Jackie Bristow- Wine Cellar: March 1, 2023

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Jackie Bristow brought classic country soul and Americana to a large Wine Cellar crowd which included a fair number of fellow musicians taking it in.

The show was a two-hander with long time collaborator and guitar legend Mark Punch, flying over from Sydney for this show. Played with Renee Geyer in the Seventies, wrote hit songs for Jon English, and recorded with many of the top musicians from Australia over the course of forty-plus years. Has even been a long-time member of the Wiggles band.

A perfect symbiotic match for Bristow. She comes from the heartland of New Zealand country music in Gore. Her artist’s journey has taken her from Australia, California, Austin Texas through to Nashville. She is very much a Kiwi in manner, but the spirit resides in Memphis with her music. The studios of Stax, Hi Records, Ardent, American Sound and of course Sun Records.

Punch plays in a band called the Bluemoons, laying down rhythm n blues, rockabilly, country, soul and more. You hear that in his guitar.

There is a Steve Cropper and Otis Redding dynamic to their combined sound. Perfect to experience this in the intimate underground Wine Cellar. The sound desk is superlative.

The show kicks off with Whistle Blowin’ and the voice sends shivers. I can feel a cold front blowing. Pure tones with the measured country cadence of a Dolly Parton. It is Bristow’s own signature sound too. The guitar begins with liquid tear drops and closes with some blues licks.

Rollin’ Stone is country rock. A road song which could slot in comfortably on Exile on Main Street. Bristow plays rhythm guitar on an acoustic for the night. Punch is generally restrained and doesn’t showboat. At times he will, and here he lets go a little, like Mike Bloomfield unwinding on Highway 61 Revisited.

Circle Round You, off first album Thirsty, is about the rules of attraction which is a timeless and endless subject. The lead guitar breaks out with molten gold melodic lines, matched by the singer’s high keening.

Tennessee You Call Me Home. Of course, that is Nashville and Memphis. From one Southland to another. A river song which is the ever-present spiritual and physical quest. Like the Mystery Trains, the ribbon of highway, and the Greyhound buses that Robert Johnson would escape on. Great phrasing from a fluid porous lead guitar. It’s about coming home and it has echoes of Going Home from the Rolling Stones Aftermath album of 1966.

Fallen Youth is given a great workout and sounds like a great roots country American Civil War song. A poem written around the Great War, I think, and given to Bristow by a Kiwi fan to turn into song.

A few other musical legends get up to lend a hand. There is no raised stage, all they have to do is step over the cables.

Mal McCallum seems to be another best-kept secret inside the New Zealand music industry. A singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer and collaborator since the Seventies, when he appeared on television’s Ready To Roll. The Little River Band played on one of his albums. He reached a pinnacle with opening for Joni Mitchell at the Sydney Opera House.

He played a handful of songs to open the evening, solo with finger-picked acoustic guitar. A fine voice and coming straight from the Laurel Canyon era of singer-songwriters, most specifically James Taylor.

A great cover of Taylor’s You Can Close Your Eyes along with three of his own. Soft rock, soulful folk, or what used to be called AOR. Adult-Orientated-Rock.

With him come Greg Tell, drummer for the Renee Geyer Band from a long time ago, and Caitlin Smith, Kiwi folk jazz song poet.

They do a stunning version of Mentor William’s Drift Away, the most famous version from Dobie Gray. Punch takes lead vocals and surpasses his own expectations as a great soul voice. Gimme the beat boys and free my soul/ I wanna get lost in your rock’n’roll and drift away.

Freedom, title song off the 2010 album, closes the show. Tell gets behind the drum kit for the first and only time. Wonderful lead guitar intro, with dirty country blues and some Southern boogie. A road song which works up a sweat. Drums add the extra spicy sausage to the gumbo. Gospel testifying getting wild when Smith lets loose.

Great show from Jackie Bristow, as good as you would hear in Nashville. Down home Kiwi and heartland americana free of boundaries.

Rev Orange Peel      

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