Special guest tonight is Savannah Gardner, who was born in California but resides in the UK these days and is rewriting the outlaw country genre. She released an album called `Recovering Good Girl` last September and shares a few numbers from this release during her captivating thirty five minute set.
Title track of the new album `Recovering Good Girl` leads us in an is a kind of autobiographical tale before the reflective `Double Dealer` follows. A number about the American outlaw Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr otherwise known as Belle Starr comes with `Lone Rider` before `City of Cowboys` which expresses how love lets you down but music never does.
`I Left you Behind` has at the same time a vulnerability and a strength about it which is quickly followed by `Cowboys of Carrizo` which was inspired by a true story about a cowboy who tragically drowned after losing the love of his life. A song formed after a visit to Carrizo Springs cemetery in Baca, Colorado where cowboys and ranchers from the Wild West days were buried there in shallow graves with makeshift tomb stones.
We enjoy what Savannah calls a Honky-tonk song with the fast paced `Tomorrow I`ll Be Free` before closing out with `Born In The Wrong Generation` which was bookended by Bruce Springsteen`s `Dancing in the Dark`. There was so much to enjoy in this short set and Savannah has such a luscious and seductive voice and writes some thought provoking inciteful narratives.
How can you describe Morganway? A six-piece from the East of England, founded by twin brothers Callum (vocals, guitar, bass) and Kieran Morgan (lead guitar, backing vocals). SJ Mortimer (vocals), Nicole Terry (fiddle), Matt Brocklehurst (keys) and Ed Bullinger (drums) whose fiery brand of alt-country is all about driving riffs, charismatic four-part harmonies, emotional songwriting and compelling live performances and tonight was no exception. They released their latest album `Kill the Silence` at the beginning of this year and are on a seventeen date tour to promote it in Germany and the UK. The band head on stage to the flying theme from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial movie and head straight into the thumping rhythmic `Hurricane` which is no better a marker for what`s to follow.
I`m sure it was the drum led `Let Me Go` that followed before `Boy On The Train` from the latest release where Kieran took the lead vocals. SJ introduces `Come Over` as a song in their set that is the `sexy one` and indeed it`s a sultry and enticing slow burn before the group share a new song about the music industry whose title I didn`t catch. A couple of tracks from the current release follow with `Devil`s Canyon`, finger clicking `Goddamn Time` and `We Sing` with the edgy and reflective `Frozen In Our Time` sandwiched in between.
The sextet ventured into the audience for a stripped back rendition of `Halfway Tonight` as the audience sang along and crouched down as instructed. They returned to the stage for the final stretch of this ninety minute show and share the rock out that is `Feels Like Letting Go` which opened with a blistering guitar solo, new album title track `Kill the Silence` before closing out with `Don`t Turn the Lights On Yet` a number that was written when the band were snowed in. We enjoyed a final number `I Feel The Rain` as a kind of encore as SJ was honest enough to admit that they couldn`t be arsed to get down from the stage only to come back.
I`d not caught Morganway live before but was really blown away by not only the lyrical depth of the numbers shared this evening but also the band`s energetic and infectious stage presence and performance where their love of playing live really transfers to the audience.
There`s another seven dates left to catch them on this tour before a few Summer Festivals beckon so don`t delay as I`m sure you`ll be as equally impressed as I was by this home-grown harmonic alt-country outfit.
