The name Marlon Williams may not be well known in the UK at
the moment, but that has huge potential to change after witnessing his awesome
set in the designated late night lounge on the opening day of this year’s
SummerTyne Americana Festival. It was quite a coup to enlist the services of a
New Zealand singer-songwriter en route to continuing his increasing growth in the
US. Listening to his material online following the initial booking plus viewing
an impressive KEXP radio showcase on You Tube, only probably prepared you for
10% of Marlon’s ultimate appeal.
The vocal prowess of this South Island resident from the Land
of the Long White Cloud at times soared in jaw dropping proportions as he used
every second of the allotted hour to primarily paint the landscape with a heavy
dose of noir. This was an artist adept at coaxing the listener into a
semi-conscious state, oblivious to the surroundings while totally immersed in the
depth of the music. The songs spawned mainly from Marlon’s guitar, splintered
by a couple served from the piano including the introduced new piece ‘Beautiful Dress’. It was also from this
position that the line of the night was delivered in ‘like a snowman in the spring’;
protruding starkly from the song, ‘Love
is a Terrible Thing’.
As Marlon’s set weaved along, the song content wandered
through infanticide territory (‘The
Ballad of Minnie Dean’), expressing the thoughts of a river in his native
New Zealand (‘Arahura’) and the self-explanatory
‘Dark Child’. Even his covers came
from contrasting and interesting pools with a version of Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’
getting a glowing introduction and Jim Reeves’ ‘He’ll Have to Go’ just being being tagged with the comment ‘well it is an
Americana festival’.
It would surely be a universal call to single out the
powerful and upbeat closer ‘Hello Miss
Lonesome’ as the superb standout moment. This prominently opens Marlon’s
latest self-titled album, with its final two songs, ‘When I Was a Young’ and more specifically ‘Everyone’s Got Something to Say’, also reverberating profoundly
around a totally absorbed room.
