Gig review: New Voices: Rachel Sermanni

Published on Monday 24 January 2011 11:14

NEW VOICES: RACHEL SERMANNI GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL *****

THERE'S been a considerable buzz building around 19-year-old Highland singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, and to judge by this entrancing sequence of new and pre-written material, commissioned by Celtic Connections for the second of this year's New Voices concerts, there's plenty to come. Sermanni has been particularly embraced by the hipsterish end of the contemporary folk spectrum, becoming something of a protge for Mumford & Sons and their London-based Communion collective. Any resulting preconceptions of wispy feyness and wobbly intonation were immediately dispelled by her ardent, bell-like singing and strikingly mature, literate songcraft.

There's a certain wide-eyed kookiness, which feeds directly into her musical charms, but no preciousness, and while she cites such classic forebears as Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake as core inspirations, she has a voice that's patently and compellingly her own. There were echoes of Mindy Smith, Suzanne Vega, the McGarrigles and Martha Wainwright in there, too, plus hints of jazz, classical, chanson, blues and Brel-esque cabaret. Self-accompanied on guitar and occasional piano, Sermanni was flanked by her regular line-up of fiddles, bass and drums, also incorporating up to three backing vocalists. Beautifully crafted arrangements subtly intensified the songs' vividness and variety, while a potently evocative instrumental piece, The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, featured eerie wordless harmonies from the all-female Hidden Lane Choir.

Exploring her chosen theme of "tramping", a vintage term for rambling or hillwalking, literally and figuratively, Sermanni's deceptively artless musical roamings didn't put a foot wrong.