Before he plays “Following The Rain” here, Kyle Daniel launches into a raw, emotional speech. A rival for anything at the Democratic Convention this week, he speaks about the doubt he had in 2020 that he should follow a career in music at all. He had what became his debut album ready, but he nearly shelved it.
The 40 minutes he plays here is his payback for continuing.
That debut “Kentucky Gold” finally came out a month or so back and – cards on the table here, for the accusations of bias – it’s probably my favourite of 2024. He starts with one, “Hard Travellin’ Man” that isn’t on the record, perhaps to prove he has always been as good as this, but when he plays “Fire Me Up”, it’s got a harder, more rock edge than on the album.
“Runnin’ From Me”, which lays his struggles bare even before the oratory has a fun line in piano to belie the sentiment, and he cleverly mixes in another old track “God Bless America (Damn Rock N Roll)” along with his new single, the good time anthem written with TC3, “Summer Down South”.
He then nails the chaos of 2024 with “Everybody’s Talkin’” before ending with the first track on “…Gold”. It’s aptly titled “Can’t Hold Me Back”, and honestly? It might just be a matter of time for Kyle Daniel.
Now he’s been unleashed, he’s evidently making up for lost time. Maybe the doubts will remain – anxiety is a bastard after all – but Kyle Daniel and his band are special.
On the 26th of March 2023, I was there to see Blackberry Smoke literally in the next room to where we are tonight, and I said of the support band: “Watching them here you can only marvel at their potential”.
Fast forward 18 months and The Read Southall Band as they were then have become Southall (a natural progression. My review spoke about them feeling like a real band of brothers) and they are here tonight to make good on that.
From the minute that “Out Alive” it’s clear that not only will they do that, but they’ll do it on their own terms.
Heavier than their obvious contemporaries, “Damn” or “Get Busy (‘Till It’s Done)” – after which Read Southall proclaims “the rust is coming off” – have the air of the Southern Boogie of ZZ Top.
The organ is essential to their sound, and “High-Speed Feed” has loads of it, if the early song “Gunshy” is more mellow, then “When You’re Around” has the air of Bruce Springsteen.
They have a real skill at changing the pace so adeptly. “Beautiful Eyes” is absolutely classic, classic rock as it were, while “Stickin’ And Movin’” nails blues, and “Why” is – like it had been previously, the evening’s tear-jerker.
There’s “Where We Belong” by audience request, and “Scared Money” evokes memories to these ears, of hearing The Georgia Satellites for the first time 30 years ago or so.
Southall know their history too, as the cover of “Long Cold Woman” by The Hollies, and the snatch of “Mississippi Queen” in “Don’t Tell Me”, shine a light on, but it’s more than that which makes Southall special.
Read Southall – who does not look like you’d imagine the person with the voice that comes out of him would – and the guys give an air of a band that would rather be nowhere else than right here tonight: “Thank you for coming to see me and my family” he says as the lights go up, and that explains it.
Wherever the road goes, this gang is doing it together. You may as well join them now rather than later.
