It surely can’t be a coincidence that my third straight year
of visiting the Saturday of the Maverick festival would yet again be blessed
with glorious sunshine especially in a summer littered with record rainfall.
Perhaps it has something to do with the finest annual assembling of country,
roots and Americana artists on UK soil that is somehow granted the privilege to
perform in a perfect setting each year. So once those omnipresent rain clouds
had cleared during the 175 mile drive to this tranquil Suffolk location, the
stage was set for the relentless procession of high quality gifted musicians purveying
the fruits of their creative craft.
Circumstances dictate that only the Saturday of this festival can be attended, so for me this year there was sadly no Corb Lund or Emily Barker who no doubt gave fine performances during the Friday evening slots that launch the weekend. Also the opportunity for the Sunday morning chill out with the remaining artists participating in the closing gospel brunch is missed, but the soul of the festival resides in the 12 hours plus of pure entertainment that embraces the Saturday. Even then it is maybe next time for such acclaimed artists as Amelia Curran and Rose Cousins as well as the several other dedicated acts that committed no other indiscretion than having a schedule clash with another top class performer and that is always the downside to assembling such an impressive cast of participants. Most of the artists making the final cut of my extensive featured list had been witnessed live before but a festival would not be complete without that experience of elevating a first time seen artist into the upper echelons of your live appreciation list.
Circumstances dictate that only the Saturday of this festival can be attended, so for me this year there was sadly no Corb Lund or Emily Barker who no doubt gave fine performances during the Friday evening slots that launch the weekend. Also the opportunity for the Sunday morning chill out with the remaining artists participating in the closing gospel brunch is missed, but the soul of the festival resides in the 12 hours plus of pure entertainment that embraces the Saturday. Even then it is maybe next time for such acclaimed artists as Amelia Curran and Rose Cousins as well as the several other dedicated acts that committed no other indiscretion than having a schedule clash with another top class performer and that is always the downside to assembling such an impressive cast of participants. Most of the artists making the final cut of my extensive featured list had been witnessed live before but a festival would not be complete without that experience of elevating a first time seen artist into the upper echelons of your live appreciation list.
Sarah MacDougall |
Scott Poley and Cara Luft |
Amy Speace is not an artist who has come across my radar before but that situation was rectified following her mid afternoon slot in the Barn. Hailing from New Jersey but now residing like so many in Nashville, Amy is certainly slanting towards the folk side of the Americana spectrum and can number the legendary Judy Collins amongst her admirers. In fact a song featuring in Amy’s set, the impressive ‘Weight of the World’, gained further prominence by being covered by Collins who has taken a keen interest in her career. Like so many artists on view, Amy is in the UK to promote a new album and used her set to preview a couple of songs from the upcoming release ‘Land Like a Bird’ including ‘Ghost’ and ‘Vertigo’. Amy uses her natural charm to portray the model of a folk-inspired singer-songwriter and she recalled a tale of spending hours with other artists at festivals across the U.S before launching into ‘It’s Too Late To Call It a Night’, a song written with Jonathan Byrd who visits this country for an appearance at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival later in the summer. She’s spending most of July in this country opening for Alejandro Escovedo and is definitely an artist to explore further.
Hatful of Rain |
During this very busy day, two established artists were only afforded partial set visits but this is by no means a slur on their performances just the constraints of fitting 24 hours of music into 12 hours. Jason Ringenberg was one of the pioneers of alt-country in the mid 80’s and on this solo UK visit he likes to mix rock ‘n roll stories, Hank Williams’ covers and taking audience requests for old Scorchers numbers, a band he is bringing back to this country in October. Similarly to Ringenberg, Michael Weston King has been making good quality music for many years and is currently receiving well deserved recognition for his My Darling Clementine project where along with his wife, Lou Dalgleish, he celebrates the iconic days of some of country music’s great male-female duets. This full band show entertained those present and is something to try and catch during its numerous performances up and down the country.
The final two acts performing on the outdoor stage, which
closes prematurely at 6-30, were watched in their entirety. First up was four
piece Canadian band, Ladies of the Canyon, who were virtually parachuted into
this country from a European tour and used this flying UK visit to test the
market. The four female members delivered their brand of easy listening light
country rock via a couple of acoustic guitars, double bass and tambourine
creating a sound that captures the mood of the origins of their name, the
iconic Joni Mitchell album and its connotation of 70’s California. Apart from
the explicit revenge song ‘Billy Blasko’,
the most memorable moment from the band’s set was their version
of the Robbie Robertson song, ‘The Night
They Drove Old Dixie Down’, covered by amongst others, The Band and Joan
Baez.
