Saturday, November 19, 2011

"Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake"

A really pleasant evening of music at the Melb Recital Centre - an ad hoc travelling group, joined by Australians Luluc and Shane Nicholson, doing Nick Drake songs with varying degrees of adherence to the original recordings (ranging from a very faithful, and very effective "River Man" to Krystle Warren's soaring, unexpectedly completely apt gospel take on "Time Has Told Me"), but all with great respect and feeling for the songs.

It was low key, but they got it right - all of the vocalists were nice to listen to, and their contrasting voices and singing styles kept things interesting, along with the novelty of hearing these songs sung live, backed by a full band and six piece string ensemble no less. I liked Lisa Hannigan's contributions, and Vashti Bunyan's wispily pretty, waverily folk voice was a perfect fit, but Warren was the real revelation, her remarkable voice taking Drake's autumnal melodies somewhere new but always clearly recognisable.

(w/ C, Trang and Arthur)