Narc. Magazine Online
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Lee Fisher enjoys an evening with some of Tyneside’s best folk(ish) artists
Image: Horse Loom by Lee Fisher
This bill couldn’t fail – a triple threat line-up of the best folk (or folk adjacent) guitarists in the city – and Cobalt was the perfect environment: the venue welcoming, the audience attentive.
Phil Tyler was up first and turned in his first set of non-folk originals for a few years. It was more subdued than you’d expect, and some of the songs could have worked for his band The Last Path – sombre and austere. Apart from the surprising Duran Duran cover…
Steve Malley readily admits that crippling stage fright has stymied various projects for the last few years, not least his remarkable Horse Loom incarnation. But he’s back at it and it was bloody lovely. His voice is deep and warm, his guitar playing flows like mercury, the whole thing easily the equal of his influences. We got Beastings (his voice and bass string drone melding), we got an a capella Ah Cud Hew, we got Lie Here, a song about falling in love that sounds like falling in love.
Nev Clay was last up and was his usual charming, tangential self. There was talk of Dr Alice Roberts, wasted time, capitalism. There were even a few songs – Green Leaves was as poignant as ever, Hedgerow as astute, All I Start Will End a real gutpunch. His chatty warm persona might make people underestimate the craft of the songwriting or the remarkable guitar playing. It shouldn’t – while he might be diffident or dismissive about his talents, we shouldn’t.
