Author: birminghamreview

Words & pics by Charlotte Rose

I find myself brimming with a certain amount of ‘Brummie Pride’ when I visit the Symphony Hall. I can’t help but get caught up in the buzz; and that’s without even stepping foot inside the magnificent main hall.

And tonight is no exception, as I arrive there is a vibe of excitement in the air for tonight’s ‘Folk for Free’ event – the young singer/songwriter, Katherine Priddy (although as Justin Bieber is also performing down the road at the NIA, some of the screams may be for him). 

The Moseley Folk Festival organises a series of ‘Folk for Free’ events across the year, taking over the Symphony Hall Café Bar.

The great bit about a free performance is that you can just stumble across it and experience something new, for nothing. And as people trickle into the bar area, grab a drink, and sit down, I notice a diverse mix of ages in tonight’s audience.

Katherine Priddy opens her set, rather bravely, with an original – ‘Indigo’, and straight away catches the attention of the audience; some of whom are now sitting on the floor. At the age of 18, Priddy’s raw talent is obvious.

She continues with covers of John Martyn, Seth Lakeman and a particular favourite of mine, ‘Rosemary Lane’ by Bert Jansch; her pure vocal tone conveys the lyrics of the songs perfectly, and creates a hypnotic ambiance that transports us into the stories.

‘Ring O Roses’ is Katherine Priddy’s second original song of the first set; a song, that by her own admission, she isn’t so confident about the guitar parts. And whilst there are a couple of slip ups, it doesn’t seem to matter to an audience in admiration of her humbleness.

A short 10 minute break and we’re into the second set, with a mixture of original songs (one of which is so new it hasn’t got a name) and covers – a personal highlight being Iron and Wine’s ‘Naked As We Came’.

And whilst I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur of Folk music, and find some of tonight’s set all a little melancholy, my real enjoyment is in Katherine Priddy’s delivery.

Her performance is one of maturity; and whilst not without faults, something that merits further attention.

And attention I’m sure she’ll get. Perhaps not in the teen screams that are sent Beiber’s way, but I do spy one mesmerised fan handing Priddy a hand written note as she finishes her set and packs away. 

For more on Katherine Priddy, visit her Soundcloud page https://soundcloud.com/katherine-priddy  

Or YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/pridsters?feature=chclk

For more ‘Folk for Free’, and further listings for the Town and Symphony Hall, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk

Words by Ed King

With frozen toes and a full moon, I wait for the No 50 bus; watching two ‘hoodies’ talk in sign language outside the back entrance to Selfridges.

A young girl, with bruised legs and a suitcase, smokes angrily behind me. The old man in front curses at taxis. Birmingham, I think, and stamp my thinly clad feet on the concrete.

The last time I saw Martha Tilston was at a beach bar in Goa; a coconut grove music venue called The Alpha Bar. She performed as part of their regular open mike night and was hocking copies of ‘Bimbling’ – her second solo album.

Tonight Ms Tilston is at the Kitchen Garden Café, in Kings Heath, with another album to plug; her fourth solo endeavour titled ‘Machines of Loving Grace’.

I arrive at the Kitchen Garden Café in time for the support act, an absurdly humble young Folkster called Chris Cleverley. Playing a mix of UK and US traditional Folk, alongside his original material – Cleverley is definitely worth looking out for; with a beautifully laconic persona and dystopian sales techniques.

But the sell out crowd are firmly here to see Tilston Jnr, and as I nestle into my doorway view point I can feel a low rumble of expectation. Martha Tilston has played at the Kitchen Garden Café before, again supported by Chris Cleverly, and the capacity full room doesn’t feel like a fluke.

Opening with ‘Space’, one of my favourite tracks from ‘Bimbling’, Martha Tislton is immediately stronger on stage. The sometimes ‘ethereal’ production on her albums, especially surrounding her vocals, is replaced with a firm and confident delivery. I am reminded of what grabbed me when I first saw her perform.

Accompanied by Matt Tweed on the electric bass, Tislton moves into ‘Over to Ireland’; segueing with reminisce on how the track reminds her of Birmingham and our “friendly hecklers”, even changing a lyric to cement her point.

As Tweed exchanges bass for (and I think I’m right) a bouzouki, a Greek lute, Martha Tilston introduces ‘Falcon’; a song written on a grounded aeroplane about “taking stock of your life”. Tilston’s vocals hot step over soft strings, and eventually leave her eyes closed and smiling. The room, which is divided in an L-Shape, can be nothing but complicit.

Next up is ‘More’, with its more (no pun) fearsome delivery on the seduction of capitalism. I scan the room, with its well meaning middle class, and laugh inwardly a little. And then at myself; a glass of Malbec sitting between my Jasper Conran shoes.

Tilston and Tweed work comfortably through the rest of the first set; fitting in a full length traditional Folk song, ‘Willie o Winsbury’ (complete with an oddly homoerotic 10^th stanza), alongside original solo album tracks. They even coerce a, seemingly unprompted, audience accompaniment; as crowd harmonies of “all the angels” respond through ‘Red’, the penultimate song of this first half.

A ten minute pit stop, and set two opens with ‘Survival Guide’, the gentle warning from Tilston’s latest album, and continues with mostly tracks from her last two LPs.

Personal laments about motherhood and sacrifice, in ‘My Chair’, are delivered alongside the more political message of ‘Wall Street’; whilst ‘Wave Machine’, a faster tempo celebration of nature, gets more audience participation – this time splitting the room into separate harmonies.

And there’s even another traditional Folk song, ‘Dowie Dens o Yarrow’; complete with spiraling body count and violent crimes of passion. Ah the days of yore… such simpler times.

But the highlights of the last act come in two, very different, homages.

The first is ‘Butterflies’, inspired by the ‘celebrated female singer/songwriter’ Joni Mitchell; with Tilston questioning both the necessity to define Mitchell’s gender, and to mention her quite so much on a recent biog. As the sole male of a matriarchal family home, and a copywriter, I breathe a very welcome sigh of sensibility.

The second, and Martha Tilston’s last song of set two, is ‘Old Tom Cat’; an almost classical Spanish sounding tribute to Leonard Cohen. Mellifluous finger picking, over a kindly satirical melody, builds with taunted relish to a “Hallelujah” crescendo.

I’m not a devotee of the man with a hundred nicknames (my personal favourite – ‘Captain Mandrax’), but if you’re going to salute Leonard Cohen, this is a grand way to end it. And the evening; which even squeezes out another audience sing-a-long during the single track encore of ‘Good World’, a positive protest song with one my favourite lines of the night – ‘Everybody’s saying time is running low, so meet you in the supermarket, panic buy, then down below’.

So, later than expected for a Sunday, I down the wine, shake the hands, and rush off for the last bus home.

And whilst the Kitchen Garden Café isn’t a palm tree lined oasis, it is an exquisite little venue for live music; with Martha Tilston surpassing both my expectations and memories.

A pair of extra thermal socks, and we’re even.

For more on the Kitchen Garden Café, including a full list of gigs and events, visit http://www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk

For more on Martha Tislton, including digital downloads of ‘Machines of Love and Grace’, visit http://www.marthatilston.co.uk