Beth Orton, Glasgow review: 'searching spirit remains undimmed'
She may have been dubbed “the comedown queen”, but between songs at this Glasgow show Beth Orton was all smiles and affable self-deprecation, writes Fiona Shepherd
Beth Orton, Saint Luke’s, Glasgow ★★★★
Beth Orton’s willingness to experiment has held her in good stead over the years. When she first broke through with her Trailer Park album in 1996, she was a folkish singer-songwriter wreathed in electronica and trip hop.
While elements of that fusion remain, her music is now jazzier and more soulful; a haunted stew of guitar, trumpet and ethereal keyboards.
Backed by a fantastic four-piece band, Orton remained seated at her electric piano throughout most of this performance. Her expressive voice is slightly more weathered these days, but those cracks add a new layer of vulnerability to her panoply of intimate murmurs and sad falsetto sighs.
The set-list was primarily drawn from her latest album The Ground Above, creating a hymnal, pin-drop ambience entirely appropriate in this beautiful venue, a converted church. The gentle sampled sound of waves lapping against the shore enhanced the misty twilight mood.
Orton doesn’t really do fast, hence why she was dubbed “the comedown queen” back in the 90s. And yet despite the solemnly spellbinding pulse of her music, between songs she was all smiles and affable self-deprecation; I’ll Miss You, a song about loss, was introduced as “a jolly little number”.
And she is capable of actual jollity. The mood was brightened by the charming summer bounce ‘n’ skip of Call Me the Breeze (not the JJ Cale song), and the band worked up quite the groove on an extended crowd-delighting version of Haunted Satellite dominated by Christos Stylianides’ wailing jazz trumpet.
The deserved encore began with She Cries Your Name from Trailer Park, a signature song played in tribute to Orton's friend and producer William Orbit, who sadly passed away recently.
Time marches on as people fade away, but Beth Orton's searching spirit remains undimmed.
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