Concert Review: Delaney Davidson & Barry Saunders – Wine Cellar January 29, 2021

The product of the Church and the Crossroads, Carmen and the Devil walking side by side. American Roots music with deep connections to Celtic, Folk and Africa. Up step two troubadours dressed in black. Delaney and Barry may not have a pretty face like that earlier legendary American outfit. Hell, they kind of look scary and mean.Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders are taking their well-received and award-winning album Word Gets Around on a mini-tour of the country. A special show at this intimate below-street venue in the heart of Auckland. They are one of the showcase performers at this year’s Auckland Folk Festival.

The triumph is early in the set with Can’t Hardly Stand It. Classic rockabilly song from cult favourite Charlie Feathers. Slow measured Blues shuffle to start. Dirty guitar tones and a tombstone head with a graveyard mind. Dangerous Rockabilly. Delaney shreds to close out the song.

Julia Deans

The pretty is there to start the show. Big surprise as Julia Deans takes the stage to start. The vocalist for celebrated New Zealand band of the past Fur Patrol, takes the stage solo with a big acoustic guitar. She did a fabulous solo show mid last year at the Ponsonby Social Club. Somewhere between lockdowns. This carries on in similar vein.

Says she is nervous as these are all new songs which are in a process of evolution.

Come on in and close the door behind you and immediately her powerful voice lifts the room. Sad and melancholy.

The hope I had inside starts high and then continues to float skyward as the ceiling disappears. Voice a little like contemporary Molly Tuttle or an older one in Nanci Griffiths. Feels haunted and lost.

You took for granted my six-string heart is a more familiar Country tune. A slightly richer tone in voice similar to Christine McVie. There is a little Mac there with a sombre strummed rhythm.

There is also a Big Mac when she sings, I’ve been draggin’ my heels, hoping for miracles. Melancholy and contrite but sensual like Stevie Nicks.

In the Shadow of the Mountain was written with Davidson. A ringing acoustic guitar, it has the ghostly cadences of old Mountain Country music.

Delaney and Barry

Touring with Delaney and Barry tonight are the rhythm section of Jonathan Burgess on electric bass and Chris O’Connor drums.

Long Way Home opens the set. Pretty much straight-up Country and they set the tone with great ensemble singing.

Mind Reader Blues then adds in some electric guitar twang and races off with some bouncy Rockabilly. Still with Country in Barry’s voice and he calls this a tribute to Jimmy Rogers. The song is probably the old Charley Patton one from way back, with adaptations. Electric guitar dissonance from Delaney carries it out.

Special Rider is a Skip James song and is a feature on the album. James was a Blues King in his own right and pioneered the Bentonia sound. Here they inject some Rockabilly fire into it. Nasty guitar riffs to start, fuzzed and dirty. Also has a John Lee Hooker stomp beat to propel it.

Blues In This Room and they show their versatility in different styles of Country. A slow drum beat leads into tremolo guitar and then a Buck Owen’s Bakersfield style vocals.

Broken Wheel is called a Delaney Special. Bo Diddley rhythm to start. Nice harmonica from Barry. Country Rockabilly with a guitar riff that may be nicked from American Woman in part. Great one chord workout with trance elements. Charley Patton’s ghost again.

Word Gets Around and Nineteen Days. Rockabilly in the style of the early X with Billy Zoom’s punkish attack. Classic bar room band music.

Security. They have been working on new material and this is one. They drop to just acoustic guitar and harmonica. A Folk tune with lyrics and vocals echoing Neil Young. Here comes the Queen of Diamonds. Barry tells us he sang on open mic nights as a teenager at Folk clubs. Playing in front of the stare and scrutiny of big hairy scary guys.

Stolen River from the album is similar in style.

It’s a superb set and whilst it is a bit of heaven for obsessives like myself, the essential business of sensuality and sex is taken care of. The fans get into the body rock as best as can be in a packed space.

Rev Orange Peel

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