Norwegian guitar slinger-singer Magnus Berg covers blues-rock, funk, R&B, soul and has released three albums with `Going To St. Pete`, `Cut me Loose` and `In My Shoes` with his fourth album ‘Electric Sugar’ due out early next year. He`s over on a short UK tour supporting soulful blues rock musician Gary Clark Jr and tonight shares a well-received thirty minutes of what he has to offer.
I`m not sure whether it was Magnus`s cool Norwegian persona but there was little interaction with the audience as he let his playing talk for him. The numbers I picked up were `Let Me Down Easy` and what may have been `Soul Souler`. There was also what the singer said was some Norwegian music which was a sort of bluesy, soulful instrumental with a kind of Latino flavour.
I`d not managed to catch Magnus before and this brief setting left me with the impression of a kind of laid-back dreamy Jeff Healey style.
Birmingham is Gary Clark Jr`s last date on a brief four date tour of the UK. He released his latest album `JPEG Raw` in March and kicks off this two-hour set with the soulful Afro beat `Maktub` before sharing `When My Train Pulls In` and an elongated version of title track `JPEG RAW`.
This seemed to be the format for the rest of the evening with a lot of songs stretched out as this six piece backing band were allowed to flex their musical muscles. Songs like `To the End Of The Earth` morphed into `Alone Together` but for me the highlights were `The Healing`, the Stevie Wonder co-write `What About The Children`, `Bright Lights` and `Habits`.
There`s no doubt that Gary Clark Jr is an exceptional guitarist with a varied vocal range but at times tonight it seemed as if this was a show for the purists with some expanded numbers having me drifting off into thoughts of my own.
This crowd which must have numbered around a thousand seemed to eat, sleep and breathe what was on offer which was at times a masterclass in musicianship but for me lacked a little in entertainment value.
