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Review: Matt Deighton, The Folk House – ‘Utterly mesmeric’
On November 25 1974, Nick Drake died aged just 26. On November 25 2022, two remarkable singer-songwriters reminded us of the power of gentle things and beautiful songs.
Izzie Yardley presented little vignettes of life with a delightfully Denny-esque voice. A cover of Fotheringay’s The Sea was all that you’d hope an English Folk song to be but her own Imposter, All We Have and She Rose would fit snugly into the canon. As is remarked later she, effortlessly, makes her guitar sound like a piano too. Brilliant stuff.
In amongst all of the rubbish telly of the last couple of years, all of the bleak dramas and vacuous game shows there was a documentary that was breath-taking. Overshadowed, on Sky Arts, told the story of Matt Deighton. One time guitarist with Acid Jazz-ers Mother Earth, foil to Paul Weller, Gallagher brother compatriot and genius singer songwriter. This was no standard rock doc, not one that was full of bone-headedness and braggadocio. This was a story of a sensitive, slightly perplexed man, a man who plays the most beautiful, delicate guitar but can’t do (or won’t do) pop stardom. It was the finest thing on television for years.
is needed now More than ever
In amongst all of the rubbish that happens on Park Street in Bristol on a Friday night, all of the drinking and the football chanting, there was a singer-songwriter who was breath-taking. Matt Deighton sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar, sipped a black coffee and beautifully, delicately, gently smashed hearts into tiny pieces.
Matt Deighton played at the Folk House – photo: Martin Booth
It’s not that he plays sad songs, he doesn’t really, it’s just that there’s something so incredibly vulnerable about him. It used to be said of Nick Drake that he had a “skin too few”. Well, maybe Deighton does too. He’s sometimes apologetic, sometimes wanders off on little tangents, sometimes he seems to forget this is a gig at all. He is utterly mesmeric.
Deighton’s albums are often referred to as “lost classics” and he, mainly, mines four of these tonight. The title track of Kids Steal Feelings comes early on. It’s a song, and an album, that was made with Squeeze-man Chris Difford and carries with it a healthy dose of wistful pop. His voice is high and gorgeous, verging on soulful, the guitar playing intricate, lacy. The whole thing has a very English quality, as you’d expect.
His latest album, Doubtless Dauntless, is a lovely record (if ever songs should be heard on vinyl it’s these ones because, as John Peel said, “life has crackles on it, mate”), one of those great “lost” ones. From it, May You Give it All Away is wonderful; full of wide-eyed wonder at love and hope with that acoustic guitar proving that comparisons between Davey Graham and John Martyn hit close to home. The magic of the guitar works on Dreamstate too. It’s hypnotic – there’s a man at the back who has his head bowed for the entire song, eyes closed, hands in prayer. Deighton inspires that sort of devotion.
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Review: Ozric Tentacles/Gong, Trinity
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Taken from the same album, How Do We Show is yet another song cut from the classic singer-songwriter cloth. He talks, with wry amusement and head shaking embarrassment, of song writing weekends with the likes of Marti Pellow and Linda Lewis but Deighton shows that he can hold his own. How Do We Show is everything you want a love song to be and, later, so is Sometimes There’s Lightning. Both have this magical quality where the choruses sneak up on you, quietly, and just wind themselves around your soul.
Of all Deighton’s lost album perhaps the most lost is Villager but, tonight, two of the standouts come from that album. The title track is the morning mist on an English meadow, a glorious mix of heavenly pastoral and earthy blues while Jesus Loves the Rain is an almost wordless hymn.
At one point Deighton sings “for all the times it’s washed the pain away” and, maybe, this is what these songs do, they wash clean all of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the mundane.
These songs are gently beautiful.
Main photo: Gavin McNamara
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