Sunday 9 February 2014

The Stray Birds take to the skies & leave us in the clouds

Is that title too wordy?? I don't need to say anything else really do I ? That's a lot of questions about the title I really should stop typing exactly what I'm thinking right now.....

Anyway from the title you can probably see where this is heading. Well first it's heading to Southport and The Atkinson which is a very cool arts venue in the northern seaside resort. Last month was the first time we headed to this venue and just to make sure it was as good as we thought first time round we headed back in Feb to see why so many people are talking about The Stray Birds. The Atkinson is still cool.. nuff said.

I won't bore you with the pre gig pizza and the conversation about how it's nice to go somewhere and buy something from real people without having to fill in 15 questionnaires before you're allowed to pay which is what you seem to have to do online nowadays and then asking for the bill in a hurry and the waitress explaining to us that we should go online and fill in 15 questionnaires about the service, how we found out about the place , whether we have ever boxed a kangaroo blah blah blah..[mind shutting down... let me pay I want to go] Oops sorry I seem to have typed it anyway. Oh well on with the evening.

So in case you are reading this and thinking what is this lunatic on about? get on with the review. I would just like to point out this is not a review it is a blog, a diary entry of another gig I have attended and want to remember in my own rambly way available for anyone to read[but you were probably right about the lunatic thing ;)]

So eventually after I'd typed loads of weird unrelated stuff we sat down with drinks in The Atkinson ready for whatever musical wonderment was about to unfold. The evening started as is only right with a Grateful Fred event with an opening foray by the Freds to put us at ease with the world. As the set neared the end people were encouraged to take part in the Duck Call Symphony orchestra or Kazoo-fest as it will go down in the annals of time. It was great fun and the Kazooists [this is the proper technical term... well it might not be I might have just made that up] were led by the master Kazooist Glynne Callaghan while the band played a self penned Irish tune by Fretful Ged (Gerard Martin Sugrue) and then finally You Are My Sunshine. I do need to say the Gaelic tune written by Gerard is ace I have heard him play that before and I really love that sound. Needless to say we were all left in a happy state of mind after that.

 
Link to Kazoofest

The support for this night were We Died At Sea who started out with a washboard, double bass, fiddle and guitar and then settled in with drums for percussion. I didn't really know much about these lads but looking around the room they were doing a good job of keeping the spirits high with their ragtime/swing style from across the Pennines.

 
Vid Link
 
 

So this was it, this was what I had been waiting for... I have a real excited anticipation waiting for a band I've come to see but these days quite often I'm coming in blind(or deaf if you want to use the correct senses.. gee your pedantic ;]). A little explanation required I think, The Stray Birds had been recommended to me by several people but the final straw that convinced me to go check them out was hearing Rick Stuart of Roots & Fusion radio show enthuse about them. So this final recommendation and hearing one track on his show was enough to get me to the gig. I really find I prefer seeing people live first before I go and buy the records as you find out up front whether they can deliver (I've also found the artists I like are normally better live where the emotion is tangible). It was interesting to see that Maya de Vitry and Oliver Craven we're not connected via the usual umbilical, they were playing into mics and all three, so Charles Muench as well, were singing into one mic which gave the trio a very cool on stage chemistry as they moved in and out from the mic. Maya started as lead vocal for the first couple of songs while Oliver looked ready to take off as he rolled onto his tiptoes while he teased some beautiful tunes out of his fiddle. By the time the second song started we were all ready to be led to the stars by the wonderful tones of Maya's voice. So as the music eased it's way deeper and deeper into my subconscious I started watching the effortless way that Charles laid the double bass foundations for each song, hands moving as if a separate entity while the rest of him committed to harmonizing with the rest of the trio. I loved seeing (and hearing) each one take on the lead vocal role as the night moved on giving your ears a contrast in audible magic and stopping you getting stuck in a groove( hey look I made a record reference by accident.. what do you mean 'so what'.. well it made me smile). As you know if you've read my blogs before I'm not great with set lists even more so if I don't know the artists back catalogue of tunes but what I do know is how I feel and as the melodies took root I found my foot tapping, my head nodding and my smile widening and that means I had a great night.
I will definitely be looking out for what The Stray Birds do in the future and in the meantime I'm gonna make sure I get hold of whatever they've got available. I suggest you do the same and if they are playing near you( actually even if they are not near you travel it's worth it) go see The Stray Birds live.
Vid link



Big thanks to

Grateful Fred
http://gratefulfred.co.uk/

We Died At Sea
http://wediedatsea.bandcamp.com/

And the truly superb The Stray Birds
http://thestraybirds.com/