Brilliant In and From Bristol
Her Vigier guitar in Revolution Green will for the moment
serve as a partial metaphor for the elegant as well as sassy talent that is
Mary Spender. It is a pretty guitar, yet that is mere show if played with
little skill – I imagine my amateurish attempts – but when Mary picks it up at
the start of her support slot, the immediate fluidity of her setting-up is impressive
as well as tempting. There is a blues run that is suggestive too, and when she
sings, this is where the promise is fully realised.
Supporting Ryley Walker with Danny Thompson at last night’s
St George’s gig would seem a daunting task – as it so often is with an expectant
audience – but Spender instantly performs with confidence and clarity: a voice
that is pure and ranging; her guitar playing with such felicity, a slap and
picking that has a jazzy characteristic as much as the blues. Her fine songs
are often sung in tandem with the guitar work deftly picking out the key melodies,
and her vocal tone resonates wonderfully – especially in the fulsome acoustics
of the venue. There is a beautiful self-harmonising [I am guessing] vocal work-out
on her The Electric EP I picked up
with two others last night.
I was generally impressed, and having picked up and listened
to those three available cds [two studio eps and one live recording in Philadelphia]
as well as all the music on her web site – which includes a sweet video cover
of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit –
I feel excited to have heard this emerging talent on that stage.
To anyone reading this review, I would recommend an
immediate visit of Spender’s site here to listen to the music available. And it
is all in the listening, and I can confirm that she excels both live and in
recording [if you can make her The Louisiana gig in hometown Bristol on the 31st
March, she will be playing with a band and that will be interesting, but the soloing
is damn fine enough].
I don’t think I quite accounted for the ‘sass’ I wanted from
my opening metaphor. This is for me always a positive quality, and I take from
it the essence of being confident. I liked her confidence in making it clear to
the audience last night that she has taken her journey: she has travelled,
played in America, recorded in Nashville, and this has taken some years. She is
now ready and releasing her debut album in October of this year, and I look
forward to that. I look forward to seeing her play again and sharing this
discovery with a wider audience.
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