Gig Review: Baskery - Kitchen Garden, Kings Heath, Birmingham. Sunday 31st October 2021

www.baskery.com

There was no Sunday slumber when Baskery come to town. The Bondesson sisters do have a habit of flicking the on and off switch, but when fully tuned in they prove one heck of an entertaining night out. The pattern of live Baskery experiences does have a certain spaced out theme to it - 2008, 2012, 2014, 2019 and 2021- and the promise from the stage this evening was that we should do this more often. From the early days of supporting Seth Lakeman and a fleeting festival appearance at Shrewsbury, the band have settled with the Kitchen Garden as their West Midlands host when they decide to hop on the tour bus around the UK. Greeted by a sizeable turnout, the sisters - Greta, Stella and Sunniva - responded with an effortless display of rampant rhythm, habitual harmonies and a zestful demeanour.

Album releases of original material tend to be lopsided towards the early years of Baskery mounting a world challenge. Nowadays they appear content with mixing old favourites with covers of old luminaries like Neil Young and Tom Petty. Whatever they turn to Baskery do it well and coax an audience into rapturous approval.

In line with previous Baskery shows, the theme of a whistle stop world tour twists and spins with many a location heralding or inspiring a new song. From the twin Scandinavian outposts of Sweden and Finland, we venture south to the Mediterranean playground, or Greece to be precise, before crossing the pond, just like the band did in the heady days of their pursuit, where the full breadth of the northern part is covered from Canada down to Mexico. Each place has a celebrated tuneful recollection ranging from an air crash with a difference in Mexico ('Big Flo' (Adios)) to a 1700s Swedish drinking song which shall forever remain nameless to non-native speakers. 

Rhythm is king when Baskery hit the beat. Stella slaps and plucks the bass in faultless time, while Greta consistently doubles up on expressive banjo and kick drum. Even Sunniva adds a a touch of drumming to the electric and acoustic guitar to take multi tasking to a new level. Stylistic comparisons are fleeting moments of association, but any country, rock, folk or blues analogies should always be pre-fixed alt. Americana is a little too simplistic, unless you mean the state of mind and Nordicana/Scandicana sounds crass, but makes a point.

Ultimately, a Baskery gig is about tempo and crescendo. You always feel these Stockholm siblings are about to take you somewhere interesting. Although Stockholm at least has an origin status once revealed that Greta now lives in Devon. Where Baskery take you is always climaxed in the encore. A quick glance to a low ceiling is a precaution Sunniva has probably developed over time. The Kitchen Garden has a fairly low one, but not one that was going to restrict. At that point, the Bondesson sisters had signed, sealed and delivered their return to Birmingham.