Eliza Carthy/Jenn Reid

ELIZA CARTHY/JENN REID

Musician Pub 17th January 2024

Wednesday night at The Musician Pub was one you knew before-hand was going to be special... and it more than lived up to that.

The house was packed and full of anticipation as the support artist, JENN REID step up. I think Jenn was a new name to many in the room, but she was a total delight!

Jenn is from Lancashire and stepped up to sing range of 19th century songs acappella. Singing in her broad regional accent she delivered a varied selection of songs orginating in the mines, the mills, and the families of victorian Lancashire. The songs were varied... historical, amusing, educational but above all hugely entertaining.

Jenn's voice is a treat, she sings beautifully, with real passion and commitment and the accent adds authenticity and real delight to the performance. She also demonstrated the strength of her voice by singing at times off mike.

Her between songs banter was also very much in keeping with her singing, amusing and uplifting... This was a real treat and the 30 minute set felt all too short... absolutely loved it

Then up came the main attraction... the unique wonderful legend that is Eliza Carthy. Eliza springs from the greatest english folk-song family we have ever heard, and maintains the standards perfectly.

She has a wonderful voice and sings beautifully, i could listen to her just singing for hours... but she also plays superb fiddle and this time added accordion to one piece.

Eliza had picked up the wrong violin case and arrived with her second instrument, with no chin rest... then found the electric pickups were not working so played acoustically... none of this was planned, but unless she had explained what had happened you would have had no idea!

This was the first date of the tour, and a rare solo gig for Eliza and she was magnificent.

The set consisted primarily of traditional material and a Rudyard Kipling piece recorded previously only by Peter Bellamy and Bing Crosby! Mixing the pieces beautifully between fiddle pieces, accappella song and songs accompanied by fiddle, and was perfectly paced and varied.

Performing solo allowed her to demonstrate her huge and warm personality and delivered some fascinating and amusing between song banter...

Simply wonderful performance by one of the true greats on the circuit... absolutely wonderful

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