Circumstance and opportunity have recently conspired against
seeing Jess Morgan play live, but this seems to have been rectified as the
summer months of 2017 open upon us. Ahead of a scheduled appearance at the city’s
Moseley Folk Festival on the first weekend of September, Jess made a welcome
return to Birmingham as the latest guest of the Nights at the Circus folk
operation. The result was a super set providing satisfying re-assurance that
Jess is continuing to evolve as a highly effective performing
singer-songwriter.
The centrepiece of a set, which pushed the hour and a quarter
mark, was a batch of songs from the latest album EDISON GLORIETTE. This record
saw the light of day at the back end of last year and has transpired to be her
most accomplished effort to date. It was a thrill to hear these songs live for
the first time and revitalised an album which heralded many listens plus a
glowing review around release time.
The added bonus of seeing a singer-songwriter play live is
the opportunity to gain further insight to the songs especially where the
lyrical content is highly valued. Throughout the evening, Jess duly provided to
mix useful chat with the playing thus shedding more light on songs such as ‘In Brooklyn’ (yes based on the New York
borough), ‘Red Rubies’ (rather
gruesome eating habits) and the somewhat self-explanatory ‘Don’t Meet Your Heroes’.
The older material was kept to a minimum with ‘Missionary’ going back to the first time
Jess was seen live when she played a gig in nearby Stourbridge in 2013. Like
then we learned a little of her African adventures at a time before a busy
music life took hold. Perhaps now acquiring the role of oldie status is a firm
Jess Morgan favourite ‘Freckles in the
Sun’ and it was of little surprise for it to appear as the encore number.
The audience had been given the choice of an original or another cover at this
stage with the former getting the shout out.
Earlier in the set Jess had made one delve into the work of
others with a cover of the Steve Earle song ‘Goodbye’. It was apt that a transatlantic deviance occurred at this
point as there is no disguising the Americana influence that is seeping into
her music, albeit framed in a firm folk direction. This has led to interest
from the AMA UK, and a style possibly garnered from excursions across the
Atlantic such as an appearance at Folk Alliance.
On this successful evening held in the upstairs music room
at the Dark Horse, Midlands based singer-songwriter Dan Hartland opened for
Jess. A regular on the local music scene, Dan was joined for his set by a
colleague on double bass and the songs, both old and new, flowed in an affable
style.
As intimated at the outset of this review, this was a timely
return to the city of Birmingham for Jess Morgan, although her many gigs often skirt the area in the wider Midlands. We know that she won’t leave it so
long in the future and it is a given that she will go down well on the Sunday
of Moseley Folk, a day where this increasingly eclectic urban festival makes a
concerted effort to go back to roots. Until that day at the end of the summer,
good memories of this immensely satisfying show will suffice.
www.jessmorgan.co.uk