The soothing soul country sounds of The Delines arrived in Dublin as the final date of a short Irish tour (part of a visit to Europe to promote the recent album The Sea Drift). It highlighted again the tightness and musicality of the band, the obvious highlight being the keyboards and trumpet of Cory Gray. And that doesn’t take away from the rhythm sections of Sean Oldham and (touring) bassist Dave Little adeptness, or that of songwriter Willie Vlautin’s guitar and backing vocals. But front and centre is the captivating voice of Amy Boone. Since Vlautin and Sean Oldham morphed from Richmond Fontaine into The Delines, they have brought together a unit of well-oiled players to bring Vlautin’s blue collar characters to life.
Given the onstage conversation, the well-oiled may also have an additional context. Boone revealed that a band meeting had been held to decide should they get to bed at a reasonable hour or simply stay up and chase that last pint in Ireland! Other topics were the current mid-term American elections, and wanting to slightly misbehave in the setting of the church they were playing, about which Vlautin noted the irony of helping to raise funds to save such old church buildings when “we are the people who they beat the shit out of.” He revealed that when trying to convince Boone to join the band he had spent eight months solidly writing songs that he hoped would convince her. They did and then they played what Vlautin felt was the best of those, The Oil Rigs At Night from the debut album Colfax.
The played songs from all the albums, such as a stunning version of The Imperial which again shows Gray’s prowess on the piano, through to more recent material like Little Earl, to new songs which they plan to record on return to the US. They opened with Don’t Miss The Bus, Lorraine and finished the set with a new song about drinking on the sidewalk in excessive heat - though cautioning that alcohol may not be the best means of rehydrating in such conditions.
They left the stage and moved behind the stage before coming back, returning for a three song encore, as Vlautin noted as he stepped on his Gibson SG again that there was “no place to hide back there.” They started with a song about which he noted was one they don’t play often to which it was noted (by his fellow band member) that “we played it last night.” That caused Boone to laugh and remark that she missed the old days before the internet when you could get away with some bullshit. Boone had wanted Vlautin to write her a love song and he noted it was to be one were someone was not left in a ditch or decapitated - Let’s Be Us Again fit that bill.
A highlight for this writer was a song from their recent 7” single The Lost Duets, released to tie in with the tour and it was a pleasure to hear the two voices duet in the song, something they both love to do but couldn’t find a place on the previous albums where it fitted in. My Blood Bleeds The Darkest Blue was, in some ways, a nod to earlier recordings but was performed live to perfection, as indeed were all the songs featured tonight.
The opening set was delivered by Mark McCambridge of Arbourist who performed with voice and electric guitar and who did well in holding the audience’s attention. He played songs from previous albums and a couple from his next album. A difficult task often, but in this venue, it meant that the audience were forcibly attentive and not out in the bar for his set as there wasn’t one! An unusual enough experience for an Irish gig but one that seemed to work.
Review by Stephen Rapid Photograph by Kaethe Burt-O’Dea