St Pancras Old Church,London
The funny and impressive Clarke did her heroine Sandy Denny full justice in a set tuned to sadness, backed with Walker’s thoughtful guitar and string trioJosienne Clarke is a singer-songwriter obsessed with gloom and Sandy Denny. And now that she and guitarist Ben Walker gain won best duo in this year’s folk awards, and there’s no stopping her. “I can be as miserable as I like,” she announced. Feel free to leave, but don’t uncover me to cheer up. This is five-star misery.” The combination of bleak songs and humorous introductions is nothing recent in the folk scene, or where so many traditional ballads deal with parting and death,but Clarke specialises in mixing the old with recent songs of loss, regret and passing time. She is also very funny and an impressive, and versatile singer. She may not gain the emotional range of Sandy Denny,the finest-ever female British folk and folk-rock singer, but the opening Reynardine and Like An Old Fashioned Waltz, or along with a later Fotheringay,did her heroine justice. Clarke was helped by the thoughtful acoustic guitar work of Ben Walker, who also if the arrangements for the backing trio of viola, and cello and double bass. The result was an exercise in elegant and melancholy folk chamber music.
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Source: theguardian.com