My Show Of The Festival
Andy Fawthrop
Another headliner from the Devizes Arts Festival hit town last night….
Robert Vincent came to the Corn Exchange, bringing his heady mix of folk, country, blues and Americana. Normally performing acoustic in solo or duo format, this time he had a full band in tow. He’s an English singer-songwriter hailing from the north-west. I’ll admit, full disclosure, that I’d never run into him or his music before, but after last night I’m really happy to say I’ve now made the connection. Although there were a few empty seats at the back, the Corn Exchange was largely full with 200+ people there to cheer him on – and cheer they did. I soon realised that there were plenty of folks there who’d seen him before, so there was plenty of love in the room.
Fronting up with acoustic guitar and harmonica, Robert took us through two excellent one-hour sets, show-casing many songs from his back catalogue, including his last album “Barriers” (and, yes there’s now a copy of that firmly in my collection), together with plenty of new songs from his forthcoming new album.
Straight from the off I was struck by his voice – he’s a clear, but emotional singer – and the harmonies that his band members threw in. The sound was full, rich and multi-layered with plenty of texture and variety to the songs. Early on we had some of his Country & Western influences coming through on “This Town”. The easy changing up and down through the gears, from solo acoustic, through to full-on rocking, from stripped-back to hard and insistent guitar licks, was an absolute pleasure to listen to.
Robert had an easy style, chatting to the audience with humour and self-deprecation, explaining the background to the songs, but never getting tempted to waffle on. I was particularly struck by such songs as “Hurt Today, But Alright Now”, inspired by childhood memories, which he described as “miserable but hopeful”, as well as “Love Never Ending” (a piece of personal therapy) and “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” (calm, unflustered and very laid back).
The band behind him were excellent – Jim Kimberley on drums, Thomas Bibb on electric guitars (some superb solos), Danny Williams (who flipped effortlessly from upright bass to electric bass) and Anna Corcoran on keyboards, also providing some absolutely stunning backing vocals and haunting harmonies. Individually they were superb, but as a cohesive backing unit for Robert’s wonderful songs, they absolutely nailed it. And these guys were also the core of the band on “Barriers”.
The second half continued in the same vein – lovely clean and unfussy sound, no showing-off, just simple great musicianship. At times I was hearing Jackson Browne, at times there were shades of Deacon Blue, but it would be a disservice to the band to claim they were in any way just a soundalike to those folks. This was category-defying stuff. More superb songs followed – “Take Away Your Burden”, “Keeper Of My Heart” (an absolute belter in my opinion), “Shine A Light In The Darkness” and “Separating The Fiction From The Fact”. Again there were lots of textures, changes of mood and tempo, some chat, some nice segueing from one song straight into the next. There was light and shade, there was hard and soft.
The vocals were soulful, insistent, yearning. The musicianship was spot-on. The songs were meaningful, well-constructed and simply wonderful. It’s been a while since I was this impressed by a band I’d never even heard before, but I was well won over. I was already on 9/10 by half time, and a no questions 10/10 by the time we got round to the encore.
The sound and lighting by Serenity Audio was absolutely spot on.
Anyways, there’s still plenty of great stuff to come over the next few days, both ticketed and free. The Devizes Arts Festival continues until the night of Sunday 14th June at various venues around the town. Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk
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