It may well have been mid-July but the persistent inclement weather had a distinct autumnal feel about it as the local congregation, attired in jumpers and jackets rather than T-shirts and shorts, arrived at Lincolnshire’s premier Americana Music venue, The Town Hall, Kirton in Lindsey. The evening’s show heralded the return of Lachlan Bryan who, with his band The Wildes, had co-headlined the local THL Festival back in 2022. Bryan hails from Melbourne, Australia, and over the past decade has a built a strong loyal fan base both in his home country as well as here in the UK. Now, following on from no less than five separate performances at the previous weekend’s Maverick Festival in Suffolk, Bryan, along with an honorary member of The Wildes, Emily Lawler took to the stage for a rare, stripped back acoustic set.
After a short interval following an opening set from Lawler lasting approximately half an hour, more of which later, Bryan took to the stage, guitar in hand, wearing his familiar apparel that wouldn’t have looked out of place in one of Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti Western films. Starting solo with three songs that included the title song of his most recent release with The Wildes, ‘As Long As It’s Not Us’, along with a currently unreleased track entitled ‘Step Away’, he quickly cemented his rapport with the audience, his Australian accent betraying a sharp wit that was both warm and inclusive. After the opening trio of numbers, Lawler returned to the stage to provide both fiddle and vocals for the remainder of the set that saw Bryan trawl through his back catalogue and deliver wonderful renditions of ‘309’, along with ‘You, Me And The Blues’, both from his 2013 album “Black Coffee”. Over the last decade Bryan has built a reputation of being one of the most insightful and poignant songwriters of his generation, his clever wordplay and subject matter always thought provoking, often inhabiting the darker side of the street. Two more self penned numbers ‘The Road’, and ‘I Hope That I’m Wrong’, adorn the first set with the latter shining the spotlight on some scintillating fiddle playing from Lawler, before a cover version of Willis Alan Ramsey’s classic song ‘The Ballad Of Spider John’, brought the first set to a close.
Following the customary interval to allow for the replenishing of glasses, both Bryan and Lawler returned to the stage for the second set. Bryan admitted, as he tuned his guitar, that intervals were a rather new experience for him, as with The Wildes he would play just one long set, so was grateful to those in the audience that took the opportunity to come forward and have a chat, as well as avail themselves from the merchandise table.
The set kicked off with a song that is seen by many to be one of Bryan’s finest to date. ‘A Portrait Of The Artist As A Middle Aged Man’, which originally appeared on his 2018 album “Some Girls (Quite) Like Country Music”, delivers some of the finest storytelling in five minutes of song you’ll come across anywhere with its dark brooding narrative and graphic imagery inhabiting a lyrical landscape somewhere between Nick Cave and Ray Wylie Hubbard. The quality of song continued with ‘Afraid Of The Light’, a co-write with legendary Nashville songwriter Kim Richey which again featured some wonderful fiddle playing from Lawler, who having provided excellent backing vocals throughout the two sets, stepped forward to the microphone to join Bryan for a duet on ‘The Basics Of Love’. Bryan’s most recent sojourn to the recording studio had seen him join forces with Catherine Britt to form The Pleasures, releasing the album “The Beginning Of The End”, of which ‘You Made Another Woman’, is the solitary offering during the evening’s set list.
With the second set approaching its conclusion there was time for a couple of requests placed during the interval. Firstly ‘Deathwish Country’, a long-time fan favourite and another fine example of Bryan’s deft touch at creating an atmospheric tension within his lyrical narrative of which the evening’s stripped back performance helped to magnify. The same applied to the second request ‘Dugdemona’, with Bryan transporting the local congregation all the way to New Orleans and its tales of voodoo magic, before the title track from the “Black Coffee” album brought the second set to a close. A raucous response from the crowd was rewarded with Bryan and Lawler returning to the stage for a sublime rendition of ‘Careless Hearts’, sending the audience home enraptured in the knowledge that they had experienced something uniquely special.
As previously mentioned, it was Lawler, who as well as her association with The Wildes, will also be known to many readers through her work with Dan Webster, that took to the stage first to perform a short set made up of four self penned numbers along with three cover versions. Any suggestion that opening with a rendition of Sandy Denny’s classic ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’, may have initially seemed a little bold were quickly negated as Lawler began to sing, her purity of voice harkening back to those halcyon days of the late sixties when folk music was in its pomp, and female artists such as Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell filled the airwaves. The night’s audience may have been slightly lower in numbers than usual, maybe the onset of the holiday season, the inclement weather, or a mass exodus to Germany to watch the football, but those in attendance listened with hushed tones as Lawler made this classic folk song her own. Performed on acoustic guitar, Lawler’s own compositions revealed a writer in tune with her surroundings, taking the traditional song craft and placing it firmly in the 21st century, such as on ‘To The Thief’, and the uptempo ‘Note To Self’, whilst the exquisite ‘Lament For Lost Time’, and ‘Ophelia’, delivered poetic narratives full of ethereal reflection and mystique. Lawler, who will be returning to this venue to support Riley Catherall in four weeks time has had an EP in the offering for some time now. Let’s hope it sees the light of day before too long, for on this performance it will surely be a must buy.
