Gig review: Brigid Kaelin, Leith Folk Club, Edinburgh

By Sue Wilson
Published on Wednesday 15 February 2012 02:13

ORIGINALLY from Louisville, Kentucky, though currently based in Edinburgh, Brigid Kaelin brings several distinctive touches to the solo singer-songwriter format, playing not only guitar but piano, accordion and musical saw, with an engagingly confident, chatty presentational style reflecting her fondness for vaudeville and cabaret.

Her songwriting style, peppered with witty wordcraft, ranges widely across Americana territory, as was swiftly demonstrated when she started with a feelgood country number in praise of bourbon, complete with yodelled coda; continued with a bluesy, waspish evocation of female backhanded compliments (The Catty Woman), and followed that with One More Last Kiss, introduced as an imagined duet between Patsy Cline and Gram Parsons.

The last certainly evoked Cline in its mood of lingering, luxuriant yearning, but this likeness also tended to highlight the shortcomings of Kaelin’s singing.

While her bright, elastic voice, between liquid and velvety in timbre, was both attractive and technically versatile – later venturing into swing, jazz and folk-pop balladry – her delivery displayed a glancing, lightweight quality and limited dynamic range that largely deprived it of memorable individual character. Moon River played on the saw was fun, though.

Kaelin also mitigated her lone billing by inviting up a couple of her new Edinburgh pals: Diana de Cabarrus on electric guitar, and Nick Keir on harmonica. Keir additionally offered a sample of his post-McCalmans solo work with a couple of brand new songs, Slow French Waltz – delivered somewhat too trenchantly and forthrightly for its wistful, nostalgic sentiments – and the more effectively modulated tender/bitter Everybody Lies.

Rating: ***

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