Review: Joey Landreth, Tunnels

For a music fan out on a miserable wet cold grey post Brexit post Trump Monday night there is no  better destination than The Tunnels, where a warm welcome is always sound-tracked by quality live music. The bedraggled crowd were heartened by the support for the night Clara Bond, accompanied by Ollie Harris on guitar, who played a nuanced half a dozen or so songs built around her voice and Harris’ melodious, reverb drenched picking. Bond has a full, rich voice and demonstrated considerable range over the tunes, all originals bar an up-tempo cover of John Mayer’s Love on the Weekend performed with saucy intent and It Girl sass. Bond is an expressive singer, performing the tunes as much with her hands as with her voice; flighty gestures, emphatic swipes and summoning up the higher notes with ardent conjurations. The songs mined the evergreen seam of relationships and love both lost & found; Brave had neat lyrical twists matched by the newly minted Tambourine but there was humour in the mix too (revealing that the new EP Out of Towners – itself a great tune – was recorded despite a growing addiction to internet cat videos) . An engaging presence, she warmed to the crowd after a low key breathy start and the songs rapidly drew people from the bar; her final tune received a vigorous response followed by brisk sales of her CDs.

Joey Landreth is not a singer songwriter, he’s a guitar player who writes songs and sings them, an important distinction because whilst he’s no slouch in the song writing department he’s a hell of a tasty player. A glance at the stage certainly left no doubt that here was a guitar player, dominated as it was by an effects rack almost taller than the monitors; packed with pedals and gizmos (technical term). The rack suggested that Landreth would be able to single-handedly (the more accurate single-footedly is not a thing of course) corral yards of guitar effects, operate the lighting rig, balance the PA and quite probably control the Hadron Collider. Interestingly the hardware had betrayed him by the second song when he struggled to retune his acoustic but set the tone for the evening as Landreth turned the tuning into a silent comedy routine verging on slapstick as he wrestled with his pegs. And that act summed up the evening nicely because he’s a fella that clearly takes his music seriously (exquisite tunes beautifully played and sung) but doesn’t take himself quite so seriously: self-deprecating banter throughout sprinkled with wry humour.

Previously in town with The Bros. Landreth (who played a top ten gig at the Tunnels last spring) this date formed part of his debut UK tour, coming off the release of his first solo outing Whiskey. The set was built around that recording but also featured band material too, subtly reinvented for solo performance. A bubbling I Am the Fool (cause of the tuning fandango) reinvented as a flamenco inflected blues and Let it Lie stripped back allowing the lyrics to shine: “You get the summons I’ll pay the fine I know my place you can take your time”. A couple of judicious covers gave Landreth the chance to make them his own, the death star effect pedal rack allowed him to mix up surf guitar with jazz phrasing to reinvent Hallelujah I Love Her So, meanwhile the recent death of his grandpa inspired him to reinvent Bird on a Wire as a soulful lament for the encore.

Whiskey was recorded with a plethora of musicians but like the Bros Landreth material, the songs are strong enough to entertain when stripped back to voice and guitar, the title track closing the set on a high and Gone Girl retaining its slinky groove and providing another opportunity for Landreth to show off his vocals (he really does have a fine smoky voice, rich and warming for the verses with plenty of funky Mayfield falsettos for choruses). He was clearly pleased to be back in town, commenting on the local accent and pulling off a pretty decent impersonation when recounting a pre-gig tale. He also referred back to the last year’s band gig when introducing Firecracker (played at the request of the audience at that gig – unrehearsed he had to be led through the lyrics by the requester) and then performed an delightful version before…tripping up on the lyrics again to much laughter. That really summed up the evening: Landreth is a warm charming presence on stage, at ease with the crowd and his material; he’s a talented player with a powerful & versatile voice and is building a strong catalogue of songs. This was an exceptionally entertaining gig full of fun and totally free of artifice, whether he’s back solo or with the band make the effort you won’t be disappointed and spiritual uplifting is guaranteed.

Non-review related aside: a glance at the CD reveals that “This project is funded (in part) by the Government of Canada” and if memory serves the Bros Landreth tour also received funding… Hands up if you’re a UK musician that’s ever had anything part funded by the British Government. Hmmmm, thought not.

Pix by Doug Bearne.