Gig review: Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne/Adam Holmes & the Embers/Larsa, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh

By SUE WILSON
Published on 08/06/2012 04:11

With its starcloth-draped walls and opulently domed and gilded ceiling – complete with mirrorball – the Ballroom at the Voodoo Rooms is the capital’s most alluring and conducive place for up to 200 people to hear music.

Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne/Adam Holmes & the Embers/Larsa

Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh

*****

It’s here that the talented and enterprising young Borders-born singer-songwriter Adam Holmes has established a monthly folk-based triple bill, featuring his own four-piece band between a bigger-name headliner and an up’n’coming first act.

The opening slot was filled by the strikingly accomplished teenage trio Larsa, comprising singer/guitarist Jack Badcock, Allan MacDonald on bodhran and Ciaran Ryan on fiddle, banjo and mandolin.

“We’ll start with a Burns song,” Badcock said, introducing the classic Westlin’ Winds – and they nailed it, from exquisitely modulated vocals to ultra-delicate bodhran brushstrokes. Two more excellent songs and three taut, fiery instrumentals followed, emphatically affirming Larsa as lads to watch.

Holmes himself, and the slow-burning Embers, varied the mood with deceptively sleepy cadences, sweetly mournful melodies, his gruff yet delicately brittle voice and heartfelt lyrics.

It wasn’t a night for banjo-phobes, with Irish tenor ace Éamonn Coyne topping the bill in his duo with Orkney’s Kris Drever, but the latter’s richly appointed, finger-licking set of tunes and songs completed a mighty fine night for lovers of quality roots music.