Amy LaVere is at home in an intimate venue such as this, where the audience can sit, listen and drink. She can join the party too, chatting informally to the gathering throughout the show and even, midway through the set, ordering herself a whiskey to the stage, “I’ll have a single double”. Indeed, the Running Horse is a cosy little bolthole ideal for the real-deal Americana sessions regularly served up here. Spit and sawdust enough to avoid the dreaded hipster label, as the buses and flashing blue lights fly past the windows, you are constantly aware of your city centre location just outside this little rustic snug. These contrasts are rather like Amy herself, as sweet and poised as she is on stage there’s a grit and bite to the content of her music. In teasing all the juiciest ingredients from country, folk-troubadour and rockabilly, she’s arguably the most undiluted Americana artist as you could wish to find. Fifteen years into her recording career, she’s consistently proving to be one of the genres finest.
LaVere has been touring the UK this month along with her husband, Will Sexton. Her new album, ‘Painting Blue’, is being released on the Nine Mile Records label and it’s a predictably wonderful journey through dramatic originals and a sprinkling of eclectic covers. However, aware that here in the UK we aren’t exactly inundated with live appearances, she treats the evening as a catalogue revue rather than merely a new album set. And what a deep catalogue that’s beginning to look like, complete with collaborative efforts, rootsy calling cards and even a couple of loosely conceptual long players. Back in 2011, the ‘Stranger Me’ album was rightly applauded as a superior quality break-up record. It certainly had one of the greatest ever pot-boiling opening tracks of all time. ‘Damn Love Song’ builds quietly around a funky bass riff before erupting in venom as Amy nails a demanding muse with the words “right now, I’ll do it right now. Here’s your damn love song and don’t it say it all”. It just so happens to be a great introduction to a live set too, so I was delighted that she opened with it tonight, wrapping her tongue around every invective laced syllable. “This love song that you wanted so bad. If you play it, does it make you feel sad?”
Normally she’s seen and heard with her arms reaching around a huge double bass. It’s definitely the instrument Amy’s known for. Sadly, on this tour, she returned to the large bass she had stored away in London only to find it had “been through some shit”. She’s duetting tonight with Will’s electric guitar on an electric bass. I’d argue that the more mobile instrument unlocks her potential for stagecraft, the songs are put over with so much feeling. That said, we can’t undervalue the immense part Sexton’s playing has in underpinning everything. Talk about making an instrument sing, he’s picking and strumming, one minute flying up and down the frets melodically, the next slicing away abrasively. On songs that were often recorded with drums and a wider instrumental palette, it’s a testament to his range that tonight’s renditions never feel bare or overly stripped back. Will’s an unobtrusive stage presence too, leaving the floor clear for Amy to tangibly charm the audience. This all comes naturally to her, and the only clue that she’s maybe missing that double bass a little is in the angle of her guitar, with the body slung low and the neck pointing to the ceiling. But that’s a pretty cool looking posture for any bass player.
So, for this listener, the range of material selected tonight was perfect. Early album ‘Anchors & Anvils’ is revisited with top drawer selections ‘Washing Machine’ and ‘Killing Him’ (which we find out tonight was developed from a true story, a wife who’d murdered her husband being carted away by the police sobbing the words “killing him didn’t make the love go away”). The 2014 ‘Runaway’s Diary’ album is condensed into what Amy describes as a “four-song soft-rock opera”. Every bit the raconteur, laughter rings out as we are told the finer tragi-comic details of LaVere’s younger self-running away from home on a misconceived adventure. The immaculately timed dry wit carries on when introducing new song ‘Girlfriends’ as being “written to help save a friend’s marriage. It would have worked too if this album had come out on time!”
Setting aside my delight at the older songs played tonight, make no mistake the new material stands up well against the rest of the repertoire. Gorgeous new single ‘No Battle Hymn’ is described by Amy as being about England and America. She also observes it may be about the apocalypse. A brace of great new album cover versions draws the evening to a close, firstly a smoky cover of John Martyn’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’. Then finally, she puts the bass down and references her “interpretive dance” moves to a David Halley song ‘Stick Horse Kid’. Preparing for a two-hour drive up to Newcastle later that night, Amy fends off any potential calls from the crowd for an encore with the words “just don’t”. Isn’t that the knack that all great artists possess, always leaving the people wanting more? That’s been my personal experience of listening to Amy LaVere for sure. I always want more albums; I’m continually keeping an optimistic eye out for more live shows. For now, though I must settle for an amazing intimate session like tonight and an equally superb new album. The one thing I can say with assuredness about Amy LaVere is that when she does re-appear and offer us some music, live or on record, it is always something worth listening to and it is certainly always worth the wait.
Painting Blue is released 27th March 2020
Check her Facebook page for upcoming UK dates – https://www.facebook.com/AmyLaVere/