When Charlie Noordewier the Devon based Blues and fold singer who used to front The Native and play opening shows at the O2 arena among other venues came on to about 10 of us at The Grace to open his set with a delta blues inspired instrumental with some very cool picked guitar, he didn't seem fazed by the sparse attendance, but he is signed to Get Fucked Records, so may be comfortable with rooms that aren't packed. Moonlight hotel was less bluesy and had a bit of a Damien Dempsey style feel, Cool it Love was down at heart at being dumped folk blues.
Charlie then introduced his New double Bass player George Balmont who played in the Leonardo Giuliani band as well as the George Balmont sextet, it was the first gig they have played together and started with Diazepam Charlie's ode to going to the doctors with mystery illnesses in order to get some pills to get high with, this was nicely down at heel and George added some nice slow bass inflexions. They then did a cool slow version of Georgia On My Mind with some nicely tricky blues figures from Charlie. His Life was another more modern folk song about all sorts of travails before they closed with Little Miss Sunshine that had a bit of a groove to it and thankfully the room had filled up a good bit, so they left the stage to decent applause.
After the break and coming all the way from Alabama it was time for Early James the country blues trio who opened with I Got this Problem just a month early as it is about something that happened in July, this featured Early James first stunning guitar solo that was lean mean and dovetailed between Charlie's bass and Max's drums perfectly. They were then fighting to stay afloat amid the crisp speedy blues guitar with just a hint of country twang on Steely Knives.
Early James thanked us all for coming before introducing a typical Alabama love song Straightjacket For Two that had a few good twists to this love at the end of a gun style intense blues with James shouting and pleading the vocals while his guitar dripped with angst and passion. Unspeakable Thing kept up the fraught troubled lover theme. He Then Joked that in Alabama Valentines day and mother's day are the same day as he introduced mama can Be My lover about bad Southern living, over scorching country blues guitar that sounded a bit like Hound Dog Taylor.
While James told us all about how he fell in love it was clear that he fell out of love just as easily as he Goes Down Swinging with his bass player holding and playing his electric bass like it was a double bass. Racing To A Red Light was played like they were screaming down the main drag at 80 mph ready to hit the brakes about 50 yards from that red Light if it didn't change to green in time, they didn't care what the breaking distance was. I Ain't Never stopping playing rip roaring guitar about Rag Doll's no matter how frayed at the edges they may be. A couple are always grinding against each other like the bass was grinding away at us while we watch the tumbleweed go by. James was dispensing his wisdom he is Harder To Blame because everything can be made right if you play an intense enough guitar solo.
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I Could Just Die Right Now has classic country blues lyrics and playing this was at the edges of being totally fried and wonderfully downhearted at the same time. Early James of course have a song that claims everything will be alright, if you jump on that Gravy Train, despite all the tragedy they see around them. James then put on his Tinfoil hat and claimed I love you, that was rather oedipal in intent, no amount of fantastic guitar wizardry could get by the Southern love mess. They then closed with Dig To China that will have you riding all night long, a great barrelling blues that careened round bends to bring this juggernaut of a set to a close.
Obviously the crowd went a little nuts for an encore and Early James came back out with an acoustic guitar and went into the front of the audience and played the encore totally acoustic and you could hear a pin drop as he played Dance In The fire that made crystal that everyone wants a taste of sin with some cool picking and high and lonesome vocals. He then took on Hank Williams immortal hit Hey Good Lookin' that might have had some of us singing the old advert for electric cookers, before he closed with view from a High Horse a wonderfully regret filled song of love gone wrong that just left us all wanting lots more from Early James.
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