Review: Cahalen Morrison & Eli West - City Halls, Glasgow
Joined here by fiddler Ryan Drickey, they played a captivating set, their old-time harmonies sounding over often busy but delicately poised string accompaniments on guitars (including eight-string), mandolin and banjo.
The often plaintive, antique character of Morrison’s compositions such as My Lover Adorned and On God’s Rocky Shore seemed to resonate from a long way back, while they delivered My Bloody Heart in stirring a cappella harmonies. A new number, Our Lady of the Tall Trees, possessed a nicely windblown ease, fiddle twining between the vocal lines, while the keen high holler of Fleeting Like the Days declaimed further poetic lyrics like gospel truths.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdInstrumentally, as Morrison’s banjo tune Cutting In demonstrated, they can really build up the tension, and the trio spun out The Weathervane Waltz with what I can only describe as old-fashioned grace.
If Morrison and West are new voices wrought from old, the opening set by Appalachian fiddler and banjoist Dirk Powell solidly tapped into the source, with numbers such as Cornbread and Whiskey and Jack of Diamonds that rang with rough-grained authenticity. Joined by guitarist Matt Greenhill, Powell also churned out rollicking Cajun material on accordion while a step-dancer added to the general sense of high-spirited dust-raising.
RATING: ****