Reviews
Artists: Kate Rogers- Jenny McCormick
Venue: Cup in the Northern Quarter
Town: Manchester
Date: 21/05/09
Websites: www.myspace.com/jennymccormick
www.myspace.com/katerogersband
'It is the wrong side of dusk in Manchester's northern quarter and as the night draws in something eclectic and ever evolving is pending'. Make mine a white coffee, please. With two spoons, I said, as Jenny shuffled to the stage area clutching tissue and obviously feeling slightly under the weather. I suspect she would like to sit back, grateful to be left alone. Nevertheless, her performance sets the momentum with a show of consistency and quality.
Jenny is clearly blessed with a smoky voice and a penchant for confessional, introspective and catchy songwriting and this projects very well indeed. Her singing tonight is slightly unpredictable due to a cold virus, however this adds excitement while affording her credibility and all due respect...
Blending alt- Americana attitude with Traditional folk sensibilities. Jenny and her song- Evie deliver the enjoyment goods with guts, emotional intensity and integrity. This bodes well with the laid back, appreciative audience and I am as impressed as I am interested.
Songs- What Is Love and Winter Dressing Gown are equally affecting, lyrically thoughtful and emotionally honest affairs which draw us in while encouraging the imagination to consider how the subjective relates to observable world. My Dearest Dear ends her impressive exhibition beautifully, so delicately and so totally at ease with itself and it's impact upon us that it would have cast a shadow on the proceedings if the final act did not follow suite..
Thankfully, as I have said, this was not the case and as Kate Rogers, along with her five piece band took to the stage. The audience shuffled in their seats, switched their cameras on and settled down quietly in seemingly eager expectation...
Kate Roger's music is buoyant, familiarly light hearted, darkly inspiring and not surprisingly infectious. It also conveys a great homemade intimacy, which is immediately engaging. Songs- Feels Like Years and Wow Box set a cantering pace though differ in delivery and intensity. This diversity continues throughout a pulsating set, which is broken only when Kate changes between a variation of mandolin and acoustic guitar. Piano, supporting vocals, electric guitar; bass and drums explosively mix her songs up to a satisfying climax. Final song- Stealing From You exposes much about Kate's musical vision and is a perfect ending to a impeccable performance. Excellent!
Jim Sutherland 2009