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| Lou Dalgleish and Micheal Weston King. Not taken at gig. |
“This full band show entertained those
present and is something to try and catch during its numerous performances up
and down the country.” – Three Chords and the Truth UK July 2012. Nearly four months
after briefly mentioning My Darling Clementine in a review of the Maverick
Festival, the opportunity finally arose to attend one of their full length
shows. In the intervening period since that brief festival introduction to this
project, the album HOW DO YOU PLEAD? has been listened to, analysed, praised and
ultimately acknowledged that all the hype surrounding the reviews is fully
justified and a better UK produced country record certainly doesn’t easily come
to mind.
While the theme around the album, and its
live rendition, is to hark back to the golden age of country duets, it’s far
more than a retro- infused tribute show. With a batch of high quality songs,
all possessing a timeless feel to them, the finesse, passion and top quality
performance by husband and wife collaborators, Lou Dalgleish and Michael Weston
King, suggest the focus on this type of music should be the future not just the
past.
While being unashamedly pretentious in
the following comment, this concept album takes you on an emotional journey
through a relationship breakdown that in true country tradition doesn’t have a
happy ending, although it does fall short of including the ubiquitous killing
song. With each track the story meanders along before reaching its inevitable
conclusion. Without going into too much detail about it, just obtain a copy and
enjoy the listening experience yourself.
So prior to its live airing, the question
was pondered ‘Would the album be played in track order?’ Well the answer was,
not exactly, and this potentially leaves an opportunity to develop a future
show around its narration, a suggestion surely containing some mileage and
worthy of consideration. Back to the live show and inevitably the opener, in
line with the album, was ‘By a Thread’
and it would be virtually impossible not to close the evening without the
emotional and heartfelt concluding track ‘Goodnight
Louise’. In between, the healthily-sized audience were served all but one
of the album’s eleven other tracks, albeit as indicated not necessarily in
recorded order. For information, the poignant song ‘She is Still My Weakness’ was the omitted number but it would be
far more positive and relevant to focus on the best of the others.
From such a fabulous collection of songs,
it is unfair to single out any individual performance but deserved mentions
must go to ‘Going Back To Memphis’ , ‘Put
Your Hair Back’ and ‘Departure Lounge’.
The first is probably the album’s standout track and, sadly, Michael’s reference
to it being a response to Tom T. Hall’s ‘That’s
How I Got to Memphis’ passed most of the audience by. Although duet
delivery is the format for all of the songs, Lou does take centre stage on the
middle of this trio with her own charismatic style and impressive vocals. Finally
‘Departure Lounge’ is also another
personal favourite and its introductory reference to Halesowen International
Airport had some light-hearted relevance.
To enhance the live experience of My
Darling Clementine, the band step aside to allow Lou to demonstrate her
keyboard skills with a solo performance of Elvis Costello’s ‘Indoor Fireworks’ and leading off a
version of ‘Good Year For The Roses’
before Michael returned to the stage mid-song to renew the duet. Many reviews
have referenced the band’s resemblance to other iconic country duet acts, this
one is just going to name-check the
original source of ‘Cause I Love You’;
the Johnny Cash and June Carter song
performed during the evening, a number they also contributed to a
tribute at the Southern Fried Festival in Perth, Scotland. Michael did take time out to preview one of his new songs 'I No Longer Take Pride', which was an indication of an upcoming project.The evening wouldn’t be complete without a mention to the five piece band that expertly back Lou and Michael. Martin Belmont contributes guitar, Alan Cook on Pedal Steel with Liam Grundy on piano and organ. The rhythm section has Martin Cox on stand up bass and Neil Bullock on percussion. All made valuable contributions to the evening’s entertainment. Also World Unlimited deserve praise for acknowledging the talents of the band, bringing them to Birmingham and being rewarded by switching the show to the Hare and Hounds larger room to house the sizeable audience.
However the evening was all about My Darling Clementine and the much appreciated and vaunted efforts they are making in taking forward the mantle of the wonderful country duet formula. Hopefully this will continue and be built upon in the future.
www.mydarlingclementinemusic.co.uk
My Darling Clementine - Going Back To Memphis