Review:
'NANCY ELIZABETH / THEE, STRANDED HORSE'
'Leeds, Brudenell Social Club, November 5th 2007'
- Genre: 'Rock'
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Our Rating:
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NANCY ELIZABETH's sophisticated, ethereal album BATTLE AND VICTORY did not prepare me at all for the down-to-earth goodness of the artist in person. She's a smiling round-face Lancashire girl with a positive attitude and no pretences. Her mysterious voice and musically adroit accompaniments, on guitar or Celtic harp, seem to have been smuggled into the venue like jewels wrapped in a plain cloth, clutched by a smiling rogue pretending not to know their considerable value. In fact, with the album's arrangements stripped away their lustre shines even stronger. "Hey Son" comes through as clear and bright as one of those traditional songs on Tim hart and Maddy Prior's classic folk album "Summer Solstice". Such songs are very rare, and NANCY ELIZABETH has a whole set of them.
The beautiful "How can I Stop?", "Coriander's" direct sensuality and the magnificent strength of "Battle and Victoy" are really major achievements. This is not one more singer with some tunes, this is someone with songs that have gravity and a life of their own. They are songs that can fill your consciousness with one voice and a harp, or spread themselves out into a roomful of orchestration and still find plenty to say. The set seems very short, but we have had the whole album and encores, and we've had NANCY ELIZABETH's self-deprecatingly cheerful introductions to bustle us along. She's like the guest who seems to be leaving before she's even told you half of her news - the rare visitor who under-stays her very warm welcome.
The last song is "Off With Your Axe", a tough song that closes the set like a promise that next time she comes around there will be even finer things on offer. At this rate NANCY ELIZABETH's tour will be attracting lots of admirers who will be desperately keen to get to the next gig and buy the next album.
There is no hint here of exploiting a little regional charm or fashionable freak folkery. When NANCY ELIZABETH sings one of her magical songs, you don't listen to anything else.
THEE, STRANDED HORSE is the kora-playing mystic persona of Yann Encre. Yann is a Radio 3 Late Junction, Greenman Festival sort of a guy and this performance is just perfect as a preparation for Nancy's songs. With some additional guitar and a gentle voice THEE, STRANDED HORSE is essentially two koras played with a reverence for depth and continuity, pressed forward with an urgent melancholy. The bright strings and the Brudenell's air shimmer with an African beat, repetitions and small changes setting up a trance that feels like sitting in a broad African landscape with warm sunshine and ripples of light moving through the branches of a shade tree.
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For one song he does a tune from the early days of Tyrannosaurus Rex (capturing the spirit of the time and the band perfectly) Another is sung in Yann's native French, bringing his voice to it's full resonance and confidence. Delightful though the two koras are, the best moments have singing in amongst the strings. I can feel a lot more will be possible and make a note to find out more about Encre's work to date.
As many times as we have seen FRAN RODGERS and BENJAMIN WETHERILL at the Brudenell, there's always something special on offer. Tonight there are sharing songs, one apiece or duetted. Fran plays her Gibson acoustic, Benjamin has an electric guitar and foot-pedals a bass drum. At one point he plays a clarinet. The phrasing is delicate, Fran does some loops of extra harmony and she captivates us with "If you love me, really love me, then let it happen ..". Benjamin does a very fine version of "The Cruel Sea Captain" from Bert Lloyd - and gives it the hard edge of Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown".
All in all, an evening of very human, very fine music.
http://www.myspace.com/nancyelizabethcunliffe
http://www.myspace.com/theestrandedhorse
www.myspace.com/francesrodgers
www.myspace.com/benjaminwetherill
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author: Sam Saunders
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NANCY ELIZABETH
THEE, STRANDED HORSE
FRAN RODGERS & BENJAMIN WETHERILL
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