Beth Rowley
Nine and a half years ago Beth Rowley, a frizzy-haired 26 year old, released Little Dreamer, a debut album which opened with a sensational version of Nobody's Fault But Mine, the traditional gospel song first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. Rowley's version became iTunes' Single of the Week, and the album entered the UK top ten at number six. Since then, observant fans will have spotted Rowley performing alongside Burt Bacharach at the Electric Proms, or alongside Jools Holland as a singer in his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. Tonight, though, she is performing in the Club Room at Norwich Open, one of a short series of intimate gigs ahead of the release of her long-awaited second album, Gota Fria, now scheduled for a February 2018 release.
Norwich's own Rory Hill opens the evening, his first solo outing for a while, and his first since getting married earlier in the year. Always a pleasure to listen to Rory's songs, and we get a special treat tonight as he delivers an emotionally charged cover of Townes Van Zandt's Lover's Lullaby.
Next up is Bessie Turner, a totally delightful, if slightly kooky, singer songwriter from Ipswich. She has played a few Norwich venues before, including The Birdcage, and opened the Lake Stage at this year's Latitude. However, to myself and some of tonight's audience this is our first acquaintance. (NB Check out an interview with Bessie in the current issue of Outline magazine). Despite having being diagnosed with sinusitis, and having being pumped full of antibiotics, she still manages to ooze charisma and sing beautifully. Such are the restorative powers contained within a glass of Guinness. Tonight she is accompanied by Tom Armstrong (from Dingus Khan) on bass and drummer Ben Watts (from Dingus Khan / Superglu) to create a cohesive and cameraderic trio. Loved her voice, and loved her songs. Remember the name.
Beth Rowley has been performing a number of small venues ahead of the launch of Gota Fria, and the short string of dates provides a chance to finalise live arrangements of the new material. For some nights she has had a three or four piece band, but tonight we have Joe Harvey-Whyte on pedal and steel guitar, and Rob Updegraff on electric and acoustic guitar.
A small performance space can be quite intimidating, and Rowley looks slightly nervous as she perches herself on the tall bar stool and launches into her opening number. The voice is even better than I remember, and the audience, who have been respectful all evening whilst the support acts have been on stage, are stunned into silence. At the end the applause is warm, generous and effusive, although Norfolk audiences do tend to have this habit of either standing at the back and talking through an entire performance, or being as quiet as mice and expecting all the chat to come from the stage. Tonight is very much a case of the latter, which should be taken as a compliment, though Rowley admits to finding it slightly disconcerting. At least the subdued lighting means that she can see our faces and tell from our smiles that we, the natives, are friendly.
The set is noticeable by its absence of tracks from Little Dreams which, in the nicest possible way, is no bad thing. Many of the radio-friendly tracks from that album did not adequately represent what Beth Rowley was really about – her gorgeous vocal homogeneity of gospel, soul, jazz, blues and country is wasted on the type of pop-inspired songs often insisted upon by big labels. However, the dark and moody blues number co-written with saxophonist Ben Castle, Only One Cloud, is given an outing, as are a couple of later songs penned together with Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith - Forest Fire and Brother.
The new material is absolutely stunning, and the stripped back sound without any percussive accompaniment exquisitely displays Beth Rowley's natural rhythm and interpretive vocal instincts. Tracks like Howl At The Moon, Run To The Light and Brave Face may have been presented tonight to suit the band line-up, and possibly there are some rockier up-tempo numbers that we did not get to hear, but on the basis of tonight's performance Beth Rowley is very much the lady in control, and the new album should be awaited with eager anticipation.
The very last song (I do so prefer this growing tendency of performers to dispense with the whole 'going off and coming on again' charade that characteristically defined the whole encore business) has to be that Blind Willie Johnson classic that opened Little Dreamer. Nobody's Fault But Mine is such a powerful and spiritual confession of a song that I cannot imagine any singer running out of ways to deliver it, or any audience ever tiring of listening to it. And it perhaps sums up perfectly these last ten years of Beth Rowley's career trajectory – an uncompromising decision to refuse to bow to the demands of the big record labels, and an unshakeable belief in her own talent and her love of performing the gospel blues.
This was a magical evening from start to finish, and probably my favourite gig of the year so far.
