Fence Homegame – Adrian Crowley
Adrian Crowley is a pretty long-time Fencer from the looks of it, but one of whom I have never previously heard. Well he had a fairly prestigious slot at Homegame, so he must be well-respected there, and he filled it with aplomb.
Mr. Crowley plays a kind of moody, atmospheric folk that often has a sort of underlying tension to it that is rather captivating. He’s quite a poetic writer, with plenty of lyrical cues taken from old poetry, and his storytelling using all the traditional sort of templates. I suppose this is why you’d describe him as ‘folk’ really – the formal content of the lyrical writing.
Underpinning these lyrics is a suggestive, bare sort of music. Emma Smith played the violin for him at Homegame and was absolutely outstanding. She had played the previous day with James Yorkston where she played a more traditional (i.e.: more notes) sort of set, and on the second night with Adrian Crowley where it was all quite difficult atmospherics. She made the transition with barely a blink – I would say (with no technical knowledge it’s not my place to judge these things) that she is probably a really rather talented musician. And her rather splendidly cute blond ringlets didn’t hu.. Ouch! Sorry, darling. Never mind. She was good, anyway.
I bought one of Adrian’s albums at the gig, and as much as I am enjoying it, I am not that familiar with it that I can really offer a valid reaction just yet. I have a wee sample song for you to hear though, so if you want to investigate further then CDBaby – one of my favourite music shops on the internets – has a couple of his albums with plenty of opportunity to preview songs. Click here for his catalogue on their site.
Adrian Crowley – Long Distance Swimming
That was actually Emma Smith on violin! Kate Ellis played cello on some of Adrian’s records.
Rats, bollocks. Sorry – will edit. I was not 100% sober when he introduced the band!
Anyway, she was ace even if she was called Dave.