Review: Yola Carter, Thunderbolt

Bristol is chock-a-block with great small venues and Thunderbolt is a top three room; the venue has a history of providing great bills in an atmosphere as rockin’ as it is convivial. There are several great shows ahead (John E Vistic at the end of the month and the legendary Rita Lynch in May for starters) but tonight they put on a four bill band for a fiver. That’s right – four bands for a fiver; so for less than a typical booking fee for a ticket purchased through a licensed criminal organisation a packed house got a night of top quality music.

Opening the show Harry and the Gondolas played a tasty set of tunes that successfully married folk with Americana delivered with a foot-tapping skiffle vibe. Harry Gould takes the lead vox and drives things along with some chunky acoustic whilst the delightfully named Bubba Erikson (a Viking from Alabama?) keeps things groovy with some bubbling Bubba bass. The band’s secret weapon though is Samuel Snell on percussion and cajon. He keeps the beat admirably but what really works are his backing vocals – his light tone weaving in and out of Gould’s coarser leads to great harmonious effect. He spent the gig with a beatific smile on his face too and no wonder, the band played a great set of catchy tunes – easy on the ear and leaving the crowd warmed up and queuing for CDs.

Newton Country are a three piece out of Bath (Joe Coombs – guitar, Rósín McNeill – acoustic & lead vox, Oliver Henwood – bass, vox and occasional kick drum) and they delivered an exquisite set of (mostly) original tunes. They cleared enjoyed playing and that came over in the material, delivered with joy and an assurance that belies the relative age of the band. They’ve a nice twist on the Americana sound – melodic bass, driving acoustic and tasty rock n roll guitar somewhere in the same zipcode as Buddy Holly. It takes cojones to cover Cash (and massive cojones to pick Folsome Prison Blues), get it wrong and it’s ether a cliché or a clusterfudge but NC got it completely right. Henwood split the vocals with McNeill whilst Coombs delivered a stinging solo that would have made Luther Perkins proud. In fact Coombs played out of his skin throughout the set, a gorgeous tone and with commendable restraint, which meant when he cut loose his leads stood out all the more. Closing with the debut live performance of Blind the band showed plenty of promise and have the songs & skills to really make a mark.

Third up were Duncan Stagg and the Threadbare Band. Stagg’s been playing the local scene for a while delivering his tunes acoustically but a coupla years back decided to beef up the live sound with a band, and a band with a rolling line-up depending on who’s around and can make the date. Tonight we had a five piece line up fleshing out Stagg’s songs. Twin guitars gave a country rock feel along with some nicely retro keys, but the occasional trumpet added a Mariachi flavour that lifted the material. Their set got the crowd moving but could have done with a killer takeaway tune compelte with earworm chorus.

Having enjoyed a quality warm up the packed house roared Yola Carter on to the stage and she didn’t disappoint. Given her talent and pedigree, it was never in doubt that the set would be a blinder and sure enough Carter delivered a ten song set of tunes; loose limbed, soulful and funky – if you closed your eyes it sounded like Mavis Staples fronting the Band. Carter currently has an EP ready to launch (Orphan Offering stop reading and listen here) and that will precede an album (Orphan Country) and summer dates. The set was a slow burn, with Orphan Country an early highlight, sung beautifully and with the band locked in to the groove. Carter has a wonderfully organic sound, the violin adding plenty of unexpected colour and often taking lead and what a pleasure to hear a double bass in a country setting. Fly Away was a late placed delight but then all of the material played was strong. It’s easy to focus on Carter’s voice but she’s a gifted song writer and a witty raconteur with plenty of banter and chat. It was a shame there was no encore as to be frank the place was bubbling come the end and another hour would have been too little. On this form the album is gonna be a classic and if there’s any justice it will top whatever passes for the charts nowadays. Watch out for more info on the EP, the next batch of dates and treat yourself to a stadium sized talent playing locally.

Pix: John Morgan