- Sid Griffin & Pat
McGarvey
- 12 Bar Club, Denmark
Street, London - 24th September 1999
- A welcome return to the 12 Bar Club for Sid
Griffin tonight, a friendly if small venue, but
one with a good atmosphere even when far from
full. Opening the show were The Blue Water
Triplets, from San Francisco. Actually a duo,
(their bass player had been left behind), the 2
women combined a simple guitar and bongo drum
with some pretty good vocals to create a
combination of Joni Mitchell and Alanis
Morissette. They seemed relaxed despite being
thousands of miles from home and put on an
enjoyable and well received set.
-
- Sid started his set at a little after 10pm, which
was almost on time and nothing sort of a miracle.
'Onstage at 10pm' usually means 10.45pm and the
earliest, so this was a bonus, especially as I
had a last train deadline tonight. The set opened
with Everywhere, but was preceded by a verse or
so of something which fitted nicely on to it -
don't know if this was an unheard intro or a
snippet of something new but it worked very well.
The song itself was up to the usual high standard
and Sid's willingness to play it gives me hope
that he might yet record and release his own
version on disc eventually. Next up were 3 brand
new songs, always a boost, though often difficult
to judge on one hearing. Firstly, A Dry Eye In
The House (or A Dry In The House as I'm sure Sid
called it twice, which doesn't quite make sense)
- this was a song of a couple splitting up and
certainly has potential from one hearing. After
this was Permanent Twilight, which told the true
tale of a soldier partially blinded by a
land-mine. This was a great song with just enough
of Sid's pathos to get his point across without
preaching or being too maudlin. Finally a song
Sid likened to a JJ Cale track, which I missed
the title to, though the refrain was Wearing Out
My Welcome With The Blues. This too was a slower
track but not up to the standard of Permanent
Twilight. Sid ended the first part of the set
with a typically ghostly and gentle run through
Emily In Ginger.
-
- With the 12 string in hand Sid gave us another
new song in Lost In This World, this time more
upbeat and perhaps more likely to be a full band
number than a solo track in future. He followed
this with Alma Mater which has never been a
favouite of mine, though I did find myself
singing along to it tonight. Sid was then joined
by Pat McGarvey on bass for an outstanding
version of Gene Clark's Why Not Your Baby - this
really is an awesome song live and tonight's
rendition is no exception. The Long Ryders'
classic, Fair Game, was preceded by the tale of
it being written in Boston for The Everly
Brothers, by Sid and Stephen McCarthy. Again Pat
added complimentary vocals and despite a couple
of hiccups the song managed to recapture that old
Long Ryders magic. From this they went straight
into Gram Parsons' A Song For You, another
historical gem being mined for a future album
some time. Another new song, Faithless Disciple,
on which Pat shared some of the vocal duties was
up next. I can remember little about this now,
though it was one of the stronger new tracks
aired tonight. Sid then mentioned the album which
he admitted he'd been working on since December
1996 before playing a track from it - Whirlwind -
which has been in The Coal Porters' set on and
off for a couple of years.
-
- The duo finish off with 2 superb songs - the
wonderful Everything from EP Roulette and The
Long Ryders' Capturing The Flag. Quickly called
back for more they ended the night with Irene
Goodnight, a Leadbelly song with an easily
remembered chorus which gave Sid the opportunity
to get the now sizeable audience singing along.
Ending with a flourish, Sid and Pat put on a
great show with plenty of new material. I have to
say this is Sid's strongpoint - Gram Parsons
covers are all well and good, and may even pull
in more money, but Sid can write decent songs,
knows his music like an encyclopaedia and can
still keep an audience amused in between songs
with his quips and anecdotes. More of the same,
Sid, more of the same.
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