Southern Tenant Folk Union at South Street Arts Centre, Reading
(This review was first published in The Reading Post.)
Car crashes, axe murders and a world after the oil runs out – just some of themes that inspire the songs of nu-grass exponents Southern Tenant Folk Union. If that doesn’t sound too cheery you might have been surprised how full of vitality and bonhomie the band are in person. Although there was a slight frisson when we learned that Carrie Thomas, fiddler and vocalist, and only woman member of the band, is also an embalmer by profession.
“I like to write songs about what I know,” Carrie told me after the show. “I’m not trying to be macabre, and to be honest I try to write about all sorts of things, but it’s easy to tell the difference between someone clutching at straws and someone singing about what they really know.”
Carrie’s haunting vocals on her adaptation of the spine chilling Days By The Seaside – a murder ballad by Donald Ker – proved this point on the night with memorable effect.
Stylishly turned out in colour co-ordinated vintage outfits, the band are equally as pleasing to the eye as the ear. With a single condensing mic on stage to capture a genuinely acoustic performance and no forest of stage furniture to contend with they are also a gift to the photographer.
The band performed their new record Hello Cold Goodbye Sun in its entirety between two sets of fiery bluegrass numbers selected from their back catalogue. This gave us two shows in one. The new material a darker and more thought provoking cinematic soundscape contrasting with the more traditional bluegrass.
The single mic was abandoned entirely for a closing set of upbeat numbers, and fever pitch was reached with some crowd participation on Don’t Take No Notice and Never Got The Best of Me before it was hello cold again as we exited into a frosty Reading night.
Willie Douglas
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