Music review: Bright Phoebus Revisited
Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow ****
Delivered by a rumbustious ensemble including Lal’s daughter Marry, Eliza Carthy and her father Martin, though unfortunately lacking matriarch Norma Waterson due to ill health, this celebration had its creaky moments but was also a vivid and at times moving reminder of a brilliant and often dark muse.
Proceedings opened with the singalong bounce of Rubber Band and ended with the catchy title track jogging along mightily somewhere between vaudeville and gospel hall. In between, standouts included Eliza’s rich voicing of the wry Red Wine Promises, her commanding delivery of Jack Frost and her warm duet with guest John Smith in Evona Darling.
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Hide AdMartin seemed a bit uncertain in his solo rendition of Winifer Odd, and another guest, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Perry, brought rockabilly drive to Danny Rose, though his rendition of one of the most memorable songs, The Scarecrow, with its shadowy pagan overtones, really needed starker clarity.
Marry was also in fine voice in Revoiced, a moving tribute to her mother, and for the dreamlike Fine Horseman, with haunting oboe from Kate St John, while powerful ensemble singing punctuated the incantatory Child in the Weeds.
JIM GILCHRIST