It’s been a resurgent year for the music of Katy Rose
Bennett. Her long awaited new album emerged in April and had a successful
launch show at the Kitchen Garden Café in her hometown of Birmingham. To
complete the year she re-united her band and headed into the rural confines of
Worcestershire to play a headline gig in the emerging musical hotbed of
Bewdley. Seriously though, the guys behind the Music in Hall monthly shows have done a
grand job bringing a series of international and British artists to a town not
particularly noted for its touring scene; all this under the
Americana/country/folk banner promoting quality original music itching to get
more deserved coverage.In line with their usual schedule, a couple of support artists with a local connection played a pair of sets leading up to the 9:30 slot when the headliner appears. Unfortunately only one of these acts was seen, but it wasn’t too difficult to latch onto the positive vibes radiating from the three-piece combo Son of John. Not to be confused with the American band of a similar style Sons of Bill, this trio had strong Bewdley roots and have hit on a sultry evocative style of folk-Americana, tinted with an appealing dark undercurrent. Their set of original material certainly caught the ear with a guitar trinity of bass, electric twang and driving acoustic combining well to form an atmospheric sound. They have a new album titled AUTUMN’S HYMN out and it would interest music fans enthused by a deep vocal style amidst a swathe of emotive strings.
perspective with its near entire exposure in a live format.
This evening the four piece band consisted of Katy (guitar,
vocals), Sam Frankie Fox (backing vocals), Lydia Glanville (percussion) and
Laura Mattison (violin). The band format was utilised well during the set with
Katy reverting to duo and solo status for a couple of selective moments.
Throughout the show Katy shared many of the songs’ origins and held the non-musical parts with a warm assuredness. We even had the benefit of two brand new songs hot off the writing notebook with both ‘Box in the Attic’ and ‘Moon’ standing out in their own spheres. The first was almost a poetic piece based on family recollections lifted from three old photos, while the second was a more melodic offering in the style of old time country, jazz, blues.
On three occasions Katy stepped back in time to offer
songs from her previous albums which were issued under her initial recording
name KTB. The best of these on the night was ‘Bluebird’, the title track of an old release and beautifully sung
with Sam. From the new record, ‘Soul in
the Soil’ was the track to raise its profile the most from album listening
especially with Katy filling in details of the subject content. ‘My Friend’ seems set as the rousing show
closer, although it was joined enthusiastically in the audience participation category
by ‘We’ll Keep Trying’. On top of
these, initial favourites from the album including ‘Jack and Ivy’, ‘Counting Kettles’ and ‘Cold November Day’ continue to show Katy at her song writing best;
a great exponent of kitchen sink contemporary folk.
Throughout the show Katy shared many of the songs’ origins and held the non-musical parts with a warm assuredness. We even had the benefit of two brand new songs hot off the writing notebook with both ‘Box in the Attic’ and ‘Moon’ standing out in their own spheres. The first was almost a poetic piece based on family recollections lifted from three old photos, while the second was a more melodic offering in the style of old time country, jazz, blues.
Katy Rose Bennett rose to the challenge of this extended headline
show in grand style and another impressive Bewdley turnout justified the smart
decision to add her to the growing list of quality artists to play the venue in
this context; incidentally one which contains her brothers, Joe and Robin from
The Dreaming Spires. Katy’s prominent return to the local music scene, mainly
in the guise of the new album, has been one of the successes of the year and
fingers crossed for a similar upwards trajectory in forthcoming years.
