Gig review: Johnny Dickinson

Published on Wednesday 21 April 2010 19:03

JOHNNY DICKINSON **** THE VILLAGE, EDINBURGH

THE conjunction of "ballads and blues" most immediately calls to mind the late great Ewan MacColl, who co-founded the legendary London club of that name in 1953. Ballads and blues are likewise the foundations of Northumbrian guitarist and singer Johnny Dickinson's beguilingly individual sound, underpinning a magpie-minded synthesis of material and influences that here ranged from Middle Eastern music to the great American songbook.

Combined with his genial, soft-spoken Geordie banter, Dickinson's utterly relaxed mastery of his guitar, across a richly hued spectrum of bottleneck, fingerstyle and flatpicking techniques, came across as deceptively effortless. Both his husky, soulful singing and accompanying arrangements were models of similarly eloquent understatement, such that unexpected cross-matchings like the sultry, oud-style intro to Black Jack Davey (the Americanised version of The Raggle Taggle Gypsy), Jock O'Hazeldean refigured as a gentle calypso number, or She Moved Through the Fair relocated halfway to the Mississippi Delta, sounded wholly natural and organic, without the gimmickry.

The same less-is-more delicacy pulled off the considerable feat of breathing magical new life into Gershwin's Summertime.

Given his outstanding prowess and the depth of his musicianship, Perhaps Dickinson's only significant shortcoming is a manner that's almost too unassuming for his own good: just a touch more assertive showmanship could get him a very long way.