Kathryn Tickell
Venue: The TheatreTown: Chipping Norton
Date: 29-09-2021
Website: https://www.kathryntickell.com/
"REAL LIVE MUSIC" proclaimed a beaming Kathryn Tickell as she and her exceptional band The Darkening took to the stage in the quaint Theatre at Chipping Norton. Kathryn declared that she was "delighted to be here" . This was the third night of her first tour since 2019 and she and her band delivered a joyful and spirited performance that clearly showed their elation at being able to play to a live audience once more.
Kathryn admitted that she "didn't play much during lockdown" as much of the joy of music is playing with and for other people.
Kathryn's regular band members Amy Thatcher [ amazing accordion and synth] , Kieran Szifris [ octave mandolin] and Joe Truswell [ drums] were joined by highly accomplished new singer Stef Conner [ formerly of The Unthanks] who also doubles on ancient Mesopotamian lyres [ yes, really].
Kathryn's set consisted of tracks from her stunning "Hollowbone" album of 2019 , together with some recently written material.
The show got off to a great start with a fiery jig called "Reynard's Jig" which was followed by a musical setting of a poem by Kathryn's dad " For Greta - A Child Made Me Listen" which featured some amazing harmonies from Stef, Amy and Kathryn .
Next came a real surprise , an '80's synth pop-ish number called "Bone Music" which describes how the earliest musical instruments were made from the hollow bones of birds [ hence the title of the album "Hollowbone"].
Kathryn related how , during lockdown, if she played music, it would be old tunes and to exemplify this she played a delightful duet with Amy on Willie Taylor's "Snowy Monday". Amy then gave us a brilliant display of clog dancing.
When it was time for the interval, Kathryn told us how she had missed everything about touring "even the intervals".
Returning of the break, gave a fantastic solo performance on the Northumbrian pipes of a "song about rain" which started with a slow pitter-patter and then got faster and faster until her fingers were just a blur. A real virtuoso performance.
Next we had a couple of songs from "Hollowbone" , beginning with "Tune For Mina" which featured extraordinary vocals by Steph .
Kathryn lives near Hadrian's Wall and we were treated to a song "Nemesis" which is based on a text by Hadrian's favourite musician Mesomedes and Kathryn imagines that this song may have been sung in Northumbria at the time of Hadrian.
Staying in the North-East , Kathryn and band played a lovely set of tunes about Lindisfarne [ the place not the group ] which captured the moods and atmosphere of that special place.
"Hushabye Birdie" featured Steph's haunting vocals and Mesopotamian Lyre , whilst "Kieran's Challenge" was an exuberant set of tunes featuring Kieran on octave mandolin.
The closing number was the extraordinary "O-U-T Spells Out" from "Hollowbone" which features a rap vocal and hypnotic , trance-like descending chords. A fine way to round out an amazing evening of "REAL LIVE MUSIC".
Of course, after such an exhilarating and stirring performance, Kathryn and the band were invited back for an encore which featured more clog dancing from Amy .
What can I say other than it was an absolute pleasure to experience live music of such a high quality after an arid period of nearly two years. Welcome back live music, we missed you!
Peter Cowley
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