The trio on stage for this year’s run of dates was heralded as the Gulf Coast Orchestra with percussionist Mike Meadows joining Geoff Queen as the travelling sidekicks to Hayes. Both are key players on the Austin and wider Texas music scene with a list of impressive associations starting from Kelly Willis, Bruce Robison and Sunny Sweeney before branching out into many other influential performers. The input from Geoff and Mike this evening was invaluable. Geoff added segments of exhilarating electric lead guitar to heaps of emotive pedal steel, while Mike’s innovative percussion had a profound effect on how the songs were received by an enthralled audience. Hayes was just the same straight laced Texan introduced to British audiences nearly a decade ago with the LITTLE ROCK album. His inimitable style, deep rooted lyrics and cool delivery makes him a distinctive performer.
Before eulogising in some of the finer detail of the
headline set, full commendation needs to be reserved for Roxanne de Bastion who
has been performing the opening duties throughout the tour. Whilst being aware
of Roxanne via her association with Hidden Trail Records, this was the first
time giving her music serious attention. What revealed itself was a confident
and assured singer-songwriter possessing a string of impressively assembled
songs. The two which particularly made you sit up and notice were ‘Wasteland’ from her latest EP and a new
song titled ‘Run’, hopefully lined up
for inclusion on a future release. The link between these two finely crafted
songs was Roxanne’s continental heritage with the former being inspired by
change in the city of her upbringing, Berlin, and the latter, her Hungarian
grandparents. To end on an upbeat note, Roxanne conducted some audience
participation with ‘Red and White Blood
Cells’ and the stage was duly set for the guys to do their thing.
Highlights were aplenty from Hayes during his turn in the
spotlight, on his return to a Glee Club venue in the Midlands, albeit swapping
Birmingham for Nottingham on this second visit to our shores in nine months.
The show was distinctly split between the gentler mellow acoustic moments and
the occasional ones where the pace and volume was ramped up. Four songs were lifted
from the brand new album LOVERS AND LEAVERS, with the major focus on ‘The Magic Kid’, penned in honour of his
son Eli. ‘Sake of the Song’, ‘Good While It Lasted’ and ‘The Love That We Need’, also showed that
this new album is worth getting into even if comes across as a little different
to his earlier material.
The major inspiration for the set list were the two previous
albums, with the popular ‘Drunken Poet’s
Dream’ and ‘Bad Liver and a Broken
Heart’ from TROUBLE IN MIND lining up as the encore numbers. The first of
these had a slightly surreal introduction as Hayes imitated Bryan Adams who
co-incidentally was the alternative draw for music fans in Nottingham on the
evening. Just prior to the encore, the guys really rocked the joint with ‘Stomp and Holler’; likewise earlier in
the set with ‘I Got a Gig’ and ‘Kmag Yoyo’. These two songs had
entertaining introductions involving government backed LSD experiments and
referring to a Texas coastal area as Redneck Riviera.
Poignancy and irony were on the table as Hayes introduced
his themed coupling of ‘Jesus and Elvis’
and ‘She Left Me For Jesus’. These
illustrated the wit and emotive side to his writing as well as proving highly
entertaining listens for the audience. Among the other songs shared to a decent
Glee Club gathering was the Grammy nominated ‘Chances Are’ which proved that his writing doesn’t go unnoticed in
more commercial circles as Lee Ann Womack cut an excellent version. ‘Girl Downtown’ always makes me smile
with the line ‘pretty as a plate’, likewise the ‘easy listening’ reference in ‘Hard Out Here’. Throw in ‘Wild Turkey’ and ‘It’s a Shame’, and from memory that completes a significant set of
songs to include in a show.