It’s me and my good lady tonight and after an honest burger where we spied a certain special guest for tonight’s show it’s on to the venue for support act Twinnie. Props to Scala for rebelling against most venues and actually posting stage times. I appreciate that venues want to get the punter in early to buy their overpriced tasteless lager but really would it kill you all to publish times.
Anyway, Twinnie a Yorkshire lass as they say up norf apparently delivers an energetic thirty minute set to prepare us for the main act. Immediately getting the crowd on board, many of which, like us, had seen her before with singalongs and clap alongs but no backing is required as she has a stunning voice and some great tunes. A beautiful start to the evening.
Next up and you almost have to be on tip toes to see her is the diminutive Tenille Townes who comes on stage solo armed with just an acoustic guitar. Opening up with ‘Where you are’ from the 2019 ‘Living Room Work tapes EP’ it sets the scene for the next ninety minutes or so. First time live for me and whilst I enjoy the records they don’t fully prepare you for that unique voice. It fills the room completely whether it’s on straight country tracks or on the rockier numbers where she embraces her inner Janis Joplin.
She is soon joined by her guitarist and drummer to run through a set of oldies and new ones with a choice cover of ‘Ironic’ thrown in the middle to get the crowd even more involved than they already were. There is also a guest appearance from Ben Earle from the Shires to add to the fun.
I go to a lot of gigs and I maintain that the UK country crowd is the most appreciative of all the genres I watch. Whether that’s a mixture of gratitude of these American artists coming over here and playing small shows or just they know good songs when they hear them. Whatever it is the love is reciprocated and again tonight Townes feels that warmth in the room and is genuinely moved by the response.
So not only does she possess an amazing voice she is also an intelligent story telling song writer. Not going down the throw away country pop route, that I think is the plague of the genre at the moment, instead we get thoughtful moving stories of love, life and loss and none more poignant than ‘Jersey on the wall’ which doesn’t leave a dry eye in the house.
The set is also punctuated with stories throughout and an amusing anecdote about the trials and tribulations of their journey from the north down here when after the Tour Manager goes down sick they were rescued by the chef at the Premier Inn they were staying in driving them down from Penrith to Bristol the night before.
Main set done we see Townes again on her own taking us through her spin on Etta James ‘At Last’ to close what is a memorable evening. To top it all we even managed to catch the earlier train home so bonus all round.
Keep on country rockin’ y’all.