Jim White and Trey Blake’s album “Precious Bane” is, even in January, in the running for the 2025 best of list. It was reviewed in these pages by Jonny Brick with the full back story of its genesis.
A chilly Tuesday in North London saw them bring the album to the Lexington for what we learned was Blake’s first-ever live performance in the UK and only her third ever (they had done a couple of dates in the Netherlands earlier in the week). They were joined by White cohorts Geert Hellings (guitar) and Nicolas Rombouts (bass). Rombouts was singled out for praise having driven them through a snowstorm from Antwerp to Calais where they had been waved through customs just in time to make the show. For all the fraughtness of the journey and Blake’s lack of time in front of an audience, everyone seemed very relaxed.
The band set themselves up and a couple of minutes ahead of showtime White said they were good to go. The main set comprised all ten songs from “Precious Bane” starting with ‘Down To The River We Go’, a song that opens with the dreamlike “Golden wind, behold this golden wind” before building into a lush chorus, all wrapped in swirling music with a sweetly picked guitar solo from Hellings before dropping into its gothic conclusion
Throughout the evening, they alternated with one song from White followed by one from Blake. White introduced the Blake-written ‘One Last Love Song’ which highlighted Blake’s haunting vocal – no one would have guessed this was her third night ever in front of a crowd. As White added a couple of melodica solos into the tune, the audience reaction to Blake’s song was warm and enthusiastic. From there, they switched into ‘Tumbleweed Time’, which emerges from its atmospheric intro into a semi-spoken verse before its sweetly sung chorus featuring both principals.
The next of Blake’s songs was ‘His Lady’, possibly the folkiest performance of the night as Blake recounted a dark tale. Introducing ‘The Long Road Home’ White tells us how after Blake sent him a file of songs, he had listened to them and realised he would have to stretch himself to write songs that would fit except for ‘The Long Road Home’ which he had ready to go. The song is quite a rocker in which White rips out an impressive guitar solo. ‘Rushing In Waves’ is the first of Blake’s songs heard on the record and Rombouts (I think) activates an almost martial drum track adding to the mood of the song as the two guitarists along with the bass underlie Blake’s moving vocal. The album’s opener ‘Ghost Song’ was White’s next contribution and maintains the dark theme. “I fell off the bridge, I remember that day well” White intones – joined by Blake for the tale of death leading into a mystical second half.
The beauty of the melody of Blake’s ‘Midnight Blue’ almost distracts from the deep sadness of the lyric. Blake’s voice and White’s melodica create a French ambience. White tells us how reviewers have tagged ‘My Time With The Angels’ as a funny song despite its murderous content. He attributes this perhaps to the electric banjo. Returning to the mystical the song also includes a bass solo. All too soon it’s time for the final song of the set and “Precious Bane”. As the title of ‘Ballad Of The Gunfighters’ suggests there is a cinematic western theme with its chorus “And oh the dying sun sweating dust and shards of light upon the dirty streets fell into the arms of night”. And with that they were gone.
Or rather three of them were. White remained in situ, chatted about David Byrne and played ‘Alabama Chrome’ which featured on “Drill A Hole” performed with the Barenaked Ladies. He also plugged his daughter, Willow Avalon’s, upcoming tour; unnecessarily as it looks to be all sold out. Blake, Hellings and Rombouts returned for encores of ‘Borrowed Wings’ and ‘Static On The Radio‘ with Blake channelling respectively Suzie Ungerleider and Aimee Mann. They were applauded loudly and happily. It had been a pretty special show.
Earlier in the evening we had a support set from RJ Hacker who started solo acoustic but was joined for most of the set by Anne Gilpin on marxophone (a fretless zither and backing vocals). His songs were compact and funny. He said they had a single in the works “Hey Misty” which they recorded with the Long Ryders’ Stephen McCarthy on guitar.
