This concert marks the Irish debut of Charlottesville, Virginia native, Caroline Spence. She has been living in Nashville for a number of years now, initially moving there in order to write songs for other artists. However, over this time, she has been quietly and steadily making a name for herself, not only as a songwriter, but also a performer of some substance.
Appearing at the Workman’s Club with fellow musician Charlie Whitten on backing vocal and guitar, Caroline delivers a set of 13 songs over 70 minutes that leaves the audience certainly wanting more, yet satisfied with the quality of the content and the easy manner of her communication, story-telling and rich talent.
Her finely observed songs tend to gravitate towards matters of the heart and finding her place in this World. Focusing mainly on her recent release, MINT CONDITION, Caroline includes seven songs and with just stripped-down guitars and vocals, the audience has the chance to hear them in their original form, before studio embellishment.
Caroline plays Long Haul , Angels or Los Angeles, Song About a City, Who’s Gonna Make My Mistakes, Wait On the Wine, Who Are You and the title track, a song that was one of the first experiences she had in trying to write from an external perspective and look through the eyes of someone else – in this case her Grandmother.
She also plays tracks from her second album, SPADES AND ROSES (2017) and includes Heart of Somebody, Hotel Amarillo, All the Beds I’ve Made, You Don’t Look So Good (Cocaine) and Slow Dancer. For an encore, she goes back to her debut release, SOMEHOW (2015) and plays Whiskey Watered Down.
Caroline started her set with the song, Long Haul, which seems very appropriate, since Ireland is the last leg of her European tour. She speaks of the freezing cold she encountered while in Norway and how she has always wanted to visit Ireland and how every city on the current tour is a new experience for her.
Long Haul is something of a wry (and ironic) look at life on the road for a professional musician, the need to juggle a sense of loneliness with the urge to create and communicate – an insight to her World, with the words; “It's a funny little addiction with no cure in sight, So I keep breaking everything I'm fixing so I can be fixing to do it tomorrow night..”
This topic is also covered again in Amarillo Hotel where a night off leads to an existential crisis and too much wine to fuel the insecurities of life on the road; “I'm just passing through, it'll only be the night, I just need somewhere to crash where I can turn off all the lights.”
Song About a City is similar in theme with places she has been name-checked against a desire to have someone there to take the place of the travel blur; “I wish that I could make the most, Of the magic on this coast, Can’t see the beauty through the ghost, That I’m still dragging around.”
Spence says that all her love songs have a rain cloud and all her sad songs have a silver lining. It is this gift to put her finger on the emotional pulse that separates her out from many other songwriters trying to find a voice. Her search for true love and honesty with no holds barred, is covered in songs like Heart Of Somebody and All The Beds I’ve Made; the perils of the journey always worth the risk in arriving at a happy destination.
Disappointment in relationships is looked at in Whiskey Watered Down; “So I've been searching high and low and all around this town, For something that won't feel like whiskey watered down.” You Don’t Look So Good (Cocaine) is another look at the vagaries of relationships; “Some people see roses, you only see thorns, At the first little drop of pain you wish you'd never been born.”
Slow Dancer also questions the risk of falling too fast and wanting to feel a warmth that another can bring; “Found the part of my heart that won’t take no for an answer, You turned me into a slow dancer.” There are many other favourites on her records that she didn’t include in the set tonight but by now, her skill at crafting words and her insight into emotions and feelings is very apparent to all in the room.
Spence is also very funny storyteller and quite a natural in stretching out a yarn – something that will endear her to Irish audiences. Her admission to feeling nerves does not come across in her confident stage presence and her tales of how Mint Condition evolved from a dream to write from the perspective of her Grandmother and to also channel Emmylou Harris; to the reality of having Emmylou sing on the track, something she was able to share with her Grandmother before she died – it’s just the stuff to make you want to believe in the magic that a dream can bring about, to say nothing of synchronicity, karma or whatever else is floating out there in the ether.
Wait On The Wine is the standout track and the most intensely powerful vocal delivery of the night. A song of unrequited love and a secret crush, Spence opens her vocal range with great nuance in her delivery and compelling performance. It made me think that there is so much more for her to stretch for, not that she sings safely, but the tone and colour of her voice can certainly be further developed as she continues to grow into live performance. There is a natural catch in her vocal delivery which is very appealing and it heightens the experience in absorbing these songs of personal hope and loss.
There is an aching, yearning quality to her delivery, not quite beaten down, but ready for the fight. I have no doubt that Ireland will take Caroline Spence to their hearts and that she will return to these shores. Word is already spreading.
Charlie Whitten opened the evening with a short set that included gently delivered songs from his body of work - Since She’s Gone, Wedding Song, Another Plan and Virginia were all very well received and he has a gentle alto voice, also a sweetly tuneful whistle which he uses in a few of the songs. A dreamy, mellow, lo-fi sound.
Review and photo by Paul McGee