Track Dogs go down a storm in Newbury
Track Dogs, at ACE Space, on Friday, November 11. Review by CHRIS MARTIN
What an evening! It was great to welcome Track Dogs back to ACE Space after a two-year absence and the sell-out crowd was treated to a fantastic show.
From the unexpected opening of Howard Brown’s Last Post trumpet solo to the closing encore, the energy never flagged.
With Garrett Wall on guitar, ukulele and lead vocals, Robbie K Jones on cajon and percussion and Dave Mooney on bass joining Howard, the first set continued with some of their earlier music. Stand-out tunes were Only Human, A Lucky Man in Kansas City, Man of Constant Sorrow and Ballad of 416. The set ended with an audience singalong on Play Nice.
The second set kicked off with tunes from the band’s latest album Where to Now with Garrett and Howard duetting on the title track and everyone back on stage for Less Than Equal.
They continued with Carolina in My Mind, noting that the song’s writer could use some promotion (James Taylor, for the uninitiated). Garrett had fond memories of Peace Inside, a new song which will be featured on a forthcoming live album with Show of Hands, recorded on their recent joint Greek islands cruise/tour.
Local duo HendrickxRoy were to open the evening. Unfortunately Calum Roy was unable to attend, but Maia Hendrickx joined the band to duet with Garrett on a wonderful version of Is There No Freedom, an early Track Dogs’ tune from some 17 years ago. This writer would have liked to hear more with Maia, it was as if she had been with the band forever.
The evening continued with the rousing Donna Lola – fronted on the Where To Now album by Cathy Jordan of Dervish – followed by Robbie’s new tune, a bluesy Silver Bullet Baby. Throughout the evening, the band established a great rapport with the audience, although for some reason the banter now concerned the Spanish royal family and their children at a panto!
The main set finished with the rousing La Banda, about having fun making music – just what the band does.
After loud appeals from the audience the band launched into crowd favourite Ruby and wrapped up the evening down in the audience with the a capella All Clapped Out, to a well-deserved standing ovation.
We hope to see Track Dogs back at ACE Space in 2023, although they will be playing the Albert Hall in April we hope they won’t get too big for us.
As usual, Mark Stafford did a superb job on the sound desk and was justly complimented by the band.
