She may be a proud Australian but Emily Barker is now firmly
established as one of the UK’s leading ambassadors of alt-folk, Americana and
roots music. This ridiculously talented young lady has successfully turned her
hand to a number of different projects and styles over the last few years with
this new Vena Portae venture matching up favourably alongside her best. Emily
would be the first to acknowledge the importance of the collaboration which has
evolved into a recently released debut album and this hastily arranged short UK
tour. A packed Kitchen Garden Café appeared to be at its most appreciative in
turnout, attentiveness and after show mingling as this Anglo Swedish quartet
served a near complete menu of the new record with a couple of extras thrown
in.
Although Vena Portae officially market themselves as a trio
comprising of Emily (vocals, guitars, banjo, harmonica), Dom Coyote (guitars,
vocals) and Ruben Engzell (bass), the Swedish contingent has been doubled for
these live dates with Jesper Jonsson adding the percussion spice. Despite self-admitted
limited practise, the band had few problems transferring the excellent songs
from studio to stage, or more precisely a cramped corner of the Café where the electric
sockets are. These surroundings have brought the best out of many an artist and
tonight was no different as friendly banter, informative inter-song chat and mighty
fine musicianship brought the record, especially its Swedish origins, to life.
With a likelihood of the main act playing just over an hour,
the promoters went to local artist Michael King of Boat to Row to open the evening
and he duly entertained the audience while his own band were just around the
corner recording some new songs. When Michael supported Blair Dunlop at the
neighbouring Hare and Hounds venue in May, it was felt that the sound system
didn’t do justice to his slightly lo-fi vocals but there was no such issue in
the Café.
In a somewhat surprising twist, Vena Portae added a couple
of new songs to their set suggesting that there is more to come from a group of
artists so involved in other activities. To most of the audience, all the songs
were new but to someone who has played the album countless times since its
press issue, the unrecorded tunes were a significant style switch with ‘What We Do Matters’ adopting a more
rockier feel and ‘No Enemies’ an
acoustic duet featuring Emily and Dom. The other non-album song to feature acquired
encore status and also added a further Swedish ingredient with ‘Young Folks’ being originally recorded
by Peter Bjorn and John. The link between this and the new record is that Peter
Moren was responsible for the remix of the lead single ‘Summer Kills’, one of the many songs contributing to the success of
the evening.
Apart from the prominent and aforementioned flagship track,
the two standout songs were the fabulous ‘Flames
and Fury’ and the Christian Kjellvander (more Swedish connections) penned ‘Transatlantic’. Both songs were
introduced with background stories and we were duly informed about the effect
of Emily’s bourbon intake on the spirited first track and the location of the
writing for Christian’s song, the only album track not to feature the writing
input of Emily, Reuben or Dom. The other tracks to infiltrate the set from the
record were ‘Foal’, ‘Turning Key’, ‘Stingrays’,
‘All Will Be Well’, ‘The Mapless Sea’ and show opener ‘Before The Winter Came’. All were expertly executed with Ruben and
Jesper holding them together on rhythm allowing Emily and Dom to share vocals, switch
guitars and decorate some tracks with the classical Americana combo of banjo and harmonica.
Further insight reveals that Vena Portae have been bubbling
under the surface for a number of years and it’s to the joy of the enlightened
music public that a release and tour has emerged. With her prominence
elsewhere, Emily is going to attract the attention but essentially Vena Portae
is a carefully crafted ensemble of fine musicians and few in the Kitchen Garden
Café would argue as to the quality of their show.
