Live review: Little Sparrow and Elfin Bow @ Music Room 15/04/18
Live review: Little Sparrow and Elfin Bow (double headline show)
Date: Sunday 15th April 2018
Venue: Liverpool Philharmonic Hall Music Room
Reviewer: Ian D Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision
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Elfin Bow
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The Philharmonic Hall Music Room is a place where the song that lifts and lilts, that raises hope as well as the roof, is to be seen with a sense of honour and privilege, the dispensing of the day’s trials and injustice, the scream that builds up inside your mind, is let loose, carefully, gently, the kettle that could not stop whistling is reduced to silence and awe as musicians such as Elfin Bow take to the stage and perform their vigil to impart a subtle sense of well being and many a great song.
Twelve months on from releasing her self-titled album, the intimate nature of her music not only is still required listening for all interested in the power of the Folk genre and its sway over the conscious, eager mind, it is one that resonates with feminine influence and authority, the command of the lyric is a weighty muscle and one used effectively and with absolute charm. It is a charm that held court inside the Music Room with kindness and clout.
Accompanied on stage by the superbly talented Jon Crump, Dan Logan, Terry Clarke-Coyne, Tom Kitching and Tracy Green, Elfin Bow once more handed out songs such as Sweet Jonathan, Mother Said, the fantastic and haunting Grimshaw and the Fingerclaw, Dorethea, City Beach, and the beautiful new song Miles Away as if they were precious flowers, an image of the Welsh countryside where she now resides, being an abundant source of this wealth passed over with pleasure and authenticity.
Joining Elfin Bow and the band on stage for the song Prairie Madness, the sound captured by the double headline acts was sensational and one that would be returned with compliment and equal beauty in Little Sparrow’s own set later in the evening.
A truly majestic evening of music supplied by the double header format, one in which Elfin Bow and the band revelled in, colourful, natural, a genuine sense of unaffected love that holds all dear; there are few that can hold an audience with such earnest appreciation and for Elfin Bow, it is one that is always a contentment shared.
Ian D Hall
Review © 2018 Ian D Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision
Originally published here.
Photos © 2018 Shay Rowan
Elfin Bow
Website – elfinbow.com
Facebook – facebook.com/elfinbow
Twitter – @ElfinBow
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Little Sparrow
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is natural to miss someone, to let time go past in such a manner that you find the song, that special reason you were drawn to them as a human being in the first place, takes upon itself to be treated like a fine shroud, delicate and interwoven with the days and weeks of since last you saw them, woven with gold silk, the voice that would have captured the soul of Homer’s Odysseus, still resonating around the concert venues of Liverpool and beyond.
It is natural to miss someone, it is harder to understand that due to Time and the fabric of life being demanding and the clock insisting that the hours and minutes be filled in a modern epic re-telling of the Greek soldier’s voyage home, that you might never get the chance to hear the voice live again.
Time is as Time does, For Little Sparrow, the ever impressive Katie Ware, Time has moved on relentlessly, influences outside of the arena and halls have kept her busy and occupied, the fear in many minds would be whether they might be fortunate to see this talented woman again in the Liverpool domain, possibly well founded. It is though impossible to keep the song of the sparrow down, for when the song needs to be heard, when it heralds a new dawn, or at least a fresh start, then the sparrow’s voice can beat that of the lark, or that of the nightingale.
It is that memory returned to Liverpool audiences as Little Sparrow returned to a hero’s welcome, Odysseus in female form, to the Music Room of the Philharmonic Hall, alongside Liverpool’s Elfin Bow as part of the famed Liverpool Acoustic night in a double headline bill that really wetted the appetite and caught the imagination fully prepared and alert.
It is the tenderness in Little Sparrow’s voice that makes an audience swoon, it is the innate pleasure of performing and sharing stories with the crowd that makes the evening flow with a sense of energetic serenity, punctuated with the passionate way of communicating the message and anecdotes, Time and the siren going hand in hand, for the music voyager stands no chance of ever withstanding such sounds.
In songs such as the opener Polly, Memories Maid, Sending The Message, I Found A Way, in new vocal experiences such as Old News and Spider and a tremendous duet with Elfin Bow on the song Wishing Tree, Little Sparrow once more sent the hours, weeks and months packing, almost decree like, she announced in her always good humour and infectious pattern of imparting information to the crowd, that the Little Sparrow had returned and that all was going to be well.
It is natural to miss a performer when they are not on stage, we can only ever hope that the time in between Time is one filled with the knowledge that the song will return, that their own particular voyage sees them stand majestic on your shores once more.
Ian D Hall
Review © 2018 Ian D Hall, Liverpool Sound and Vision
Originally published here.
Photos © 2018 Shay Rowan
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Little Sparrow
Website – littlesparrow.org
Facebook – facebook.com/uklittlesparrow
Twitter – @uklittlesparrow
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