Elizabeth & Jameson and Awake Mother

Venue: Green Note
Town: Camden
Date: 13th October 2024
Website: https://www.elizabethandjameson.co.uk/

I am well aware that it is foolhardy to set your expectations for anything too high as you will almost certainly end up disappointed. No matter how brilliant something is, if it doesn't live up to your expectations it will colour your opinion. I saw Led Zeppelin twice in the 1970's and both times I came away feeling slightly deflated. Have to say, though, that I was really excited for this gig. I'd been looking forward to it for ages, and had set my expectation bar dangerously stratospheric. Fortunately, both Awake Mother and Elizabeth and Jameson were stunningly brilliant and way exceeded any such threshold.

I've been a fan of Daria Kulesh for many a year, so when she told me she'd joined a supergroup called Company Of Players, I had to go and see them, and fell in love with each and every other member of the band. Embarrassed to say that at that point I had never heard of Said The Maiden, a trio of Jess Distill, Hannah Elizabeth and Kathy Pilkington, all of whom were members of the Company of Players.

I was lucky enough to see the Maidens three times before covid hit, once with the original line up, and twice after Minnie Birch (also from the Company of Players) replaced Hannah when she left to form Elizabeth and Jameson with her husband; a duo I was also lucky enough to see prior to covid.

During covid Jess took up art, and is now pursuing a career in that field, so Minnie and Kathy decided to team up as a duo. I realise that if I described them as ex-Maidens it might sound over-personal or even downright rude, but it was their realisation that to continue to call themselves maidens might be a bit of a stretch which prompted the name change. The name Awake Mother came from a line in the traditional song Silver Dagger, as they felt that they now sympathised more with the dagger wielding parent than with the maiden warning away a potential suitor.

Elizabeth and Jameson were already well established prior to covid, but Awake Mother, as a duo, are new to the scene, so officially Hannah and Griff took top billing, with Kathy and Minnie being the support, but in my eyes, this was a double billed event. It was also a matinee performance, with doors opening at 13:45 for a 14:30 kick off. I started the queue outside the venue at a little after 12:15 - I told you that I was excited about this gig.

Awake Mother took to the stage first, and to emphasise the origins of their name, they were both wearing identical buttoned tunic dresses, with embroidered silver daggers pointing downwards from their shoulders. Of course, "Silver Dagger" was one of the songs on their set list.

Back in 2021, Minnie was diagnosed with a rare cancer in her wrist which means that her right forearm/wrist is mostly reconstructed from her left leg’s fibular bone and metal. Like Jaime Sommers, the fictional bionic woman, Minnie is a superhero. After her operation, she was unable to move her fingers or thumb on her right hand, but she was determined to play the guitar and piano again. To look at her walk now you couldn't tell that her left leg had been operated on, and her guitar playing is perfect again. You could tell that this came at a price, as occasionally between songs she needed to massage her right hand.

The banjo is an instrument subjected to a lot of jokes, but Kathy demonstrates that it is actually a beautiful instrument, though tuning it can be a bit time consuming. The joy of Said The Maiden, of Awake Mother and of Elizabeth & Jameson, though is their gorgeous vocal harmonies. I was particularly impressed with Awake Mother's cover of "House Of The Rising Sun" where Kathy was singing the same line as Minnie, but delayed by a single beat. No idea how that would appear in sheet music form, because normally all instruments and vocals synchronise the beginning and end of each bar. Extremely impressive, and not something I think I've ever heard before.

As well as "House Of The Rising Sun" and "Silver Dagger", their set list included two songs that I'd heard them play when they were Maidens, namely Minnie's "Oh Death", and Kathy's "Selkie". They also played a track that was featured on Minnie's album "You're Not Singing Anymore Volume 1", called "Accident of Birth", which was written by, but not yet recorded by, Steve O'Donoghue. When playing the traditional "Tom Paine's Bones" at a previous gig they had attempted to explain who Tom Paine was, but they were told that there was a blue plaque to him on the building opposite where they were playing. Knowing that Tom Paine had travelled a lot, they introduced the song by assuming that he had almost certainly lived in Camden, and therefore everyone would know all about him.

I think all of the rest of their material was written by Minnie, all were unknown to me, but all were beautiful songs sung with such delightful harmonies. Believe that they are in the process of recording material for an album. Should be wonderful.

I saw Elizabeth and Jameson back in 2019, and every song that they played was different to their previous set list and, apart from their encore, was all their own material. They played several songs for the first time or that were relatively new and had had only a coupling of airings before. They were all new to me though, and I loved them all.

They opened with a song called "Hit The Road", the title of which sounds like it could be a better song to end a set and send everyone on their way, but it really is an appropriate song to begin a gig. It is all about not having a plan, taking things as they come, and setting out intending to enjoy whatever happens.

"Tell The World To Go Away" again is themed round the start of a relationship, when all you want to do is be with the one you love. It contains one of the greatest lines of poetry that I have ever heard - 'I first said I love you in somebody else's bed. I know you weren't there yet, but then it popped into my head.'

Each CD or EP that Elizabeth & Jameson released is based around a particular theme, with the latest EP inspired the Welsh valleys, particularly where Griff grew up. The EP is called "The Old Town", with the 'title' track being simply called "Old Town" and this was the first time that they'd played it live. Ebbw Vale was famed for the Ebbw Vale Iron Works, which became the Ebbw Vale Steel Works and spawned several coal mines in the neighbourhood. Like very many towns throughout Britain, the industry no longer exists, leaving the town somewhat drifting. To make their song more universal and applicable to elsewhere, the lyrics to "Old Town", don't specifically reference the type of industry, but just call it 'the factory'.

My favourite of their set was a song called "Nos Da", which is Welsh for 'Goodnight'. The harmonies were to die for. 'Nos Da Cariad' (Goodnight Darling)is how Griff would end his telephone conversations with Hannah when they were first dating and as a tactic, it clearly worked.

Via Facebook I'd asked Minnie beforehand whether there was a possibility that Hannah might join Kathy and her for a song whilst they were all in the same venue. She replied that she couldn't possibly say, which I took as confirmation. After Awake Mother's set, they left their guitar and banjo on stage, so it was obvious that they were going to be invited back for a collaboration. I would have put money that they'd play a Said The Maiden song, or a Company of Players song. Particularly likely, in my mind would have been "Up And Down", Minnie's song from the Company of Players that the Maiden's also sang. When I'd previously seen Elizabeth and Jameson they included "Blowin' In The Wind", so I might have guessed that they would cover a Dylan song, if I'd thought about it. In fact, Griff introduced the song by describing it as half a Dylan song.

In 1973, Dylan had produced a demo of a track that he'd called "Rock Me Mama" which only included the chorus and the tune. 25 years later Ketch Secor added some verses and renamed it "Wagon Wheel", so the song truly is half a Dylan song. You could tell that they enjoyed all playing together as much as we enjoyed seeing them.

All four of them are insanely talented, and all four of them are such lovely people. They all gave the impression that they truly believed that they were performing in front of friends, and they all felt, at least to me, as if they were all my friends. Can not wait to see both duos again, and it is such a shame that they don't do all of their gigs as a double bill together.

Set List

Awake Mother
Shuteye
Oh Death
House Of The Rising Sun
Selkie
Tom Paine's Bones
Silver Dagger
Glitter
Accident Of Birth
Pharoah's Daughter

Elizabeth & Jameson
Hit The Road
Tell The World To Go Away
Old Town
Tennessee
Hand Me Downs
Will She Know?
Mother Please
Nos Da
Ych A Fi

Collaboration

Wagon Wheel

Pete Bradley

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