Native Harrow – Devin Teul and Stephen Harms – are undertaking a short UK tour in support of their latest album “Divided Kind” playing a short run of record shop in-store appearances, hence tonight’s appearance at Davids Music in Letchworth. It’s a flourishing store, helped by being attached to the larger David’s Books and David’s Cafe, with a healthy selection of CDs, an ever-growing vinyl section and a reasonable number of books and some musical instruments – all but the last are represented as both new and second-hand selections.
A good crowd had filled the available space by 6:30 when the appearance was timed to start, with Native Harrow starting off their selection from “Divided Kind” with Harms initially on bass and Teul on acoustic guitar although both would switch to electric at various points. The latest album is a multi-layered affair with a little more of a soulful feel to the songwriting and arrangements than that of their last release “Old Kind Of Magic”. Stripped down the songs take on a new, and very aurally attractive, shape which makes a strong case for an album capturing these versions. Surely Bandcamp beckons for that.
Although the pair have relocated to Philadelphia, the songs on “Divided Kind” were written during their time in the South of England with ‘Borrowing Time‘ drawing on a favourite walk which gave the impression with frequent repetition of reliving the same moments for free. The raunchier vocals of ‘Not The Woman‘ drew on an early unused song from Treul’s archive which was deemed to be a good fit with the rest of the album, and it does give a contrast to a more intimately soulful song like ‘I Wanna Thank You’ an unashamedly “very much in love” love song.
After a main set of seven songs from the new album, for an “encore” Native Harrow went back beyond what they’d played at a previous appearance in-store, playing ‘Something You Have‘ from “Happier Now” which Teul described as being their first album – despite there being albums prior to it – since it was the real start of finding their true sound which has carried on through the subsequent albums. It is a glorious sound – a blend of the more folk-leaning parts of Seventies Fleetwood Mac, a hint of jazz and blues in the vocals, Philly soul and Laurel Canyon confessional singer-songwriter. A heady mix, and this short set did what it should – it sold some albums and left the listener wanting more…and fingers-crossed there should be a full tour next year.
