Beautiful South fills Newbury’s ACE Space with Friday folk fabulousness
Lauren South and Friends with support Hendrickx Roy
at Ace Space
on Friday, November 22
Review by BRIAN HARRINGTON
WHEN Lauren South stepped-in
at short notice to support Reg Meuross I commented that I hoped to see a longer set from her, little did I know that she'd be back as a headliner just eight months later.
Tonight opened with a 45-minute set from HendrickxRoy, a local duo who provided a wonderfully eclectic set which included folk and jazz elements.
Vocally their harmonies worked really well and they included a mix of cover versions, such as Gillian Welch's The Way It Will Be, Toxic, a Britney Spears track and Barton Hollow, originally by American duo The Civil Wars and self-penned original tracks such as Know Who You Are and the excellent Rust Belt, which Calum Roy wrote about working building helicopter pads in the north of England.
An excellent set.
Lauren South opened with a solo instrumental playing fiddle and accompanying herself on a shruti box, and Blue, a song she literally made up on the spot while performing at a wedding reception.
She was then joined onstage by Keith Donnelly, with whom she regularly performs as a duo, on guitars for the track My Sister And Laura And Me, before the rest of Lauren's band joined them – John Parker on double bass and Matt Haines on percussion.
The full band set opened with the wonderful Mermaid And The Swimming Lad, a song written by Lauren, inspired by a WB Yeats poem, and the poignant Jessica.
Lauren’s beautiful pure folk vocals are outstanding and her musical style, while firmly rooted in tradition also tackles contemporary themes through her lyrics.
It was great to see her back at ACE Space for a full set and she did not disappoint.
Many of the tracks in the setlist were drawn from her Tiny Boat album, released at the tail-end of last year, including the title track and the lovely One Star Awake.
There were several excellent instrumentals before the evening ended with Shine Away and the much demanded encore, a delightful cover of Wild Mountain Thyme.
A fabulous night of great folk music.
