First up was Shop Session regulars KwalaParla. KwalaParla comes in a few different guises and generally involves me surrounding myself with much better musicians & tonight saw the return of Ryan Bacon on lead guitar. Young and gifted is a great description of Ryan while I can slip into the title of old and gravelly the combination seems to work well and the night was off to the start we had hoped for.
KwalaParla Princesses
Next up was Paul and Nikki Henshaw. It seems the fickle finger of fate had thrown Paul & the Shop Sessions together as Paul had just contacted us as an artist had dropped out of one of the guest slots and on checking out a vid we thought Paul & Nikki would be perfect for the night. Turns out we were right.. Paul got the audience on their side straight away with a bit of playful banter and then leading into 'Down by The Water'. I really enjoyed the vocal harmonies and rhythms that lifted the spirits on this night of celebration and looking around the room I could see everyone else was feeling the same. It's always brilliant to see a new (to us) live artist that you can connect to and we were totally won over by Paul and Nikki and can't wait to see them back at the Shop Sessions in 2015.
Paul & Nikki Henshaw 6.30am
Well we can't get enough of Baxter and just to prove it they were back for our end of year celebration and we knew it would be ace!! When apart Hayley Strangelove is a singer/songwriter and Paul Senior is lead singer in the Rock band Son Of Shinobi bring them together and they become Baxter an outfit that generally takes electrically induced songs that you think you know inside out and then pulls the plug on the electric and wows you with an acoustic version normally with a twist on the vocal making it feel like a Baxter song. Hayley and Paul just took the night by the scruff of the neck and made sure we knew we were gonna have a good time.... and we did, totally ace as ever!!
Molly's Chamber... Kazoo... Genius!!!
Baxter Molly's Chamber
So after a fantastic year and a fantastic evening so far how do you launch the night into orbit?? With what we at the Shop Sessions think is one of the best live acoustic duos around at the moment ME and Deboe. Amongst the plethora of shoe gazing introspective singer/songwriters out there ME and Deboe stand out like an exploding firework against the night sky. The composite parts of ME and Deboe are Mercy Elise and Sarah Deboe who come together in perfect synchronisation to produce a sound, even in this unplugged venue that is acoustically striking.
Charlotte's Choice
Here They Come
Although this would be something like the 5th time I'd seen ME and Deboe I'd always been so overwhelmed with the music I had never actually taken time to watch the delivery but as this was by far the longest set I'd seen them do I was able to take in Sarah Deboe effortlessly gliding over the fretboard making the visual playing look elegant while the sound emanating from the guitar was so aggressive. Mercy Elise rhythmically beats the guitar creating a wonderful percussive sound, her new guitar well and truly broken in by the end of the night. The layers of sound these two contrasting styles make coupled with the distinctly different but complementary voices is totally breath taking every song was acoustic gold. As well as their own songs there were a few covers the highlight of which for me was a song they had not done for an audience before 'Another Brick in The Wall'. For me this is the best version of this song I've heard superb!!. Tracks from the new EP 'Here They Come' also shone through to give us an idea of the direction Mercy Elise & Sarah are heading musically.
Forward Live & Unplugged
Just in case you are in any doubt after reading this we think ME and Deboe are AWESOME!! you need to head off right now find out where they are playing and go, cancel your Holiday, Wedding, Life saving operation (ok this one might be a step too far) you won't regret it.
This was an unexpected gem. Enjoy!!(Only for people who read the blog. Sssshhh!!)
Well what a year and what a way to finish. a Big big thankyou to all the artists that have played this year, all the audience members that keep supporting live music and finally my wonderful family that really make it possible to keep holding these events. Have a great Christmas and we'll see you in 2015.....
For KwalaParla sounds checkout
https://soundcloud.com/kwalaparla
More wonderful music from Paul & Nikki Henshaw can be found here
http://www.paulhenshaw.com/
Keep your eyes open locally for Baxter and keep updated here..
https://www.facebook.com/baxterduo
Go and download everything ME and Deboe and checkout the live dates here
http://www.meanddeboe.com/
To find out what's going on at the Shop Sessions and who's coming up
https://www.facebook.com/TCJShopSessions
http://www.thecyclejunction.com/blog/?page_id=1447
