Peter Viney's Blog

Caitlin Rose

The Railway Inn, Winchester
Wednesday 15^th May 2024

With Hollow Hand

SET LIST (corrections welcome)
No One To Call
Carried Away
Nobody’s Sweetheart
Black Obsidian
How Far Away
Gemini Moon
Blameless
Twilight (The Band cover)
I Was Cruel
Pink Champagne
If You Gotta Make A Fool of Somebody  (James Ray cover)
Only Lies
Shanghai Cigarettes
Sinful Wishing Well (?) Solo

The Railway Inn / Swiss Cottage Sessions is a treasure. Some of the very best Americana acts have appeared through their auspices, and I trust their judgment in introducing me to new artists. Caitlin Rose is one I was aware of, but hadn’t investigated thoroughly, but since booking this gig, I’ve been immersed in her albums.

The Railway Inn’s larger room took us right back to the clubs of the late 60s. Dark, intimate, very much redolent of places we’re were in then.

If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. I considered that this might be the best course here. Then I decided I can’t just do glowing and fulsome reviews, however much I like the venue, so if you don’t like warts and all, look at the set list, consider than most of the audience seemed to enjoy themselves (though I have seen many more ecstatic responses) and read no further. Seriously.

Hollow Hand did the opening slot. They’re from Brighton. They’ve made at least four albums, and describe themselves as psych-folk or psych-pop. Their concession stand was weighted towards cassettes, fashionably, but hey, they stretch, they break, they print through, they have a very limited frequency range. What next? Shellac 78s? They’ve had good reviews from the music press, they’re led by Max Kinghorn-Smith and their site doesn’t list anyone else prominently – two guitars, bass and drums (and far too many foot pedals). The fact that no one but the leader gets credited online speaks volumes.

They had a problem from the outset. The bass guitar and bass drum were coming loudly through the PA speakers as well as from the stage. Were they fed into it? The bass drum was mic’d. I don’t know about the bass guitar speaker. In this venue, they really didn’t need to be. Or were they picking up through the mics on stage? The balance was overwhelmingly bass guitar. This is why I never got decent pictures later. I moved right to the back where the press of bodies took the edge off the bass guitar.

I looked over at the mixing desk. Was the sound mixer from the venue or was he with the band? If he was with the venue, all you can do is follow the instructions from the band. I spoke to the sound mixer once at a Mavericks show, and we discussed the perils of following instructions.’ He said Ray Davies was the worst he’d worked with who insisted on having it so loud it distorted then asking for more volume.

It’s a packed small rectangular space, absolutely full. You cannot soundcheck a space like that effectively when it’s empty which is why you see sound mixers walking around checking the room and adjusting levels on an iPad or phone once the show has started and bodies are absorbing the sound. It didn’t happen here. The sound mixer didn’t seem to be doing anything. When the guitarist tried to speak to the audience, all the echo was left on. Um, you turn it off for announcements and back on for singing. I looked over. He was eating a pizza with his hands at the desk. Who eats a greasy pizza when your job is operating a complex board? If he was employed by the venue, then maybe they don’t care about a greasy board. Maybe he owns it. If employed by the band, it was highly unprofessional. As was the sound balance.

It’s hard to judge songs you’ve never heard, and I liked the first two songs, though not the sound. Which is why a support band wisely plays a cover. Tonight was highly ambitious, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard and Linda Thompson. Wonderful song. Hard to sing. Very hard to play with just two guitars, bass and drums too.  Oh, dear. It really was beyond both their vocal and instrumental capabilities.

They finished with an interminably long and interminably dull boogie. Also the stage left guitarist was out of tune by then. They were getting into it, having fun. Some were jigging up and down in the audience.

We really were hoping to see Caitlin Rose with Nashville musicians, which is impractical given the costs versus the size of venues. We were disappointed to see Hollow Hand were going to back her.

This is the first show of the tour. She was heavily jet-lagged, so she said. She was burdened with an inept sound mixer. She will get better on the tour. I don’t think the backing band will.

