Every so often an artist needs to freshen up their live show
to keep an audience engaged. For well over ten years Eve Selis has been touring
the UK on an almost annual basis both with a full band and as a duo with long
term musical partner Marc ‘Twang’ Intravaia. However for the 2014 tour
including this evening’s show at the legendary Tingewick Village Hall, it’s a
case of ‘California Dreaming’ or to be more specific ‘San Diego Singing’.
To headline this gig on a sultry evening in the
Buckinghamshire countryside, more akin to the Golden State, Eve morphed in
Berkley, Hart, Selis and Twang to deliver a 75 minute set of glorious two, three
and four part harmonies decorating a plethora of catchy tunes echoing the
golden age of west coast music. For once the effervescent Eve happily settled
into a co-starring role alongside Calman Hart, Jeff Berkley and of course Marc
serving up his usual finger pickin’ treat. The occasion was to celebrate the
release of the quartet’s new self-titled record and promote a load of original
songs possessing that familiar instant appeal.
For a show introduced as one with a plan, the symmetrical and
alphabetically ordered foursome was flanked by Jeff and Marc’s acoustic accompaniment
which at one point took centre stage in a classic guitar duel, similarly to
what Marc conjures up with fellow band member Cactus Jim. Calman and Eve
primarily controlled the vocals to near identical proportion as they surfed
through a batch of crowd pleasing new songs best reflected in ‘California Mountain Home’, ‘Tomorrow on My Mind’, ‘Long Road Back to Love’ and a rousing
country flavoured sing along ‘Let’s Go
Out Drinking’.
The evening was crowned by a trio of diverse covers that
perfectly represented the mood of the evening and covered a variety of bases
from the roots genre. Jeff introduced the San Diego origins of the Jack Tempest
penned classic ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’,
Calman oozed with class tackling James Taylor’s ‘Steam Roller Blues’ and Eve relived her own connection with the
folk tradition of our shores by leading the rendition of ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’. This set came right out of the blue to many
Eve Selis regulars but from the sound of the applause there was a room full of
impressed plaudits.
However for traditional fans of Eve and Marc, there was a
middle 40 minute set by the duo recounting a selection of their favourite tunes
over the years. Although a little impeded by being in the final stages of
recuperating from a roller blade accident, Eve soared through ‘Angels and Eagles’, the now very
appropriate ‘Bump in the Road’ and the
popular live number ‘Any Day’. Her
version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’
has become a recent staple of the live set while Calman was invited on stage to
duet on the excellent waltz number ‘Family
Tree’ and title track from the most recent full Eve Selis album. Eve has
also been busy making a record with her colleague Kim McLean under the Cactus
Honey banner and introduced ‘A Little Bit
of Heaven’ from this release.
Jeff and Calman, just like twelve months ago, were granted a
support slot to present a bunch of songs from their lengthy career as the
Berkley Hart duo. Primarily Jeff plays guitar and Calman provides the vocals and
harmonica but this can be interchangeable and ‘Austin Girl’ and ‘My Name is
Sam’ were probably the two most striking songs from their 20 minute opening
set. At this point it is worth complimenting Mike Trotman and the Empty Rooms
Promotion team for putting on another well attended gig at a location that
epitomises the quintessential English village hall. This was my first visit to
the venue and made all the more memorable by the show put on by Berkley, Hart,
Selis and Twang.
If as expected Eve reverts back to her duo and band work,
and Berkley Hart continue the plough on in a similar vein, it was a privilege to
be present when they came together for a special night to celebrate a style so reminiscent
of their home state. If the intention was for Eve to freshen up her live
presence in the UK, then Berkley, Hart, Selis and Twang hit the target with
excellent precision.
