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Lee Fisher enjoys a show full of wry observations and poetry courtesy of Laura Veirs
Image: Laura Veirs & Karl Blau by Anna Caine
Karl Blau is a regular Laura Veirs collaborator with a surprisingly lengthy back catalogue and a sound that conjures up Tony Joe White (the voice), Jim White (the guitar) and any number of songwriters dealing in hardscrabble lives and heartbreak. His voice is impressive – soulful and resonant – and his subtle use of loops and rhythms works well. But the songs mostly didn’t stand out and he was best on a pair of well-chosen covers – the Gibb Brothers’ To Love Somebody and Tom T Hall’s That’s How I Got To Memphis ,which wasn’t as good as the Scott Walker version but was still impressive. Plus he was charming, diffident company.
Laura Veirs has had something of a rollercoaster life since I saw her last and it’s changed her for the better as a performer. She seems happier, more assertive and wry, more comfortable – all of which made tonight’s gig one of the best I’ve seen from her. The show leaned heavily on her wonderful new record, Temple Songs, which is frank and refreshing about the aforementioned rollercoaster and about falling in love in later life. She opened with Feelings Returned, which beautifully sums up the thrill and the fear of new love, and I was instantly reminded what a special artist she is: a knack for affecting melodies and guitar lines and a voice that is light but strong and always gets me right in the feels. Her lyrics are full of observations and poetry, of flowers and nature and decency, like a more bucolic Suzanne Vega at times. She was backed throughout by Karl Blau, whose own voice someone manages to match Veirs’ register, doubling up for some wonderful harmonies, and who contributes some subtle but lovely flourishes and filigrees on his guitar. They’ve worked together for decades and their warm rapport was evident. The sound is also filled out by some sparingly used backing tapes – including a sax solo from her husband. Many of the songs on Temple Songs see Veirs revisiting the ‘little Portland anarchist’ of her youth – there’s No Masters, which is self-explanatory, and Arc Still Bends, based on a Martin Luther King speech, and speaks of anger and frustration at how everything seems to be going backwards politically and socially.
There were plenty of archive dives, and a sweet section where she allowed the audience two requests (we got Lake Swimming and Sun Song) and two questions, which gave her a chance to be very funny and a tad indiscreet about her collaboration with kd lang and Neko Case on the Case/Lang/Veirs album. The slightly ragged but highly spirited Dolly tribute, which had the audience mumbling along to Islands In The Stream, was an unexpected treat and for encores we got I Can See Your Tracks and Sunlight & Doom (an ideal blend of deep cut and new material). It’s been a while since I saw Veirs live but tonight reminded me why that’s a mistake.
