Many artists pass through the brick walled surroundings of
the Kitchen Garden, but surely few could have put in such a rip-roaring vocal
performance like Kyshona did on this, the second night of her current ‘United’
UK tour. Indeed this pulsating singer-songwriter (South Carolina raised now
Nashville based) was making a return to
Birmingham, and this venue in particular, after a debut slot last September,
but the reins were definitely loosened for this revised format.Kyshona Armstrong, to give her the rarely used full formal name, was a member of the Nashville in the Round song writing trio which toured venues up and down the country in the autumn of 2016. The opening act for those set of dates was the prime reason for Kyshona treading many of the same venues on this new tour with the performer in question, Birmingham based songwriter Robert Lane, now being the gig partner rather than support. To be fair he was never going to compete in the vocal stakes but settled into a role of casting some homespun tunes to an audience who seemed to grow into the gig as the brace of sets rolled out.
From the depth of her musical soul, there was no denying
that Kyshona’s roots burrow deep into the world of gospel, soul and blues. She
may have headed to the corporate infrastructural outlet of Nashville Tennessee
to attempt to turn the riches of her heart into something more tangible to deal
with the cost of living, but the feeling she radiates is rooted firm in the
wider South. In this less restricted format of just rotating with one fellow
performer instead of two, we were exposed to a far deeper revelation of her
repertoire, both in song share and candid insights.
Although the tour had been months in the planning, it has
been barely a week since this unlikely duo were re-united and just the second
show of implementing a variety of vocal and guitar arrangements into each other
songs. Robert was far more active in collaboration, mainly on the guitar front
as he switched from acoustic to electric towards the end of the show. Kyshona
tended to remain on guest vocal harmony duty for her co-performer’s songs,
careful not to dominate them.
The contrasts were aplenty in style with Robert’s mix of
very English-like folk-pop-rock tunes creating an air of duality against
Kyshona’s more gutsy heart spun efforts.
Both artists shared a decent amount of material from a couple of recent
releases, keeping the obligatory cover for the encore when the audience needed
little inducing to help along with the chorus of ‘Too Love Somebody’.
Just taking a sample of songs on offer from this show: ‘Can You Feel it’, ‘The Best of You’, ‘Same Blood’
and ‘Heaven is a Beautiful Place
‘made compelling cases for forwarding the material of Kyshona. In fact the
latter was a song grabbed from her Grandpa in his dying ember days, highlighting
how family and the church have been a guiding influence for her music. Robert’s
picks could quite easily be his song writing retreat effort ‘It Feels Like 5000 Miles’, the rockier ‘You Want it Both Ways’ and the lyrically
incisive ‘Teardrop Tattoo’. More
material from both artists is available from the usual sources as well as
within their own online grottos and the ubiquitous merch table. There is an
inference though that both artists are generally born to prosper in the live
environment.
www.robertlanemusic.co.uk
www.kyshona.com
