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| John at Calgary Folk Festival in 2013 |
Not only has John Fullbright managed to follow up his Grammy
nominated debut album with a super new release, but his stage presence and live
show has moved up a level since he played his first UK dates just over a year
ago. Whether initially on guitar, intermittently on harmonica or increasingly
on piano, the modern day Okie from Okemah gave a compulsive captivating
performance to a packed Birmingham crowd in the Glee Club’s studio room. The
vocals were intense and domineering, the musicianship was majestic and moving
as John delivered a set rich in finely crafted songs with an understandable
slight bias towards the new material subject to upcoming release.
While it was a pity that the new record SONGS wasn’t
available for folks to pick up on the night, the appetite to savour these tunes
on a recurring basis was well and truly whetted as John played the perfect introductory
showcase to many hearing these songs for the first time. Having been fortunate
to receive an advance copy, the live version gave many of the songs an added
dimension especially with a jaw dropping rendition of all 7:38 minutes of ‘High Road’ to close the main set. By
this time John looked seemingly settled on the piano, including trying out a
version of the popular ‘Gawd Above’
on the keys. However the epic performance of 'High Road' elevated this album track to
monumental live status and brought the evening to a peak which John came close
to surpassing in the encore with a blues-laced barnstorming version of the Bessie
Smith famed classic ‘Ain’t Nobody’s
Business’.
This was the third occasion of seeing John live and the ease
of his informative onstage banter has markedly grown to reveal more of what
makes a great singer-songwriter tick. Obviously there was a tilt towards his
home state especially with a graphic explanation of a favourite Oklahoma past
time of noodling catfish. Most of the audience were familiar with the tracks
off his celebrated first album and we learned of his experience of playing ‘Satan and St Paul’ in the title’s twin
city of Minneapolis. While we also enjoyed ‘Fat
Man’ and the wonderful ‘All the Time
in the World’ from this album, the evening was easily based around the
introduction of SONGS.
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| Photo by Vicki Farmer |
Right from the off, this time on guitar, John launched straight
into ‘Write a Song’ and weaved through
a bulk of the album with notable versions of ‘Happy’, ‘Going Home’ and
the beautiful tale of long distance love ‘The
One That Lives Too Far’. Although on the surface the new material was more
of a similar quality to what the industry had rejoiced in FROM THE GROUND UP, listening
live they came across as more thoughtful and introspective numbers that suited
perfectly John’s individual style of delivery. Last year John had toured with
Terry Ware but this evening you never felt that a sidekick was missing as every
inch of the intimate venue was owned by imposing music of John Fullbright.
To round off a comprehensive set list, ‘Until You Were Gone ,’Keeping
Hope Alive’, ‘When You’re Here’ and
‘Never Cry Again’ were more proof of
the special qualities that will make SONGS a must have album when released
while John celebrated the work of Don McLean with a cover of one of his earlier
album tracks ‘Bronco Bill’s Lament’. The
only other recalled song on this evening was ‘Unlocked Doors’ which surfaced on John’s LIVE AT THE BLUE DOOR
album.
The decision of the promoters to bring John Fullbright to
Birmingham on this second night of the tour was immensely successful and the
good news is that John is making a couple of visits to Britain this summer with
dates being continually added. On the evidence of this evening, many more
people will get to enjoy the talents of John Fullbright and can eventually further
savour his music by adding SONGS to their collection.