It started much better though. The bass was still too loud, but definitely not as loud as before, and they coped well with the first few numbers with jangling guitars, and adding backing vocals. The quality of the songs, plus her singing, lifted things greatly. She’s personable, friendly, she can sing.  I knew the early songs well. I was enjoying it.

Carried Away is a great favourite. I will admit that as soon as I hear the riff, Crimson & Clover by Tommy James, later covered by Dolly Parton, starts playing in my head, but it’s no worse for that.

Then after a few numbers that bass guitar started creeping up and up in volume and dominating again.

At the end of Gemini Moon she said ‘Pretty loud here …’ It was. That bass guitar was getting louder all the time. It wasn’t bad playing, but it wasn’t great either. I was beginning to appreciate the drummer. He seemed to be holding the group together well, never played too loud, and never showed off with flashy stuff. This is what you need. Some of the guitar solos were ‘inappropriate.’

Blameless started well, with everyone playing more quietly. Lovely song, but then the bass just seemed to take over again.

The next song was announced as by The Band. I have written and analysed The Band’s songs extensively on The Band website since 1996. At first I thought they were starting The Weight, but didn’t know it well and had the wrong chords. Then the lyrics came in and I realised (more from the lyric than the melody) that they were thrashing the shit out of Twilight, one of Robbie Robertson’s most delicate tunes and lyrics. The hallmarks of the song are poignancy and pathos. Rick Danko sang his heart out on it. Shawn Colvin did an exquisite cover on Cover Girl.  Perhaps Caitlin Rose learned it from Jerry Lee Lewis’s cover version on Last Man Standing, which frankly is pretty bloody awful. However they exceeded Jerry Lee Lewis, to be one of the worst covers of The Band I’ve ever heard. She totally failed to get the feel of the song, and it was way beyond the musical capabilities of the players.

She was on safer ground on I Was Cruel, though I missed a bit after being threatened by someone for saying to my friend that it was the worst Band cover I ever heard.  I think he thought I’d said it was the worst band I’d ever heard. They certainly weren’t, and are better in their own milieu, which her material isn’t. Fair enough, I should have whispered more quietly, I was at fault, but that bass guitar made it hard to hear anything else.

Pink Champagne is a fabulous song, and NOT the jazz standard. It’s her original. I thought she sang it well, though the backing was not great. Then at the end she said that she thought it was boring. RULE: If you’re going to play your own songs, don’t then diss them. It’s the Michelle Shocked fallacy, who tended to diss Anchorage, her most popular song in that way.

Then we have another cover, If You Gotta Make A Fool of Somebody. It’s a classic, a US hit for James Ray in 1961, then covered by The Beatles on stage. Freddie and The Dreamers recorded it in 1963 and had a UK #3 hit with it, so that would be the most familiar version. While Freddie & The Dreamers are dismissed as a novelty act because of Freddie Garrity’s gooning, gurning and leaping about, they managed to get the dynamics and stops and starts of the song well. This band couldn’t get near the dynamics, but couldn’t get the chords right either. I never thought I’d ever look back on a Freddie and The Dreamers performance as better, but it really is.  Both covers were great songs. They murdered both of them.

I’d moved into the negative zone at this point. The next song nearly lost her vocal. Then the backing vocal was awful.

Shanghai Cigarettes turned into a loud thrashy mess.

She finished with a solo number about breaking up with a long-time friend. A really welcome change. I would have welcomed a solo set, perhaps in the middle. (Perhaps all evening.) She should bring an acoustic guitar with her for this. Electric guitar rarely sounds right on a solo singer unless it’s blues, and she plays acoustic beautifully on YouTube videos. I reckon she might do better solo touring with acoustic guitar anyway.

In the end, the backing band don’t fit. They’re not in her league musically, and her style is Nashville, not British ‘psych-pop’ band. It’s rare that I’m not in the least tempted to buy a support band LP or CD but I wasn’t. I’m certainly not tempted by cassettes.

I thought it was an extremely disappointing night from a very good performer. I’ve been listening writing this. She’s a great writer and singer.  Maybe the tour will bed in and improve.