Michaela Anne @ Oslo
What a difference a year can make. Same venue and same stage for Michaela Anne as this time last year at AMA UK, but the transformation is titanic. In contrast to the sparsely attended show last time around and a somewhat dodgy sound system, the room is buzzing this evening. What follows is a cracking set from Michaela Anne and her tight band, which includes her husband and musical director Aaron Shafer-Haiss on drums. Touring her excellent album DESERT DOVE, the Nashville resident may be petite in stature but she’s blessed with one of the sweetest and most powerful country voices to come out of Music City in recent years and it’s fully on display tonight. Difficult to select any one highlight from her set but both By Our Design and One Heart are sublime. We’ve been raving about this artist for a number of years and on the basis of her performance tonight and the punters reaction, her breakthrough to attaining household name status in the Americana world can only be around the corner.
Sam Baker & The Empire Bar
The trademark and disciplined semi spoken delivery by Texan Sam Baker is an absolute winner at The Empire Bar, as he recounts tales that address those less fortunate everyday characters that populate his songs. A crammed and noisy Empire Bar is transformed to drop dead silence as Baker delivers the opening line of his first song Migrants and the next thirty minutes are equally spellbinding. His set includes some of his much-loved material such as Waves, Isn’t Love Great, Tattooed Woman and his signature song Broken Fingers, which closes his set. Thankfully he also manages to squeeze another song into his slot with an outstanding delivery of Thursday. Playing electric guitar and accompanied by the gifted Croatian Radoslav Lorković on piano and accordion, this evenings performance by Baker is as good as I’ve witnessed over many years and many shows by this talented troubadour.
Pete Gow & The Siren Strings @ Oslo
There’s barely enough space on the generous Oslo stage to accommodate Pete Gow, his band and his string orchestra. Gow’s 2019 album HERE THERE’S NO SIRENS appeared to land left of centre, a rich and sumptuous collection of spectacularly arranged songs. It’s dark, middle of the night music and an album that is likely to be discovered by a much wider listenership going forward, as word of mouth spreads it’s praises. The opportunity to witness the material delivered with his string players and full band is captivating and indeed, quite moving. ‘’There’s a radio on, it’s an old Pogues song, I can hear Shane sing, You’re the measure of my dreams’’ Gow sings on the title track, the orchestra gently joining him mid song. It’s a goose bumps moment which is repeated on the equally beautiful Strip For Me. Closing on a upbeat note, they unleash a rousing version of Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money. A classic finale to a quite stunning and memorable performance.
Malin Pettersen @ Paper Dress Vintage & Rough Trade East
The festival offered two opportunities to catch Norwegian Malin Pettersen. She’s an artist whose reputation as one of Europe’s most gifted country singers has been gaining momentum over the past year and most particularly since the release of her mini album ALONESOME, late last year. Her showcase set at Paper Vintage Dress finds her fronting a full band, which include members of her fellow Norwegians Darling West, who are also playing a slot at the festival. It’s a lively and impressive thirty minutes of upbeat rockin’ country fare, featuring material from her debut album REFERENCES PT.1 and a taster of what we can expect from recordings she put down in Nashville last Autumn. The following day she performs an instore at Rough Trade’s flagship store in East London. In total contrast to the previous evening, Pettersen plays a minimalistic acoustic solo set, with material drawn from the equally stripped to the bone ALONESOME album. It’s a platform for her to showcase her exceptional vocals and she wins hands down. Particularly impressive are the title track and Pause, written about the horrors of dementia. She also finds time to perform the Iris De Ment song Hotter Than Mojave in My Heart and the Tammy Wynette classic Take Me, which she dedicates in honour of her hero George Jones.
Peter Bruntnell & Band @ Paper Dress Vintage
Whether playing solo, in a duo, a trio or a full band, Peter Bruntnell never fails to deliver. His showcase is a 11.30pm kick off this evening, playing to a full house and joined on stage by his regular bassist Peter Noone, drummer Mick Clews and Wynntown Marshal’s Iain Sloan, who plays pedal steel and occasional guitar. With only a thirty-minute slot and an extensive back catalogue to dip into, Bruntnell offers a mix of older classics like Cold Water Swimming and By The Time My Head Gets to Phoenix with a couple of tracks from his most recent and possibly career best album, KING OF MADRID. Concentrating on the rockier numbers from that album both London Clay and Broken Wing feature. Credited for his song writing talents, what’s often overlooked is his guitar skills and they are on display tonight alongside his razor-sharp band. A fitting close to the showcase gigs I attended and as I head back to the Oslo Bar for a nightcap, I’m left wondering how KING OF MADRID has not been nominated as Album Of The Year at The AMA UK Awards Show. There’s no accounting for taste!
Review and photography by Declan Culliton