The thing about putting on your own shows is that you can choose your own lineups – get in a old favourite as special guest, or have some upcoming act you like support you.
Of course, you can get quite canny as well – don’t want to pick an act that’s too good after all.
So we can’t be too sure what Jewel Scheme’s Martin John Henry was thinking when he selected, er, himself doing a set of classic De Rosa tunes as opener for his new project. When you have a first album with ‘New Lanark’, ‘Evelyn’, and ‘Camera’ – now two decades old – performed acoustically, the bar has been set pretty high, with some of the finest contemporary Scottish folk tunes, topped off with ‘The Engineer’ and closer ‘Tinto’.
Happily, the bill works, partly due to the contrast between the opening act and Jewel Scheme – perhaps because to describe it as Henry’s new project is far from the whole story.
Yes, in some ways it’s distinctly De Rosa-based, with Chris Connick having been an early member of the Lanarkshire act, Allan Carroll also part of a fledgling band dating back to the trio’s schooldays, while James Woodside is present tonight, helping out on bass while Henry spends much of the proceedings behind the drum kit.
It’s a ‘relaxed’ kind of affair that perhaps befits the more electronic stylings of the new act’s self-titled album – Connick spends most of the show sitting down at his keyboard, sometimes on guitar – indeed, Carroll’s psychedelic jumper is as close as we get to a party.
It may well be that it’s familiarity sinking in, but the already impressive album seems to work even better live – ‘Spectral Index’s kosmische throb in particular, perhaps accentuated by the thrill of a live set, but overall it’s just a trailer for, hopefully, even greater things to come.