Artists: Emily Maguire
Venue: The Cluney
Town: Newcastle
Date: November
Website: http://www.emilymaguire.com
I had initially seen Emily Maguire at a house concert, then later at The City Hall, Newcastle, opening for Don MacLean and The Sage Gateshead opening for Eric Bibb and Roddy Frame, respectively. As a result, I was excited to see she would be playing a headline slot at The Cluny 2.
Support for the evening came from Irish Nuala Dalton, playing songs from her upcoming CD, Breaking The Spell. Some of her lyrics were quirky, but vocally she failed to leave much of an impression.
Emily, with partner and incredibly telented bassist, Christian Dunham, took to the stage, Emily looking quite glamorous in a long black sparkly dress, and launched straight into Free, the opening song from her new CD. The opening line, If I have faith, is interesting as the more you listen to Emily, the more you sense she really does have quite a strong faith.
This was followed by Standing, preceded by the story of how she has written this at a time in her life when the lyrics were very apt. Speaking of her excitement at her new and third CD, Believer, Emily moved to the keyboard for a stunning version of Wanting Time, which was almost haunting in its simplicity. Equally haunting, perhaps, was the realisation that we have all been, or will be, in that place at some time in our lives.
Pausing to tell us about the shack she and Christian call home in Australia, modelled from recycled materials, Emily moved onto Anything You Do, which many who have seen Emily before will have recognised. All You Wanted was followed by Woke Up and the excited announcement that Greenpeace have chosen to use this song for their climate change campaign. Hopefully that will get Emily some wider attention, too.
Christian left the stage and Emily performed a couple of songs alone, including a beautiful version of Falling on My Feet, telling us she write it in a mental health clinic where she thought a black woman named Rita was God. This was then followed by Falling on My Feet, again written at a very specific time in her life. What strikes you about Emily is that for all she has somewhat been through the mill of life, so to speak, she has an incredibly upbeat and positive attitude, perhaps helped by her faith in Buddhism and regular meditation.
As Christian returned to the stage, the pair upped the pace for Keep Walking, the fabulous title track to Emily’s last CD, and a new song called Golden and Gorgeous, which tells the story of two people who want to be just as the title suggests. The first album single, Lighthouse Man, followed, which has had much airplay on radio 2, and as they played this to end the set, it was never more obvious how intiuitively they work together on stage.
No comments:
Post a Comment