The tinder-dry landscape that accompanied my drive from my home in Lincoln to the Town Hall at Kirton in Lindsey, the beating heart of americana music in Lincolnshire, was much more reminiscent of holidays spent travelling through the landscape of the Australian outback than the green and pleasant land depicted by the great William Blake. It is possible, however, that this scorched earth may have felt a little more like home for the evening’s headline act, though to be honest the fine city of Melbourne is still far more leafy green than yellow dirt, as far as I can remember. And anyway, with this being possibly the fifth time in as many years that mainman, singer-songwriter Lachlan Bryan has returned to tread these hallowed boards, it must surely feel by now like a second home. Much of the credit for ensuring Bryan’s regular visits can be attributed to the tireless work of local promoter Brian Chudley and his wife, Pam, whose legendary hospitality attracts the cream of americana artists from around the globe.
Tonight, Bryan is here with his band, the Wildes, though, to be fair, the band has a somewhat new look compared to when they last performed here some eleven months ago. Still present, standing to Bryan’s right, is his Lieutenant and lead guitarist, Riley Catherall, who was also the support act for the night, performing a short set, which made the show feel very much like a doubleheader, more about which later in the review. On Bryan’s left was the delightful Emily Lawler, whose fiddle playing and exquisite vocals had previously lit up the town hall, both as a member of The Wildes as well as a solo performer. For this evening’s concert, they were wonderfully assisted by Ben Middleton on drums, along with Zoë Ravenwood on bass, who just happens to be Bryan’s cousin and currently resides in Brighton; that’s the UK, not Australia.
The band kicked off what is their penultimate show of this short visit to these shores, with just four gigs before they head off to Scandinavia, by dipping back into their back catalogue and the delightful Travelling Companion that first appeared on their 2015 album The Mountain. From the offset, there was an infectious sense of enjoyment radiating from the stage, with Bryan himself appearing in great form, his relaxed rapport with the audience often laced with a subtle touch of self-effacing humour delivered in the manner of one surrounded by friends. Both on the stage and in the audience. In truth, Bryan had preceded this tour by, as he puts it, “galavanting in Italy”, indulging in much of the country’s finest wares, which is guaranteed to put anyone in a positive frame of mind.
The set quickly proceeded with two of Bryan’s finest and most popular songs, firstly with A Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-aged Man, where Catherall’s guitar and Lawler’s violin duelled for the spotlight, sparks flying in both directions before the reflective refrain of The Road gently eased the pace. Next up was a brand new song entitled Indian Summer, the quality of the track emphasised by Bryan’s confidence in placing it directly after two of the best songs to come out of Australia this century. If this is a taster for a forthcoming new album, then the anticipation is already building
The first set came to a close with two of Bryan’s most requested songs, starting with I Hope That I’m Wrong, the song that opened Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music, and inspired by a certain Donald Trump’s first term in office. Bryan admitted that at the time of writing the song, he hadn’t considered that the incumbent of the Oval Office would win a second term. The song that brought the first set to a close, Deathwish County, first appeared on the 2013 album Black Coffee and has remained a mainstay of The Wildes’ set-list ever since. Once again, Bryan garnished the track with a humorous backstory of travelling across the USA playing the “out of the way, small town venues”, often to no more than a handful of people. Needless to say, this classic song never fails to connect, leaving the local congregation howling in delight as the band left the stage for the short interval.
The second set began with Bryan taking the stage alone, performing the title track from his 2015 album solo. With his eyes pressed closed and his emotive vocals gently teasing the narrative, he held the audience captive, so much so that you could have heard a pin drop anywhere within the packed hall, before the final note was greeted with tumultuous applause. At this point, Bryan invited Lawler to rejoin him on stage, and together they delivered a stunning rendition of The Basics of Love, Lawler’s ethereal vocals weaving around Bryan’s weatherworn delivery to create a magic difficult to define other than to say the performance will live long in the memory of all those so fortunate to witness. Simply spine-tingling.
Next it was time to invite Catherall to join the duo on stage for another crowd favourite, Dugdemona and its tale of voodoo magic down in New Orleans, before the rhythm section rejoined the band for an arousing rendition of I Went Down, quickly followed by the title track to their most recent album As Long as it’s Not Us, the smiles shared on stage highlinghting a real sense of camaraderie, mirrored all the way around the hall. Prior to the playing of the delightful Careless Heart, Bryan commented on what a joy it was to have his cousin, Ravenwood, in the band, cementing the sense of family spirit, something that felt tangible, as if the band played with a greater energy than on any of their previous visits.
Sadly, all good things have to come to an end, and so it was that the band returned to one of their oldest and most revered numbers to close the second set, with 309, Lawler delivering notes of fire from her violin remarkably matched by Catherall on guitar, despite managing to break a string halfway through the song that required a quick change of instrument. Needless to say, an encore wasn’t just asked for; it was demanded, the deafening roar increasing in decibels as Bryan and the band retook to the stage to perform the one track still missing from an evening of song that had felt like a ‘greatest hits’ repertoire. Unsurprisingly, Bryan treated the audience to a short history of the song and the use of a real gun for the $2,000 accompanying video. With that, the band seamlessly kicked into Ballad of a Young Married Man, Middleton’s snare drum helping to build the tension against Bryan’s cinema-noir narrative before the rest of the band joined, shifting the song through its gears to its climactic finale. This may have been Bryan’s fifth performance here at the town hall, in Kirton in Lindsey, but with The Wildes this evening, he pushed the bar of entertainment to new limits that may well not be surpassed until they return. Who knows, maybe with a new album to promote. Fingers crossed.
The evening’s proceedings got underway with a short, approximately thirty-minute set from Riley Catherall, who in truth is no stranger to the Kirton faithful, having played his own headline set back in the summer of 2024, as well as being a regular member of The Wildes. For tonight’s show, Catherall opened up with the beautiful Leave Me Out To Dry from his outstanding debut album When I Go, the reverb on his guitar helping to create just the right atmospheric vibe. Duty Free followed, with a narrative that reminds us of the challenges of being a travelling musician, and the pressure on relationships, with Catherall relaying to the audience the number of times he is set to travel back and forth to his home in Australia in just the coming few months. His air miles must make for impressive reading.
Tonight’s set included two new numbers, again with the hint that a new album may soon be in the offing. First up was My Baby Knows, which Catherall informed us had taken five years to write and he still wasn’t sure it was finished, though it sounded excellent to these ears, followed by Circle Line, both tracks whetting the appetite for what’s to come. Needless to say, even with a somewhat curtailed set, it would not have been complete without The Ferryman, a song that is fast gaining classic status, and a clear indicator of Catherall’s talent as a singer-songwriter. Talking of great songwriters, Catherall regularly includes a Paul Simon song in his set, and this evening’s choice was Crazy After All These Years, delivered with all the reverence and care you’d expect, despite agonising over whether he could remember all the chords, before signing off with Bark At The Moon the opening track from his most recent album, 2024’s The Light, The Beautiful Liar, leaving the stage to a rousing reception ensuring the evenings concert felt very much like a double bill.
