Emma Swift
The Swiss Cottage, Twyford, Hampshire
with Davey Lane (support)
Saturday 25th June 2022, 8 pm
Emma Swift – vocals
Robyn Hitchcock – guitar, vocal
Davey Lane- guitar, vocal
This event was so popular that another afternoon show was added.
SET LIST
Simple Twist of Fate
Queen Jane Approximately
I Contain Multitudes
Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright)
Going Going Gone
The Man In Me
You’re A Big Girl Now
(Sooner or Later) One of Us Must Know
encores
Visions of Johanna
Just Like A Woman
Emma Swift’s 2020 album Blonde on The Tracks consists of Bob Dylan covers. She doesn’t go for the obvious candidates either. I’ve long held the view that the very best Dylan covers are by women, and the same goes for Leonard Cohen. The change of gender removes direct comparison. There are several full albums … Chrissie Hynde, Barb Jungr, Thea Gilmore have all done one. Emma Swift produces one of the best, a combination of voice, choice and backing musicians.
Blonde on The Tracks was produced by Patrick Sansone of Wilco, and recorded in Nashville with her partner Robyn Hitchcock on guitar, who accompanies her on this show. Patrick Sansone plays keyboards on the album, which also had pedal steel, bass and drums. We’re getting the unplugged version.
She’s Australian, and moved to Nashville in 2013. Davey Lane, who did the support set, joined them for their set.
This is an intimate setting for around forty people. The special thing is that the singing and playing is unamplified … they use the natural room acoustic, which gives a completely different feel. Not a mic in sight. It took me back to the folk clubs of the mid 60s … I used to listen to Al Stewart performing Dylan songs like this, unampified, in the room. Robyn Hitchcock plays guitar on the album, but Davey Lane is an addition, and the intricate work of both guitars blend as if they’ve arranged this and played together for years … which they haven’t.The set is full of onstage banter too.
Emma Swift has a vibrant personality that comes across in the delivery and impeccable timing of the songs.
Simple Twist of Fate takes us off with a song from Blood On The Tracks, in a pure, faithful interpretation.
Queen Jane Approximately is stunning, with Robyn and Davey adding vocals in the chorus. Thats from Highway 61 Revisited. The guitar playing stands out … afterwards they joke about The Byrds, and there is a strong influence on Robyn’s playing on this one.
I Contain Multitudes is from Rough & Rowdy Ways, and Emma points out proudly that they were the first to cover it, right after the original came out. They recorded it during lockdown. I won’t steal the quip about that.
When Bob Dylan released “I Contain Multitudes” this year, I quickly became possessed. It’s magnificent and heartbreaking, a love letter to words and art and music, to all that has been lost and all that might be redeemed. To me this song has become an obsession, a mantra, a prayer. I can’t hope to eclipse it, all I hope to do is allow more people to hear it, to feel comforted by it, and to love it the way I do.”
Emma Swift, May 27 2020
Don’t Think Twice is not on the album, but added to live shows because they wanted something ‘friskier.’
Going Going Gone is from Planet Waves, and not one many have covered, nor one Dylan has often performed. Nearly everyone who’s looked at covering a Planet Waves song has gone for Forever Young. Not Emma Swift. This version is very good indeed and reminds me to revisit the song.
The Man In Me She takes the lyrics “folk singer” that is she sings the correct lyric (just as Judy Collins or Joan Baez would have done). There is no convoluted changing of she to he, etc. It’s another “not obvious” choice, this time from New Morning.
You’re A Big Girl Now, another with fidelity to the lyric, and another from Blood On The Tracks.
The Guardian album review in 2020 sums it up:
She sings with clarity and vulnerability, with just a hint of vibrato, but the key to these performances is her firm grasp of Dylan’s phrasing and timing.That doesn’t mean that Swift doesn’t put her own spin on such well-worn songs as You’re a Big Girl Now. The way she lets her voice drag just a little longer as she sings “I can change, I swear” will drive a corkscrew through your heart.
Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 13 August 2020
(Sooner or Later) One Of Us Must Know was the point on the 65 / 66 Dylan / Hawks tour where Bob had Rick Danko and Richard Manuel sing with him. This solo version brings out the intensity of the lyric beautifully. I’ve just realized that it’s the only Blonde on Blonde song on Blonde on The Tracks. However, we will be getting more from Blonde on Blonde …
In such a small setting it would be daft to go off for encores. Instead they went straight in to them as virtual encores. Neither encore is on the album either, which leaves me hoping that she’ll be doing a volume 2. The only song from the album that they haven’t played is Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands, and give its 12 minute length, that’s probably wise in a live setting.
The first encore Visions of Johanna is the one that readers of the Dylan fanzine The Telegraph voted their favourite Dylan song of all time. They said it was theirs. It’s mine too. The guitar playing from both was sublime (with no attempt to replicate the original’s RobbieRobertson lead guitar). I never expected to ever hear this song done this well live again.
The second is Just Like A Woman, with Robyn Hitchcock singing backing vocal, then a verse on his own. That’s a good choice too, as even more casual fans of Dylan know it.
I was left hoping to hear the three additions to the Blonde on The Tracks album on a sequel. The versions here really embrace the lyrics and shine new light. If you love Dylan, believe me, you really need a copy of this album.
Davey Lane
(some titles are guestimates)
Davey Lane is a singer / songwriter from Melbourne. I wish he’d had CDs or LPs on sale. I’d have bought one. His guitar playing is first-rate, at times conjuring the Everly Brothers, at others, even Eddie Cochran. The songs are all good, the singing is strong, though Affection’s Walking The Wires stands out as a totally brilliant song. I’ll be seeking it online.
A bold and unusual choice of cover to wrap up the support set is All The Way Home … from the second Spinal Tap album.
It’s all the World I Have
I’m Your Prey
Beguile Me, Palindrome
This Is Hell
Hadleigh Grange
Affection’s Walking The Wires
All The Way Home (Spinal Tap cover)
- You can see her at The Troubadour, London and in Frome in the next few days.
- There is an acoustic lockdown YouTube show (LINKED) with her and Robyn Hitchcock recorded in their kitchen, giving a sense of the relaxed informality of the show.
- If you want further information about upcoming shows at The Swiss Cottage, Twyford or at The Railway Inn, Winchester, check out THE SWISS COTTAGE SESSIONS on Facebook, or at:
http://www.sc4m.co.uk/ - Coming soon are The Delines. Recently The Felice Brothers were in Winchester too.
I have followed Mr. Viney’s writing in the internet for more than two decades and I don’t remember him being so enthuastic about anything Dylan-related ever. He used to be excited about Leonard Cohen and – lo and behold – the man is mentioned already in the fourth row in my browser.
Cher is in her harsness and playfulness my favourite (female) Dylan singer. Maybe Joan Baez too, when singing those beautiful Celtic ballads which Dylan arranged the Minnesota way. I have not heard Emma Swift in intimacy of only forty listeners like Mr. Viney. Only in the net. Mayby it is why she does not impress me. The songs are not my favourite either: ‘Visions Of Johanna’ makes me gasp just like ‘Just Like A Woman’. Luckilly ‘Sad Eyed Lady’ – the most tiresome song of them all – seems not to be there. In opposite to that, my favourite period is represented in ‘The Man In Me’.
Anyway. Thanks for noticing Bob Dylan once again.
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