Linda Moylan - The Fool album launch
Venue: Dingwalls 2Town: Camden
Date: 6th September 2024
Website: http://www.lindamoylan.co.uk/
Camden on a Friday night has a unique buzz about it. "Camden Crazy" has its own scale and you're never quite sure who or what you'll meet - or if you want to. It make for a rather rakish attitude and Dingwalls 2, tucked underneath its more famous sibling, offers a wonderful club venue for acts. Unusually, the stage is lower than the audience which gives a different perspective. There's a well stocked bar and unlimited opportunities to eat near by. It's certainly a great start even before the music's begun.
The reason I was there was the launch of Linda Moylan's third full album. As with other earlier music the albums draws on her roots, which combine an Irish love of storytelling combined with with a more prosaic east London view of the world that doesn't involve City high flyers or half-a-millon pound flats in docklands. "The Fool" combines all of these elements that show ordinary people, living their lives with all that entails. The set list for the evening covered most of the tracks on the albums, but it wasn't just a straight run through and being a live set there's so much more than just the music. Linda has a very full on stage presence with plenty of chat, the audience very quickly becomes a group of friends round for a chat, and a passion for her music that flows out in waves. We live the songs with her and it's very easy to relate them to people and situations we know.
This was also the first time I'd seen Linda with a full band, and that worked very well. On guitar and bass was long time collaborator Ian Montague provided his usual excellent backing. Hjördis Moon Badford's cajon, foot tambourines and backing vocals added real energy, as did Rebecca Mileham's precise fiddle. Hard working Rob Bartlitz, who was also an emergency replacement for the support returned to play bass and piano. His bass, an instrument so often overlooked, gave depth to the sound and his piano pieces ranged from full on to delicate.
I don't tend to dwell on the songs in a live review, that's what the album's for, but they're worth listening to. The set opened, as the album does, with "Irish Love Song" which is a love song that leaves the narrator with just one memory when there could have been so much more. Several of the songs have this sense of longing for people or times past, where memories are all that remains. "Dutch Houses" and "Winter Lights" are beautiful songs picking up on this theme and move the audience. It wasn't all melancholy though. Linda has covers of "Black Is The Colour" and "Star Of The County Down"as good as you'll hear anywhere and almost now traditional encore of "Squeeze Box" meant we left with a smile on our faces and a night of great music behind us.
Opening the evening, Louise Hatch was a new name to me but I loved her set of mostly self written songs that had a very personal touch. Backed by Laurence O on guitar and backing vocal, and aforementioned Rob Bartlitz providing bass, her songs were performed with a passion and drive that reminded several people of Elkie Brooks. The stand outs included "Turning Pages", "A Flag On Every Hill" and the touching "December Man", about trying to make an emotional link with somebody who's proving too much like hard work. Louise has a congenial hearing loss, which means she wears hearing aids an has to be very sensitive to frequencies. Last night night she was very fortunate to have an excellent sound engineer and we were all grateful for that. The sound was spot on throughout.
It was a terrific evening of music, in a warm welcoming atmosphere as both artists are worth exploring if you haven't come across them before. Linda's album is available through her website or Talking Elephant and Louise is in the process of recording an album that I think will be worth keeping an eye out for.
Tony Birch - Words & Pictures
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