Although officially billed as part of Celtic Connections, this was probably going to happen anyway!
Hailing from Manchester, Quincy May Brown got things started with her slightly unorthodox (ie is this really going to work – ok so it does, great!) three piece setup comprising herself on lead vocals and harp, Joel on guitar and James on clarinet. A kind of power-pastoral vibe then, but don’t be fooled by the soft acoustic exterior, the songs had some spiky edges and doses of biting sarcasm.
The tracks are mainly from her first full album ‘Basic Surgeon’ – tracks like (BM’s fave tonight) ‘Shadow’ had maybe hints of Joanna Newsom and perhaps Kathryn Joseph. BM had to laugh at couplets where “bubonic plague” is twinned with “parking rage” in tragicomic stylee. “I had my suspicions the Hallmark and Satan must be in cahoots” is the line of the year so far (also recalls some of Withered Hand’s best words)- so this reviewer was not previously familiar with QMB but sure is now – hopefully she will return to Scotland before too long because this was violently beguiling.
For this full band show (the first that BM has witnessed although there have been some previous lineups) Raveloe played with as songwriter Kim (vocals, acoustic/electric guitar), accompanied by the mighty Paul Kelly on bass, the just as mighty Jill Lorean on fiddle, ex Frabbit Simon on additional guitar, Jason on keyboards/backing vocals and Jamie on drums. A strong ensemble, they stepped it up a mark for full band versions of tracks from debut album ‘Exit Light’.
Regular readers will know how great a record BM thinks that is so it was an absolute treat to hear it live, pretty much in the running order it was recorded, with one untitled “new song” with Kim on piano (very good it was too) somewhere in the middle. Highlights were too many to mention but ‘Old Lessons’ always gets to this reviewer – everyone played a blinder and here’s to more Raveloe shows during the rest of 2024 (Kim had been out solo already supporting Arab Strap on their rescheduled January dates).