After six long months of no gigs, it was good to get back on the live music train with the first socially distanced indoor show. While there was ample space on site for Beardy Folk to bring live music back outdoors with their successful three day festival last month, logistics are so much more difficult for a venue like the Kitchen Garden to stage gigs within the current regulatory guidelines.
This wasn't the first gig the venue had staged since an easing of the lockdown conditions and the capacity was far from tested in the turnout for Rodney Branigan; an exiled Texan living in London for the last thirteen years. Those choosing to step back into the world of live music were greeted to a laid back evening, fully conversant and compliant with the regulations that are in a constant state of flux.
From the floor, Rodney Branigan delivered an entertaining show, using every minute of a creeping curfew to share songs - borrowed and original - improvised guitar playing and oodles of mischievous wit. He was eternally grateful of getting the opportunity to ply his craft in its rightful setting and fully humble to those choosing to spend the evening in his company. The audience was a mixture of the fully initiated and those taking a punt on the first singer-songwriter passing through town as we start the long road to normality.
This evening heralded the dawning of a new era, but decked with many familiar features. Gratefulness and relief was a combined feeling as live music starts to get back on its feet. We may even view this Rodney Branigan show as pioneering. Now with the first one under the belt, let's look positive to a future that will blend familiarity and a new world. Audiences will return in some capacity, and in the words of that famous film Field of Dreams - if you build it, they will come.