John Wright? What's he like then? "Well, he used to be a shepherd..." was the only answer I got whenever I asked, so it was some relief to learn that John Wright is now a professional musician and boy can he sing!
This, by the way marks the return to "almost on time" blogging - I hope to go back and fill in the gaps, but I will now try and report just after the event rather than trying to cram in 4 festivals before I go any further! So look out for Fiddlestone on Sunday if all goes to plan.
Eddie warmed us all up with his own wonderful brand of enthusiasm, fun and songs, managing to get through them all without cracking up this month!
The John Wright Band then are John on vocals, local hero Joe Topping on guitar and vocals, Joe Wright on guitar, violin and vocals, and for a limited time only, Chris Parkinson on accordion, harmonica and percussion. John is a big bloke and his (new - from George - Asda) dark suit and black t-shirt set him off well, his slightly long hair and silver hoop earring adding to the image, which, every now and then, reminded me of Tindersticks' Stuart Staples, especially when he cradled a glass in his hands.
We were treated to a set of 14 songs from 14 different song writers - John interprets others' songs rather than writing his own, and every one was performed with a real spirit of feeling. Opening with "Past the point of rescue" by Mick Hanly, John made good use of his expressive face and mannerisms, making lots of eye-contact with the sell-out audience, and continued in this manner for the whole night, drawing us in to his songs with his eyes and his hands.
Continuing with Dave Mallett's "You say the battle is over" the band switched from guitar and fiddle to two guitar mode, giving a rich sound with some very skilful interplays. John describes this song as saying things "the way I feel" made his point but let the song do most of the talking.
Next up was "Time to Learn" from Tim O'Brien and Pat Alger with some lovely washes from Chris' accordian with some great guitar work over. At the end of this song there was just the briefest of a flicker of pain on John's face before his almost ever-present smile returned, a small chink in the mask revealing some of the real man behind? "Close to the edge" by Alan Taylor provided some close vocal harmonies, followed by Pete Abbott's "Windy Harbour" and then Dougie Maclean's devestatingly heartfelt song "Down too deep" closed the first half with Joe Wright providing sparkling violin passage for the bridge.
The second half was to have a "Scottish Lilt" and started with "The Old Boys" from Runrig's Rory and Calum MacDonald with very fine vocal harmonies, a very tight band this, well used to the material, but never seemingly bored of it, "Come By" from Steve Knightly revealed a whiff of Peter Gabriel in John's voice as he sang this song that he inspired from Steve, complete with authentic commands to the shepherd's dog. Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby's "The end of innocence" woke us all up as the band moved up a notch, the 2 Joe's being allowed a couple of solo lines each on vocals - John's obviously not about to let anybody steal his show!
More close harmonies on "Eldorado" by Graham Miles (no web site?) reminded me how clear John's diction is, and his voice is so powerful when he opens it up, rising on his toes towards the mike, adding a couple of extra inches to his already impressive hight. Robin Laine's "Black Clothes" closed the set with John sidling off to let the band play out to a climatic close, and we called them back to do one more - "Whatever goes around" by Chris Jones (no web site?) before we all went home happy and impressed.
"Would you come again?" John asked us afterwards? Too right we would!
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