Only the second time we’ve seen these guys and it was over two years ago when the band ‘gigged’ in the rarefied atmosphere of Snape Maltings. On tour in part to promote the excellent new CD “Wake Up The Union”, it was pleasing to see that they had as good as sold out the Corn Exchange.
First up was support duo banjo player Leonard Podolak and fiddler Matt Gordon. They bring a touch of vaudeville to the show with techniques such as ‘Hambone’ and ‘Flatfootin’. The latter technique, largely performed by Gordon, is basically clog dancing that also serves as a type of percussion. Undoubtedly highly skilled instrumentalists, it was all a little too traditional and ‘old style’ for me. Just personal taste of course, and they went down a storm with the audience.
Show of Hands (Steve Knightley, Phil Beer and Miranda Sykes) played a nice balance of new material and old favourites. three or four from the new album sounded promising, a couple with quite an Americana feel to them – a little bit of a departure for Knightley the songwriter, although they have occasionally thrown in rootsy Americana into their live shows (Little Feat’s ‘Willin’ comes to mind).
Of the SoH favourites, I particularly enjoyed the arrangements they put together for ‘Roots’, ‘Country Life’ and ‘Cousin Jack’. The back stories to Roots, Country Life and Arrogance Ignorance and Greed were also entertaining and showcased Knightley’s dry humour. I once read a review of a SoH gig where the critic argued that the lyrics to many of the songs were too literal and lacked ambiguity. That of course is generalised nonsense; a couple may be very direct and angry (and none the worse for that) and his story songs are, unsurprisingly, driven by the tale, but Knightley’s songs are more varied and nuanced than that review would lead you to believe. Which makes it a pity that the sound mix made it difficult to pick up some of the vocals as clearly as you would like. which meant that some of the lyrical content got lost in the acoustics of the hall. Nevertheless, the quality of the playing (with Phil Beer as usual on fiddle and any number of other stringed instruments) and the clever pacing of the show meant that this was another superb evening of relevant, rootsy folk music. Would that all roots music and contemporary material were this good.