J.R. Carroll, here with his trucker hat and his mate playing steel guitar, might seem like the identikit Americana singer — except you only need to watch him for 15 minutes to realise he’s not.
Best known as the keyboard player in Zach Bryan’s band (the other bands are here on nights off from his mega shows), Carroll isn’t identikit anything. His cover of Oasis’ “Half The World Away” (“well, we’re in England”) tells you that, while the poignant “Preacher Man” is dedicated to “the mother who came to the shows and not the father who didn’t.”
Indeed, by the time he finishes with “Where The Red Fern Grows,” the man from Oklahoma has made a roomful of friends thousands of miles from home.
Carroll is back this time as part of Noeline Hofmann’s band. There are four behind her, giving her half-hour set a real rock ‘n’ roll feel.
To listen to the Canadian’s opening track, “Lightning In July,” is to hear a study in class, yes — but also authenticity.
Roots rock to her core, as “Rodeo Junkies” underlines. This could, quite conceivably, be some off-road honky tonk, not a stage in downtown Birmingham — but that’s the skill of it.
Not to mention Hofmann’s superb songwriting. Her breakthrough single, “Purple Gas,” features the vocals of Bryan (who looms large over all of this), but the solo version she plays here — accompanied only by a fiddle player — is so fragile that it proves the old adage: a brilliant song translates into any format.
But this, for the most part, is a rock ‘n’ roll band, something the outright hoedown of “Sleepless Nights” makes abundantly clear.
Noeline Hofmann is only at the start of her career, and bigger shows await — literally, given where she’s playing over the next few days — but she is a rising star with talent, charisma, and magnificent songs.
“So now,” reckons Evan Felker, singer with the Turnpike Troubadours, “here we are in our natural habitat.”
Like Hofmann, they’ve been opening for Zach Bryan (he’s a known and vocal fan), but watching them back in this packed club, the atmosphere and vibe are exactly how they’d want it.
They’ve not been over to England for a while (they were on hiatus while Felker overcame some issues), but if that explains the anticipation, their ability ensures it never wanes.
“Every Girl” has that classic vibe — so much so, it almost doesn’t matter when it came out. It just sounds fresh.
Indeed, this is more about the power of great songs than anything else — and TT have loads of them.
“Before The Devil Knows We’re Dead” is among the standouts, but the slower “On The Red River” shows the new album is full of glorious work too.
They’re just a cut above the competition. “Shreveport,” with its knowing line — “Well, you can learn some things down there they don’t teach in school” — and the quite brilliant “Good Lord Lorrie,” turned into a joyous singalong, both fall into that category.
Rather like the similarly skilled Drive-By Truckers, this is a band people have bought into completely, and “Whole Damn Town” benefits from that.
The new songs, cleverly interspersed, slot in seamlessly. “Heaven Passing Through” is gorgeous, and when the sweet harmonies and banjo of “Mean Old Sun” take things in a real summery direction, it’s magic.
They play “Diamonds And Gasoline” in two parts — split between two halves of the band — but they all come together for “Long Hot Summer Days,” joined by Hofmann and J.R. Carroll in a moment that radiates the camaraderie of the whole evening.
They don’t do an encore — always worthy of bonus points — instead running through “The Housefire” and “Pay No Rent” (which no doubt pleased the woman who’d been shouting for it all night).
But it’s the closing “1968” that somehow sums up the night. Calm, assured and brilliantly played, its payoff — “Well you’ve been a long time gone / Good to see you, my old friend” — could apply in any way you choose.
When they’re playing Hyde Park in the sweltering heat this weekend, the hot, sticky Thursday in the second city might just linger longer in the memory.
