keep on country rock and rollin y’all