There was a lot of love for Australian duo The Weeping Willows on their return to Glasgow with several in the audience at The Glad Café having a long time bond with the pair. Andrew Wrigglesworth, one half of the band, paid tribute in particular to a couple of sisters in attendance tonight who had provided him with food and shelter when he first visited many years ago as part of Lachlan Bryan’s band, the band sorely unprepared for the rigours of touring over here.
As for the remainder of the audience, we were soon swept up in the swooning adulation for this remarkably friendly duo. Despite the deep dark and gothic sweep of their songs they are quite upbeat. Laura Coates, the other half of the band, is larger than life, her Australian banter encompassing all manner of things from admiring the cooler climes of the UK weather to warning us of all manners of creatures from her homeland who can be pretty fatal should one come across one.
They opened with ‘River Of Gold’, taken from their album “Before Darkness Comes A-Callin’”, a fine example of their dark take on Americana with their harmonies ringing out over Wrigglesworth’s guitar playing. This was followed by ‘House Of Sin’, taken from their latest album, “You Reap What You Sow”, a more spectral number which had Coates playing piano accordion, an instrument she learned to play when pandemically locked in. The accordion made several other appearances, adding some colour to the songs but in truth this was like icing on the cake as the fundamentals of their voices and guitar are splendid within themselves. Wrigglesworth is no mean picker and on several occasions he played short solos which impressed, none more so than on ‘Black Crow’, a song he explained was “as bluegrass as we get.” There was a grand dusty Texas waltz in the shape of ‘Fall Out Of Time’ (with the piano accordion coming into its own) and ‘Travellin’ Man’ was a supremely evocative vision of the romance of the road despite the emotional baggage it entails. ‘Bells Are Ringing In The Churchyard’ found the pair again reaching into a noirish Americana while ‘Turn To Stone’ found them at their most profound, its sonorous tones reaching deep into that darkness which can engulf anyone.
They played several covers in their set. Mentioning a friend of theirs, Hannah Aldridge, they proceeded to sing ‘Ain’t No Ash Will Burn‘, written by Aldridge’s father Walt (a Muscle Shoals swamper no less) and later on, their version of Bruce Robison’s ‘Dreamin’’ allowed the pair to harmonise in a swell Everley Brothers fashion (with Coates admitting to swooning when she met Robison in Nashville). They tucked and tailed the night with a raucous delivery of ‘C. C. Rider’ and an encore of ‘See That My Grave Is Kept Clean’ which allowed Wrigglesworth one last opportunity to show off his very fine guitar picking.
Support on the night was from Calum Park who is well kent within the Scottish traditional folk scene. Tonight he played a fine mix of traditional songs and covers, opening with a fiery delivery of Benjamin Dakota Rogers’ murderous ballad, ‘John Came Home’. From there, he delved into more traditional fare with a fine delivery of David Francey’s ‘Saints & Sinners’ along with a tender rendition of ‘The Snows They Melt The Soonest’ which he said he had discovered via Dick Gaughan’s recording of the song.
