Friday, October 23, 2009

The Sweet & Seductive Music of the Mercurials

The Mercurials - Adi Sappir, Mark Ferrie, Andrew Pendlebury
A pleasant way to beguile away Friday lunchtime in sunny Melbourne was seeing The Mercurials perform live at Basement Discs.

The Mercurials, a trio comprising two guitars and a cello, are Mark Ferrie, Andrew Pendlebury and Adi Sappir. The have been playing as a threesome since 2003, though previously Andrew and Mark performed for many years on and off as a duo, and individually in other bands such as Truckasaurus, Sports, The Models among others.

Andrew Pendlebury is a virtuoso musician and plays exquisite ornate guitar, and together with Mark’s more than adequate guitar playing and Adi’s mastery of the cello, they produce a beautiful sound. Mark and Adi take turns on lead vocals, though all three provide harmonies for each other’s songs. Adi, who is originally from Israel, has a wonderful voice – sweet and sad like the cello she plays.

I must admit I’m partial to cellos. You don’t get to see them played all that much, but they add a wonderful gravity and drama to any music piece.

The Basement Discs in store performance was to promote their latest CD Silver and Gold - a collection of folk and pop originals and covers. They performed about half the CD today – including Redemption Song, How Come, Hope Springs Eternal, The Same Sun and Adi’s song about her daughter, Yalda sheli ktana (my little girl).

Check out the
band’s My Space page and listen to their music. I’m sure you’ll agree that they are something special.

2 comments:

Mark Ferrie said...

Hi Anne
Thanks for the kind words!
That's a great shot of the Mercurials... would you mind if we used it (credited of course) on our website?
cheers
MF

Anne S said...

Hi Mark,

Glad you like the photo, would be delighted if you used it on your website. I can send you a better quaility version of it if you email me at ASYDatIINETdotNETdotAU (all lower case)