The Dulcet Tones of Liz Stringer & Suzannah Espie at Caravan Music Club

Liz Stringer at Caravan Music Club – 15 April 2016

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a concert at the outer suburban  music oasis of Caravan Music Club once again.

This time it was to see local female singer songwriters Liz Stringer and Suzannah Espie.

I have seen both artists before when I used to patronise the Basement Discs, but not for several years, so I was looking forward to seeing them performing their wonderful songs.

The show started with a short set by Liz Stringer who showcased several of her songs solo, accompanying herself on guitar. She’s acknowledged as one of the best songwriters in Australia and at the tender age of 25 she performs with a maturity beyond her years.  She released her first record at the age of 15.

Liz Stringer at Caravan Music Club – 15 April 2016

There was brief interval after Liz’s set, then she returned to the stage with Suzannah Espie where it was explained that each would sing a few of their own songs turn about, whilst providing backing vocals and accompaniment to each other.

Suzannah Espie at Caravan Music Club – 15 April 2016

They sounded lovely together, Suzannah’s sweeter timbred voice blending with Liz’s contralto in luscious harmonies.

I can’t remember all the songs sung, and didn’t take notes, but the ones that stuck in my mind included Suzannah’s great songs Rosedale and Bluebird Boots, and Liz’s High Open Hills and Angela.

Suzannah Espie at Caravan Music Club  - 15 April 2016

Suzannah also performed the title track of her latest album Mother’s Not Feeling Herself Today, an album of songs relating to her recent status as a mother and the change it wrought on her life. The song itself is sung as a honky tonker.

They finished the night with one of my all time favourite songs, a cover of The Dark End Of The Street, originally written by Dan Penn, but performed by many other artists over the years – Gram Parsons and Ry Cooder for example.

It was a splendid evening of musical entertainment.  Liz Stringer and Suzannah Espie are fine representatives of the Melbourne music scene, and both are superb singers and songwriters.

Check them out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you haven’t heard of them before.

I have no other musical treats on the horizon, but I dare say there will be more before too long.

Music & The Machine–An Enchanting Evening

Dave Rawlings Machine – photo from ABC RN Facebook

This is the first opportunity I have had to post about the Dave Rawlings Machine concert at the Palais last Friday night.

Seeing the Gillian Welch / Dave Rawlings duo a fortnight ago, certainly didn’t jade the pallet for more divine music from the pair.

We had better seats this time, four rows from the front, so even though, disappointingly, photos were not permitted, it didn’t in any way detract from the pleasure of the night’s entertainment.

It was quite a different set up and sound. The added accompaniments of Willie Watson on violin, banjo and guitar, Brittany Haas on violin and Paul Kowert on double bass delivered a deeper and richer sonic landscape; quite bluegrassy in fact.

In the Dave Rawlings Machine, David Rawlings assumes lead vocals, while Gillian Welch sings background harmonies and plays her rhythm guitar, though she did sing a couple of songs as lead. Gillian’s voice is warm and honey coloured and stands out even when several male vocalists are singing harmonies.

Willie Watson added his distinctive voice to many of the songs and was lead vocalist on Stewball, a traditional ditty about a racehorse He was formerly a member of Old Crow Medicine Show, so I’ve seen him before performing with them. And Paul Kowerts also took the lead on the gospel inspired He Will Set Your Fields On Fire.

As was the case in the Gillian Welch concert, there was an intermission of approximately 30 minutes half way through the show, where the band goes off to do mysterious things (David Rawlings words) and the audience does likewise.

However, we didn’t go next door to Luna Park and ride on the Scenic Railway as the band purportedly did and cheerfully admitted when they returned on stage for the second set.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have been driving to all their Australian concerts, crossing the Nullabor early in their tour, performing shows at Perth and Adelaide, then Sydney, Canberra, Bangalow and Melbourne. They have an aversion to flying, which explains why it took them 11 years to return.

Both the Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Machine shows were wonderful in diverse ways, so I’m glad I seized the opportunity to see them this time around. I doubt if they’ll be back this way anytime soon.

Setlist (from Setlist.fm)

1. The Weekend

2. Bodysnatchers

3. Pilgrim (You Can't Go Home)

4. Wayside/Back in Time

5. To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High) (Ryan Adams cover)

6. Bells of Harlem

7. Keep It Clean (Charley Jordan cover)

8. The Trip

9. It's Too Easy

Intermission

10. Ruby

11. The Last Pharaoh

12. He Will Set Your Fields on Fire (Bill Monroe cover)

13. Sweet Tooth

14. I Hear Them All / This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie cover)

15. Stewball ([traditional] cover)

16. Short Haired Woman Blues

17. Queen Jane Approximately (Bob Dylan cover)

Encore 1:

18. Look at Miss Ohio (Gillian Welch cover)

19. Method Acting / Cortez the Killer

Encore 2:

20. The Weight (The Band cover)

21. Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby ([traditional] cover)

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Music Festival time is only a few weeks off, when music lovers in Australia are spoilt for choice.

