An ACE Space for Americana

The Kirals, support Ben Baron at ACE Space on Saturday, October 21

Review by Chris Martin

A GREAT night of Americana at ACE Space kicked off with Ben Baron.

Ben had wowed ACE Space Unplugged and it was good to have him perform a longer set. His virtuoso banjo playing is quite something and he started with a long instrumental solo, which segued into the vocals of Wild Flowers Perfume.

He followed that with Tabletop Ghosts, his own composition, and then Willie Nelson’s Cruel World – an upbeat tune, if not lyrics – and Steve Earle’s Mountain. Ben wrapped up his set with a traditional folk song, The Cuckoo.

Oxford-based The Kirals are singer-songwriters Jon Heffernan (guitar, vocals), Ally Baker (banjo, vocals), Lisa Harker (accordion, concertina, keyboard and vocals) and Ryan Quarterman (double bass). Influenced by Americana and folk music past and present, they’ve developed a distinctive style, blending acoustic guitar with accordion and banjo, and alternating rich harmony-filled songs with spare solo ballads.

A chilly night outside, it was great to enjoy a warm evening of good music. Songs ranged from Jon’s own compositions, many from their second album Goodbye River, to covers by the likes of the Rolling Stones and Neil Young.

They opened with Goodbye River (the song), followed with Talk About Love. A banjo malfunction reduced them to a trio for The Ballad of John Prine, a worthy tribute to an artist this band were clearly great fans of. They were back to full strength for Take Your Hand from their first album You.

We were treated to a fine rendition of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon then a sad song, Empty Room, performed by Ally and Lisa with just acoustic guitar backing from Jon. Then from the sublime to the ridiculous (Jon’s words) with the Stones’ Dead Flowers.

The first set finished with the wonderfully-titled George Smiley’s 113th Dream; must be the first song about a spy who isn’t James Bond.

The second set continued in the same vein. Standout tunes included Long Way Down and a couple of ‘lockdown’ compositions Drifting and Soul Singer, the latter with a fine whistled intro from Jon. Bigfoot Finds Jesus surprised us all by including a brief interlude of Blue Moon of Kentucky.

Covers included tunes by Richard Hawley, Bob Dylan and John Prine.

The Kirals ended the set with Bonnie and Clyde, a buddy song, and following a great reception from the audience reprised Goodbye River for their encore.