Eve Selis |
Carrie Rodriguez and Luke Jacobs |
As the evening activity moved to the delightfully titled
Peacock Café, with its beautifully designed artist backdrop, there was time for
one more visit to the Barn to catch the performance from the fiddle playing
singer-songwriter Texan Carrie Rodriguez who is currently working alongside
guitarist Luke Jacobs. This young lady has to be one of the most talented
musicians on the Americana circuit and she did not disappoint those present
with a combination of new and old songs that has seen her skills harnessed by
some of the industry’s respected figures such as Chip Taylor and Mary Gauthier.
From her 'Seven Angels on a Bicycle'
album she played the title track, ‘I Don’t
Want To Play House Anymore’, ‘50’s French Movie’ and ‘Got Your Name On It’, while from her new album due to be released
later this year, ‘Lake Harriet’ came
over as a really strong track. Excuse the pun but while playing’ second fiddle’
to Carrie, Luke Jacobs supported her
well with both acoustic and lap steel guitar. The new album is definitely one
to look forward to as well as Carrie’s continued commitment to promote her
music in the UK.
More time has been spent in the Peacock Café on previous
Maverick visits but this year only two artists were witnessed, although when
you are in the presence of the contrasting styles of Otis Gibbs and Gretchen
Peters for nearly two hours you know the festival organisers are doing
something right. The reputation of Otis Gibbs as the epitome of the travelling
American folk singer continues to grow as he undertakes his annual extensive
jaunt around theses isles leaving memories of real life tales recounted in the spoken
and sung word sealed with his humble signature of ‘thanks for giving a damn.’
As usual he opens with ‘Small Town Saturday Night’ and closes with the spine
tingling ‘Karluv Most’ the Czech name for Prague’s landmark Charles Bridge. In
between Otis pays tribute to a late friend in 'Something More' and introduces the audience to a
couple of songs from his new album ‘Harder
Than Hammered Hell’. As he left the packed Peacock Café stage to a rousing
applause, this was not to be the end of his night’s work.Gretchen Peters and Otis Gibbs duet on Wild Horses |
Unlike many other festivals, the Maverick doesn’t really
have a headline act, summing up the egalitarian nature of the artists invited,
but highly respected Nashville based singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters appeared
at the top of the promotional information and was selected to close proceedings
in the Peacock Café around 10.30. This second 2012 visit to the UK with husband
and co-performer Barry Walsh followed a highly successful spring tour promoting
her critically acclaimed album ‘Hello
Cruel World’ and is designed to bring her work to a wider audience through a
string of festival appearances. With a set containing many of the masterful songs from this album
such as ‘Woman on the Wheel’, ‘Matador’, ‘Five
Minutes’ and ‘Idlewild’ , a fair
number of the audience were already familiar with these songs and long standing
admirers were treated to a version of, what is considered her UK signature
tune, ‘On a Bus to St. Cloud’. Although the tight schedule restricted
encores during the day, Gretchen’s enthusiastic audience were treated to one
more number with a song which is
becoming a feature of both her own and ‘Wine, Women and Song’ shows , a
rendition of ‘Wild Horses’ by the
Rolling Stones ably assisted on partial duet by the invited return to the stage
of Otis Gibbs. Spring 2013 tour dates are already announced by Gretchen and we
eagerly await her next career development.
With the closing of the Peacock Café, it was just left to the
Barn to bring the whole successful day to its conclusion with a blistering
performance from Austin royalty and long time alt-country legend Alejandro Escevado and his band the Sensitive Boys.
Without being too familiar with his body of work, the let your hair down
rock-infused sound certainly raised his profile within my sphere of awareness
and impressive tracks such as ‘Bottom of
the World’ written about the live music capital of the world – Austin,
Texas, and ‘San Antonio Rain’ created
a desire to further seek out his material. This includes an imminent album release
called ‘Big Station’ of which the
title track was included in the set.
As the band came to the end of their encore cover of the
Rolling Stones ‘Beast of Burden’, the
time had come to leave Maverick 2012 and hope that the apparent success of the
festival is matched by the all important financial reckoning. The attendance
seemed in line with previous years and with the added proof that the sun does
shine on Maverick Saturday, surely the scene is set for a re-staging of the day when country, roots and Americana
assembles in a small farm in Suffolk.