 |
| Cale Tyson |
Call the bets off and close the book as the rising star in
country music stakes now has a clear winner. With a striking posture, stunning
poise and a voice soaked in country tradition, Cale Tyson breathes life into
the corpse of the modernistic genre stance, to relight the flame of cosmic
Americana. On a simpler scale he is just a happy go lucky guy, extremely
talented, incredibly humble and intuitive to a sound which ricochets around
every aspect of sense and emotion. The guys from Clubhouse Records have mined
the Nashville scene with exquisite taste to uncover this gem and the delivery
of both his music and live presence to UK audiences is rapidly evolving into
one of the highlights of 2015.
 |
| Pete Lindberg |
Cale’s inaugural trip to our shores was winding down when he
called into Leicester’s distinguished roots venue to remind the chosen few that
the world is a more beautiful place if you dig a little deeper. Teaming up with
his sidekick Pete Lindberg on lead guitar, the dynamic duo weaved through a set
of the new, very new, old and very old to leave not one single punter feeling
short changed. Maybe a sea change in industry direction is needed for the
chosen few to protract into the lucrative many, but Sturgill Simpson is blazing
a trail of the good guy keeping it lonesome, on'ry and mean, so why not Cale
Tyson. If Sturgill pushes boundaries, then Cale walks more of a tightrope with
intrepid balance. The path may be narrow, but it leaves a sweet scent of
nostalgia and the odd empty glass.
Just as the initiated from the old country are being blessed
with Cale’s existing material, the man himself is ready to move on and thus we
were treated to the most up to date version of Cale Tyson with a raft of songs
itching to get the full studio effect. If we were not so forgiving or the fact
that the new songs were so good, there may have been a call for more from the
two Eps which Clubhouse Records have kindly merged into the INTRODUCING CALE
TYSON record. Of the five to richly flavour the set list, ‘Old Time Blues’ was golden class, ‘Not Missing You’ drained no small amount of feeling and ‘Oaxaca’ whisked you off to a world far
away from the East Midlands. By the way, ‘Can’t
Feel Love’ and ‘Long Gone Girl’
were pretty good as well.
 |
| Luke Tuchscherer |
From the batch of new songs ready to hit the mixing desk, ‘Careless Soul’ and ‘Two Timer’ were retained most in the memory from first listen, with
the latter showing that Cale’s soulful blues gene is just as emphatic as the
one which precisely taps into the heart of classic country music. Upon release
of the new record, Cale may just well find a growing UK fan base ready to
support it in emerging numbers especially if more people latch onto the
shameless promotion by Bob Harris on BBC radio.
An enticing prospect of seeing any artist explicitly driven
by the past is wondering what covers they are going to celebrate and Cale
certainly lived up to the anticipation. A version of Jimmy Rodgers’ ‘Blue Yodel No.1 (T for Texas)’ revealed
many hidden talents in a Leicester audience, while a perfect take on John Prine’s
‘That’s the way the World Goes Round’
presented Pete with the opportunity to share his vocal skills and cement his
essential piece in the show jigsaw. A crooning version (as if there could be another way) of ‘Make the World Go Away’
to end the evening suggested that Cale can mix with it Eddy Arnold as much as
with Gram Parsons.
 |
| Luke Whittemore |
You should now be getting the message that this was one
special evening which got off to a super little start with a pair of Luke’s
showing that we Brits can punch above our weight in the world of Americana.
Luke Whittemore opened proceedings with a style shaped by the solo acoustic delivery
of Jason Isbell and showed glimpses of what a fine record he can make if the rays
of good fortune present an opportunity. On the other hand, Luke Tuchscherer has
just grasped the mantle of temporarily moving from behind the drums of The Whybirds
to record an excellent solo record last year. ‘One of Us ‘and ‘Dear Samantha’
were just two tracks from this album to feature in Luke’s 30 minute slot and he
honourably warmed the crowd up with invited participation to join him on Dobie
Gray’s ‘Drift Away’. Strong vocals
and a desire to pour his heart and soul in deeply personal songs are just a few
qualities of Luke Tuchscherer and the next development is to savour these songs
in a band format later in the summer.
On the subject of bands, one of the abiding memories of
seeing Cale Tyson for the first time is pondering how he would move onto the
next level of awesomeness with the full accompaniment of pedal steel, keys,
percussion et al. Fingers crossed that this will be made possible in the future
with the rising of his star and the much warranted funding. In the meantime,
the superlatives were out in force to form a lexicon of appreciation for an
artist driven by an immaculate desire to recreate with an immense magnitude. If
you backed Cale Tyson to be the real deal, the only thing left to say is
collect your winnings at the door.
