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Lucy Ward & Luke Jackson

Venue: The Railway
Town: Winchester
Date: 6th December
Website: www.lucywardsings.com/
www.lukepauljackson.co.uk

Whenever artists that are on or have been on our Showcase Sessions, we do our best to get along and see them, so to have two artists that are on the same session as part of the same gig is definitely very much a bonus.

Luke Jackson is an artist that has really begun breaking through this year, whilst Lucy Ward really began breaking through a couple of years back by making the final of the Young Tradition Award a couple of years back, with the likes of Megan Henwood and Chris Ricketts and who has also been nominated for both the Horizon Award and the Best Traditional Song Award for the BBC Folk Awards.

The really frightening thing about both of them playing the same gig is that if you tot up both their ages, I've still got a few years on them. The quality of musicianship at such a young age simply stunning.

If I had to choose a single word to describe tonight, without a shred of doubt, that word would be power. Both artists have so much power in their vocal, their delivery, their passion, it's difficult to understand where it all comes from.

To hear Luke Jackson sing is like hearing an artist that has mastered time travel to understand what his future might bring, write about it and bring it back to his young self. There is a real maturity in the writing that sits in contrast with the young musician on stage and yet you know both words and music are his.

There is a real depth to his voice, not just the resonance, but also in the way that he uses it to emphasise certain passges in his songs. As well as writing beyond his years, he seems to have a voice beyond them to. He's self assured in his presentation without ever spilling over into cocky and he knows his way around the guitar to boot.

Lucy Ward also has time travelling skills, but her ability seems to be able to slip in the past and write songs that feel as though they are part of the tradition and if they aren't quite yet, they soon will be.

She intersperses her split set with a good amount of wit and humour. Even when there is a darkness in a song, there is a twinkle in her eye and delivery that tells you it isn't going to be too depressing. She also uses the between song banter as a tool to keep the spirits up if she thinks a song is going to be a little bit too morbid.

Her cover version of "Common People" also helps highlight a dry sense of humour when it comes to her performance. This view is further enhanced when she starts quoting from a 1965 edition of the Boyfriend Annual before launching into a song about relationships.

For me though, the vocal highlight was the debut of Lucy's carol compilation, which she simply calls "The Carol" performed unaccompanied, note perfect, it was simply stunning. Whilst that song was very intense in it's performance it was contrasted by the likes of "Maids When They're Young" for which she has rightly been nominated for a BBC Folk Award in the Traditional song category.

Both Lucy and Luke hit the audience hard with both the power and passion of their performance. They seem to perform with talent and ability beyond their relatively tender years. Like most of the audience I looked upon the performance of both artists with a certain amount of reverence. I would whole heartedly recommend that if one or both of these artists play anywhere close to you, you take some time out of your busy lives to go along and be entertained.

Words & Pictures Neil King