24 November 2011 (gig)
26 November 2011
Amelia Curan is a remarkable performer. She stands before an audience with just a guitar, her gentle Newfoundland accent and some superbly moving lyrics, jet-lagged to the hilt and wired on exhaustion and she still has the crowd completely enraptured. Same condition last year at the Slaughtered Lamb and the same result – as I say, a remarkable performer and she deserved all the applause she had.
She sings songs in the folk genre but they are songs about her experiences and loves and losses and her songs have a subtle way of getting under your skin but live she has just her voice and eyes that seem almost too big for her face and the words become personal arrows that find a way to resonate around your skull.
Songs like ‘Scattered and Small’ or ‘Leaving Montreal’ emote feelings we have all felt at one time or another – of leaving behind something desperately desired but utterly wrong for you or songs like ‘The Mistress’ which she adamantly tells us is “all true except the title”.
She described ‘Soft Wooden Towers’ as a metaphor but then said she had no idea what the metaphor was referring to – as I said, jet-lagged – but then closed the first set on Leonard Cohen’s ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ – a song full of images and metaphors but that seemed clear in her soft tones.
We were treated to a few new songs and they suggest that her album – next May I believe – will be another thoughtful and bucolic delight and then finished on ‘The San Andreas Fault’, leaving the crowd wanting more.
This is a lady with great skill with an audience and one who writes songs that remain in the memory – next year can we please see her on a slightly bigger stage, she deserves it.
