The UK Met Office designates the 31st August as the end of the meteorological summer, and on a sunny Sunday afternoon I’d usually be out on my mountain bike in the Chilterns, not in a pub in Clerkenwell. However, a rare appearance by Wesley Stace in the capital, only his third in the past 15 years, meant I gave the cycling a miss.
The Betsey Trotwood is a convivial, cosy place with the feel of a village pub rather than one located in the centre of one of the world’s largest metropolises. It was constructed in 1865 directly above the tracks of the Metropolitan Railway. Every 10 minutes or so, the low rumble of a train passing directly below us emanates from the floorboards, but somehow it seems to add rather than detract from the performances.
The support for this matinee show came from the excellent Emanuel Ayvas who, despite his youthful looks, has been playing music for two decades. He’s based in Brooklyn but had spent the previous few weeks in London helping to produce a record. He commenced by playing some new songs which he feels he can get away with as he rather self deprecatingly says that “nobody knows who he is“. His band Emanuel and the Fear haven’t played in the UK since 2016, but we’re treated to an acoustic version of their ‘My Brother Tried to Kill Me‘. After a well received set, Ayvas promised that he’ll be back in the new year possibly accompanied by a string quintet.
Following a short break Wesley Stace took a seat. In the UK he’s only got access to an acoustic guitar constructed from carbon fibre, whose sound he doesn’t rate. It’s fortunate then that Mr Ayvas was able to lend him a more conventional, wooden instrument for his set, which kicked off with ‘Making Love to Bob Dylan’. It’s a clever and humorous song concerning the unique power of Mr Zimmerman’s voice to put the singer off his ‘stroke by the sound of his folk.’ Couplets such as ‘I can ‘Bang a Gong’ to ‘Ride a White Swan’, I find T Rex sex thе most thrillin’, I can bop till I drop to the Four Tops and Cornershop, But I can’t make lovе to Bob Dylan’, soon have the audience chuckling. The song appropriately comes to a close with a few bars of ‘Lay, Lady, Lay’.
Donning a harmonica for ‘The Truth’, Stace says that at one concert someone had ascribed the note he holds on the mouth organ at the end of the song to circular breathing, as employed by Kenny G. We’re assured that this is not the case and that he’s truly out of puff when it finishes. When gigging with The Jayhawks, their lead singer, Gary Louris, regularly timed how long he could hold the last harmonica note, providing Stace with a nightly rating.
Stace claims that ‘Come Back Yesterday’ bridges the gap between Phil Ochs and The Partridge Family, which may well be the case. Don’t be fooled by the tune though, the lyrics are a prescient piece of social commentary. It also allowed Stace to demonstrate a piece of “guitar wizardry” which involves moving the capo mid-song. Having recently acquired an American passport after living in the US for 35 years, Stace related an amusing tale of his interview and citizenship ceremony, and how in this case his Cambridge University education was an advantage.
Unfortunately Steve Earle, who duets with Stace on the studio version of ‘Our Lady of the Highway’, hadn’t made it across the pond to perform in the pub today. Stace is open to taking requests providing the person asking for the song gets the title correct. Following such a shout out ‘Dealer’s Daughter’ was duly played in exchange for a whisky and soda. It’s an exploration of addiction and self-sacrifice, woven into the emotional tapestry of a romantic relationship.
Stace explained that ‘Red Rose and the Briar’ was co-written with his university pal David Lewis during a trip around the UK in the late 1980s following Bob Dylan on tour. The method they used to write the lyrics came from the memory-based game of “When I Went to Market”, in which each player has to repeat the full list of items purchased at the market, whilst adding a new one when it’s their turn. It’s this technique which was used to produce the lyrics, with Stace and Lewis not allowing themselves to add a new line to the song unless they could remember all the previous ones. Stace fittingly wrapped up the sprawling tale by singing some words from ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’.
The ever touching ‘We Will Always Have New York’ got an airing. Stace has described it as an “emotional travelogue,” guiding listeners through vivid memories of his time in New York City and various romantic relationships. It’s so moving that it has at least one person in tears. Following ‘Save a Little Room for Me’, Stace got up from his seat briefly before returning for an encore. After performing ‘Darwin’, a comedic critique of natural selection and human absurdity, including references to magicians taming white tigers in Las Vegas, Stace left us with a beautiful cover of the 1964 Skeeter Davis classic ‘What Am I Gonna Do With You’.
This was the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, supping beer and enjoying a rich mix of stories and songs. In the weeks to come, Stace is scheduled to have a minor operation on his hand to treat a bout of tendonitis. With his usual humour, he quipped that if things don’t go to plan, this might be his last ever gig. Let’s hope that’s not the case and that he’ll be back performing in the UK again soon.
