Review: Cahalen Morrison & Eli West - City Halls, Glasgow

FOR two young men, the Seattle-based Cahalen Morrison and Eli West produce songs that sound rooted in the rock of ages and couched in the tones of their elders.

Joined here by fiddler Ryan Drickey, they played a captivating set, their old-time harmonies sounding over often busy but delicately poised string accompaniments on guitars (including eight-string), mandolin and banjo.

The often plaintive, antique character of Morrison’s compositions such as My Lover Adorned and On God’s Rocky Shore seemed to resonate from a long way back, while they delivered My Bloody Heart in stirring a cappella harmonies. A new number, Our Lady of the Tall Trees, possessed a nicely windblown ease, fiddle twining between the vocal lines, while the keen high holler of Fleeting Like the Days declaimed further poetic lyrics like gospel truths.

Instrumentally, as Morrison’s banjo tune Cutting In demonstrated, they can really build up the tension, and the trio spun out The Weathervane Waltz with what I can only describe as old-fashioned grace.

If Morrison and West are new voices wrought from old, the opening set by Appalachian fiddler and banjoist Dirk Powell solidly tapped into the source, with numbers such as Cornbread and Whiskey and Jack of Diamonds that rang with rough-grained authenticity. Joined by guitarist Matt Greenhill, Powell also churned out rollicking Cajun material on accordion while a step-dancer added to the general sense of high-spirited dust-raising.

RATING: ****