Amelia Curran

I really enjoyed Amelia’s current album ‘Hunter Hunter’ so I was rather looking forward to seeing her play in one of the nicest venues London has to offer.

She didn’t disappoint either. Just herself with an acoustic guitar she played, mainly, songs from the album and stripped bare they were just as lovely and just as intense as they are with the backing .

The audience was rapt – not a whisper of conversation as she gave us ‘Hands On A Grain Of Sand’ and ‘The Mistress – but they enjoyed the little jokes at her own expense as she talked about – sorry that should be ‘Aboot’ – landing without any stories to fill in with and about delight at playing in front of ‘Hairy, bearded. Plaid shirt guys’ like at home. She obviously has a lot of experience but never came over as arrogant or overconfident – rather she seemed very happy to be playing in a venue that appreciated her and the capacity crowd appreciated it.

All the songs are focused on her words rather than any great musical virtuosity and her simple finger picking style is well suited to tales of leaving bad relationships – ‘Bye Bye Montreal’ – or a plea to a lover – ‘Wrecking Ball’ – and her soft Newfoundland lilt hardly got above a whisper or needed to.

It is a pleasure to take the occasional evening of gentle folk and The Slaughtered Lamb is an ideal venue for an artist like Ms Curran who rewards close listening with great songs and heartfelt emotion.