I’ve got tickets to five upcoming shows in March, April and June.

I’m looking forward to seeing Jason Isbell at Melbourne Recital Centre on 29 March. His opening act is non other than the delightful Eilen Jewell, whom I’m catching again the following night in a headline show at Thornbury Theatre.

On April Fool’s Day Frazey Ford (of The Be Good Tanyas fame) is at Caravan Music Club, and local singer writers Liz Stringer and Suzannah Espie are performing there together on 21 April.

And in June I’m seeing John Mellencamp at Rod Laver Arena, courtesy of a Ticketek Gift Voucher from Nu Country.

A Musical Interlude – Suzannah Espie at Basement Discs

From l to r – Liz Stringer, Suzannah Espie, Chris Altmann – live at Basement Discs 2/11/12

I’m glad I made it into the city today to catch Suzannah Espie’s performance at Basement Discs. It was a beauty!

Suzannah was promoting her latest CD Sea of Light which was “recorded over three 40 degree days in February 2011, when Liz Stringer, Chris Altmann and a heavily pregnant Suzannah Espie sat around a couple of microphones in Jeff Lang’s shed and played and sang together.”

Liz Stringer and Chris Altmann – very fine artists in their own right - were on stage today with Suzannah and my goodness, they certainly sounded wonderful together. With  Sea of Light Suzannah has outreached herself and gone from strength to strength. The songs are exquisite and have a melancholy stateliness that is quite moving.  And the harmony vocals of Liz, Chris and Suzannah, in unison, are rare and lovely.

You can preview tracks from the album and buy it at Vitamin Records here or support a local record store and purchase it at Basement Discs – they accept mail orders from anywhere in the world.

Next Friday (9th November)  the wonderful Lisa Miller will be in store at Basement Discs showcasing songs from her new CD Meet The Misses, which is actually a reprise of songs from her two first CDs Quiet Girl With A Credit Card and As Far As Life Goes with such great songs as Versions of You, Rule#1 and Wipe The Floor… etc.

Rock & Soul – Liz Stringer at Basement Discs

I was pleased to be present at yet another quality performance today in store at Basement Discs, when local singer songwriter Liz Stringer delivered an affecting mini show promoting her brand new CD Warm in the Darkness.

Liz Stringer is one of the most talented music artists in Melbourne, and she ably demonstrated this today when she gave the appreciative lunchtime crowd a sampler from the new album. It’s quite different to what she has done before, being considerably more informed by rock and soul than her previous recordings, which were more  folky solo singer songwriter stuff. That’s not to say they are in any way inferior to her current CD, but she has certainly given her wonderful songs a more dynamic treatment this time round.

Liz is an excellent songwriter, her songs being articulate and emotionally moving, often melancholic, but with cutting lyrics that give sharp character portraits of the protagonists of her story songs.

I am very taken with her new CD and was instantly captivated by her new songs, particularly one called High Open Hills and also the title track.

Today she was accompanied by fellow singer songwriter Van Walker who played electric guitar and sang backing vocals.

Give Liz a listen on her My Space page and be converted.

Next Saturday 21st April is International Independent Record Store Day, and Basement Discs will be having a fabulous line up of artists playing in store and other sundry goodies. Details are here.

Just think where we’d be without the local record store and how sorely they’d be missed if they were no more.

Swamp & Soul – Two Recent Basement Discs In Store Performances

On Tuesday last week it was Ray Bonneville who graced the Basement Discs stage, performing songs from his last two albums. His latest is Bad Man’s Blood, a superb swampy blues recording with killer songs.

Born in Canada, Ray Bonneville now lives in Austin Texas, but his music sounds like he was brought up in the swamps of Louisiana.

He has an attractive gravelly voice and is a whiz on guitar and harmonica and provides his own percussion effects by stomping his feet on boards ala Chris Smither. 

Last Friday Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes entertained the lunchtime crowd with a whizz banger of a show. Can’t say I‘ve ever heard of Clairy Browne before, but she and her Bangin’ Rackettes, plus large backing band are entertainment plus with full on body movements and delicious harmony singing. Clairy has a great bluesy voice and the other girls provide a doo wap gospel chorus reminiscent of the great female groups of the past, the Pointer Sisters for instance. They  were  in store  promoting their debut CD Baby Caught The Bus.

Check them out on My Space.

This coming Friday Basement Discs has a double bill with ace blues guitarist Jeff Lang, followed by Shackelton 3 –  a super group comprised of Mick Thomas, Anna Burley and Liz Stringer.

And on Friday 9th December Frank Fairfield, a multi instrumental wunderkind whose musical taste is firmly set in old-time Americana, will be performing the last in store for the year.