June 26, 2021

Concert Review: Tom Cunliffe at The Wine Cellar, 23 June 2021

Celtic and English Folk. Shadows of Americana where the Home Country’s music thrived and then was transformed. Songster Tom Cunliffe takes us on a musical journey of tales and meditations. All the news that’s fit to sing. And to be played.

The music sounds like we are in the time of Peak Folk in Greenwich Village, New York. Gerdes and Café Wha? The lyricist started by listening Rap. Tupac, Nas and likely NWA. Then he was introduced to the albums of Dylan. The moods he conjures also channels Leonard Cohen.

With him tonight is long-time collaborator and multi-musician Dave Khan, on keyboards and violin tonight. Sympathetic, personified bass from Eamon Edmundsen-Wells. Both are ubiquitous New Zealand artists.

A heart-warming melody on the keyboards starts the set. Secret Ambition. A soulful vocal entry. We are pitched into the sounds of Peter, Paul and Mary and the Folk stable of Albert Grossman. At least as far as the imagination goes as most of us were too young to be present physically.

Love in a Graveyard. That’s how the song is described. Great swinging and whirling Celtic fiddle matched to smiling sunny lyrics and this one sounds like kin to The Smith’s Cemetery Gates.

They Dug It All Away is arresting. A social protest ballad centered around a grim Iron Town mining disaster. Violin played like a ukulele. The cadences of tragedy from which follow an unleashing of spiritual energy. The Bells of Rhymney and classic Bluegrass Quartet sounds. From his debut album Howl and Whisper.

This Table is a River. A ringing Byrds-style Folk-Pop jaunt with an English sensibility. He’s expected to be strong/ She’s expected to be sweet.

Many of the songs are new and awaiting completion for an up-and-coming album.

We Had It All. A tumbling Folk drone rhythm acoustic guitar. The bass bends and slides and a soft seaside melody from the keyboard.

Andalina is cinematic Pop. She was sent to set you free/ Can’t put the tears back in Andalina’s eyes.

Of similar themes and structure is Refusing the Way. Love is the husband/ Refusing to die.

I can’t make any obvious link between Rap and Dylan. Cunliffe’s music is waist deep in Blood on the Tracks, rather than Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Very much so with the set closer, Where the Dust Has Been. There’s an artist somewhere/ Cleaning the staircase. Melancholy and utterly compelling. An engrossing set.

The opening performer, Jazmine Mary is perfect as a scene-setter. Ambient Folk is not a bad start to describe her sound on stage tonight. Minimalist, stripped-back, naked in a cold light. Not meant to invite you in warmly, rather to approach with trepidation.

Jazmine Rose Phillips is Australian and hails from Gippsland in Victoria. The is a stunning part of the country. Looks prehistoric and other-worldly and has the feel of the beginnings of time on the planet.

It’s So Late. Slow and ponderous, deliberately theatrical. Has the eerie stripped-back Gothic Blues sound of Elvis at Sun, singing Blue Moon and Tomorrow Night.

If I’m being honest, I can’t handle people. Even starker and skeletal. Bruce Springsteen on Nebraska took inspiration from Art Terrorists Suicide. Imagine that intensity turned up.

Skeleton comes from recent album The Licking of a Tangerine. A quiet and deliberate unadorned Folk voice which sneaks up and suddenly unleashes a startlingly big sound. Off to find another body and I hope she likes me.

Intense and unsettling Folk music. Not particularly cuddly, more a bit witchy. Scary Stevie of Fleetwood.

On The Fool, her voice can sound like a cornet.

Seagull she announces as a favourite as she switches to keyboards for the last song. A Pop melody put through a William Burroughs time warper device. It comes shuffling out to a very odd dance. Hound dog/ Flower power/ I see you in pieces.

Quite cerebral but very moving.

Rev Orange Peel