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Eleanor McEvoy

Venue: Jazz Cafe
Town: London
Date: 21/5/14
Website: http://www.eleanormcevoy.com

If you started at Camden Town Tube Station and stretched out your theoretical compass for, let's say half a mile you would have a choice of scores of music venues to go to. It would be fair to say that I have been in most, some fairly regularly. But there was one whose threshold I'd never crossed. It was always the name that put me off. The Jazz Cafe. I've never been that fond of cafes as musical establishments and even though I have dabbled in jazz (we all do, don't we?) it's never been my thing.

The thought of seeing Eleanor McEvoy there didn't make my heart leap. I'd always imagined the place to be dark, velvet lined with small round tables lit by candles. The reality was a welcome surprise. A big space, quite industrial looking. There were a couple of tables, a few chairs dotted around the perimeter but other than that it was standing only; and the sound was excellent - as was Eleanor.

This was the launch of her latest album Stuff an album of "bits and pieces, odds and sods, flotsam and jetsam she's pulled together from b-sides, other people's records, alternate mixes and from generally rummaging down the back of the metaphorical sofa". There was stuff a-plenty tonight, gig and album had the same opener, her ode to "lusting after somebody" The Thought Of You, followed by You'll Hear Better Songs Than This from 2011's Alone. Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee - a song about a father not being able to see his child - was slowed right down and when coupled with Deliver Me - about a "Bad Priest" both served as a social commentary on Ireland.

McEvoy switch from her acoustic guitar to electric piano for Harbour and a jaunty take on the Beach Boys classic God Only Knows. She was back to the guitar, but a tele this time for The Way You Wear Your Troubles and a beautiful rendition of True Colours.

By now the tone of the evening was set. Originals and covers, acoustic guitar and electric guitar, piano and violin, a matchbox and a gorgeous voice. Most songs were preceded with a bit of a tale, like when she was booked to play a folk club only for the announcer to tell the audience that she "wasn't her choice but the committee voted for her".

And, of course there was that song. Only A Woman's Heart is as much a classic as Memphis Tennessee or God Only Knows or her encore (Dylan's I'll Be Your Baby Tonight). It was played on the electric, we were invited to sing along and so we did.

This was nothing short of a memorable evening.

John 'The Jacket' Hawes