Coffee Shop Review 23.09.10
Emma Shearer and Abraham Mitchell
‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’ jump started the night in to an animal frenzy with sweet direction from a 3 year old boy singing and playing a ukulele whilst keeping his mother on her toes!
Emma Shearer & Fash Stewart
Amazing Grace is food for the soul sung by Emma in a gospel like manner which was accompanied with challenging folk style arpeggios played on acoustic guitar by Fash. High and Dry (orig. Radiohead) was next consisting of powerful lyrics and lovable power chords meant for those who always take things for granted.
Neal Kinghorn
New on the scene, this guy was a pleasant surprise, his tone of voice was lovely to listen to and he certainly knew how to pick those cotton picking blues which unusually had a modern feel to the song. He managed well at keeping in time with a thousand words a minute in some of his songs and succeeded in stunning the audience with lots of impressive movement on the fret board. Look out for this guy.
Tony Wallis
He is beautifully honest in all of his songs, one song ‘Doctor calls you up…’ is one of the most honestly sung songs I have ever heard and anyone who understands what the song may be about will understand what an affect a song of this nature could have on anyone. His passion for music is emphasized by the dedicated guitar pain in his fingers afterwards!
Gil Anderson & Matt Sillars
Gil has a voice reminiscent of Nick Drakes, his songs take you to that place that bites your soul and makes you ask for help. His guitar playing is complicated and impressively annoying due to envy I have when he plays his songs with such ease and composure. His songs play with your mind and take ages to settle down as well. He also played ‘How can a poor man stand such times and live’ with Matt Sillars who effortlessly played a mind blowing slide alongside him as always.
Fash Stewart
This was a farewell night for Fash and he did it in style singing a couple of songs dedicated to the women he has had in his life, for a minute it looked as though he may have lost a tear on the fret board but he held it together and everybody sent him his best wishes. He will be starting a coffee shop session in Aberdeen soon so watch this space!!
The Highland Hot Club
Their style really suits the coffee shop, jango is the name and playing music with ease is their game. Steve’s voice captures the audience’s imagination and takes them to the jazz café in Paris to hear the man with the voice of a thousand motorbikes, he really gives it some wellie when he dives in to the next bar of out of control finger picking style scales whilst keeping the band glued together. Evelyn marches in with her toe tapping and swaying piano chords and Howard rolls his head to get the feel for the music breaking in and out of each tune with such ease. They and we had a great night!
