Billed as a Celtic Connections gig (although promoted by 432) this sold-out event was the album launch for the headliners’ debut long player release, out on the day.
Before this however we got a stunning solo set by is this music? writer’s Album of the Year 2022 winner and Glasgow local Jill Lorean.
Playing guitar, with a couple of looped tracks and one fiddle sample (for ‘Black Dog’ – said fiddle being in for repair, “I think it hates me”) we got a selection from her releases ‘This Rock’ and ‘Not Your First’ along with several new tunes and perhaps one old obscurity.
Settling into things and relaxing considerably after the hearty cheer that arose after the first song ended, Jill quipped inbetween songs about whether people had heard her music before (a lot of them hadn’t), whether it was advisable or not to swallow a rose (probably not) and improvised a couple of lines about “that bin in Queen’s Park rose garden dedicated to Robert Burns” (BM certainly knows the one!).
Her voice sounded better than ever, her guitar playing was subtle when required but remarkably heavy when also required. The songs, often ostensibly innocent on the surface but with some dark undersides, are pure quality, original yet familiar – a very hard balance to get for any artist. One later, new song (title not confirmed) was “about America” (Jill’s country of origin although she has been in Glasgow 15 years now) and was full of cutting social commentary, sounding more like ‘Trouble Every Day’ by She Drew The Gun than some of Jill’s more pastorally-centred compositions. Let’s hope we get more Jill Lorean soon, either the full band or the solo version as both are excellent!
BM reckons CLR (‘Colour’) theory might term themselves more of a ‘collective’ than a combo but could be wrong. The show started with just four female voices harmonising onstage but when things got fully going there were at least another four or five musicians onstage in various combinations (from the back it was hard to make out in the now packed room).
In the course of the nine song set it was explained that CLR theory began as a lockdown project between the core members Hannah and Gill, with snippets of tunes being recorded in cupboards and makeshift home studios. The idea of an album and live shows was certainly not part of the original plan (quite a few of the band play, inevitably in the Glasgow music scene, in other bands as well) so it did seem as if the people onstage were having a somewhat surreal experience actually playing the material before a live audience. The music itself is a true gumbo of folk, indie, trad Scottish, jazz and yes BM has missed out some other influences no doubt.
‘WAVES’ was played in full, pretty much as it appears on the album, peaking somewhere in the middle of the nine tracks before going back, as with the first number, to unaccompanied singing on ‘Communion’ – this time the whole collective, making a space for themselves right in the middle of the audience. The effect was both moving and musically very effective – you can’t help singing along when the artists are standing right beside you, and it also seemed apposite that the performance of a work born out of lockdown should end with everyone rubbing shoulders again. Just beautiful.
BM is fairly certain that this will not be the last we will see of CLR theory after this performance… watch this space!