Reviews
Artist:Sarah MacDougall with Tim Tweedale + Becky Syson
Venue:Bournemouth Folk Club
Town:Bournemouth
Date:24/05/09
Website:http://www.myspace.com/sarahmacdougall
http://www.myspace.com/beckysyson
It was a night full of expectation at Bournemouth Folk Club, for the second gig running there were no floor slots, just a main act and support, rather than featuring the more usual floor slots. The main act was Sarah MacDougall with Tim Tweedale and support came from Nottingham's Becky Syson. This was a one of support slot for Becky who had come down especially for it.
It was a night I was really looking forward to as, by extreme coincidence, both acts had been involved in The Fatea Showcase Sessions. Becky had contributed "Before Now" to "One", Sarah & Tim have "Across The Atlantic" on the current session, "Two".
The first thing I notice before the music even starts, is Tim's Weissenborn guitar. I don't recall ever seeing one before. It's an early version of the lap guitar, it's got a hollow neck as well as a hollow body, that was originally designed to give the guitar more volume, that didn't work, but it did give the guitar more resonance and it gives it a really beautiful sound that's more mellow than a full lap steel or slide guitar.
First up is Becky Syson, one of a number of good singer songwriters that emerging from the Nottingham area. Her recent album "H.O.L.L.A.N.D", Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies was named after a track of the same name. It was written about the way her grandfather signed off letters to her grandmother when he was away during the war. As well as reflecting the love and emotion, Becky has added an anti-war sentiment into the piece. It's a good track on the album, but live you can really feel just how much it means to her.
It comes part way through a set that shows Ms Syson knows that performing live isn't about recreating an album, it's a about a performance, a one off event. Albums aren't meant to be performed live, they form the basis of a set and every interpretation is that bit different. Becky put together a great performance. She's a great songwriter so comes from a pretty solid base.
Add to that an expressive voice that really gets into the song and you're a good towards the complete package. Becky is the complete package and it's no surprise that she's managed to pick up a festival or two during the summer. If you get the chance you really should get along and see her.
Sarah and Tim have travelled from Canada to tour the UK. Sarah also has a long stint in Sweden as part of her musical history, it all adds up to a rich and varied sound.
Tim has done his research on Bournemouth and seems to be the kind of guy keen on building his knowledge base, asking about castles to satisfy the latter and using a reference to Robert Louis Stevenson in a song introduction to highlight the former.
He gets to play one of his own songs solo at the introduction of the second set. It's an instrumental that brings the qualities of the Weissenborn right to the fore. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.
Sarah's sound moves across the Americana, country spectrum from the other side of the pond as well as a Northern European, almost rhythmic guitar style from this side. There's even a couple of points where she performs a dad a de dad a dum voice as an instrument in a way that reminds me of the more traditional Quebec bands than those fully on the West Coast.
The combination of guitars and occasional trumpet, also contributed by Tim, work exceptionally well. The two very distinct playing styles and sounds combining to create a really distinct atmosphere to build the words onto.
Surprisingly there were a couple of spots where Sarah lost her way during a song, but it was quickly recovered and on at least one of the occasions I think it was only her that had noticed it. None of it detracted from the set, which was refreshingly individual. Sarah MacDougall, has found herself a distinct niche in a crowded genre. There are a lot of good singer/songwriters with a countrified sound, creating something to give you a degree of separation from the pack becomes more important than ever, MacDougall/Tweedale have that sound. On the album, in amongst other musicians it works well enough, live as a duo it really comes into it's own.
One really nice touch is the way both artists comment on the quality of the sound engineering and the appreciative audience Bournemouth Folk Club provides.