“We’re a late night lights down low kinda band”, says Amy Boone at the start of the Delines set.
As they’ve been through a rough time, her in particular, they are also a band of triumph over adversity.
Their album ‘The Imperial’ is a wee gem of a record – one of those records that I just end up playing on repeat.
For a band that’s relatively new to me I’m surprised to see that the Venue is virtually at capacity and the front few rows of the crowd are pushed up against the stage, bagging their place down the front from the beginning.
It’s also an older crowd.
It makes me ask “what do they know that I don’t?”
Perhaps they came early to see Dori Freeman?
Playing her songs of unrequited love and loss and of life in the Appalachian mountains, she’s a talented songwriter drawing inspiration from bluegrass and gospel music and definitely worth getting down early to see.
“This next song is my most played song on Spotify” she tells us.
“So it’s made me about twenty dollars”
(It’s called ‘You Say’ and has more than 5 million plays!)
I think they may be discovering her for the first time as I am.
No, they are definitely here to see the Delines.
Each Delines song has the feeling of a little self-contained movie.
All of them have protagonists who seem to be having a worse time than you are but they have grit and there’s an underlying optimism.
The protagonists in ‘Holly the Hustle’, ‘Cheer Up Charley’ and the unnamed person in jail in ‘The Imperial’ are all very interesting characters and have gone through abuse, heartbreak, crime, been deceived and ripped folk off.
Told with warmth, humour and empathy, I found myself transfixed at times.
Amy Boone has a great storytelling almost conversational style to singing.
Her voice is smoky and soft in the parts that drive the story and powerful in the choruses.
The guys, chief songwriter and guitarist Willy Vlautin, Sean Oldham on drums, and Freddy Trujillo on bass also all sing backing vocals and provide the harmonies.
There’s a lot of funk and jazz bubbling under the surface. Cory Gray’s keys in places remind me of Vince Guaraldi.
They seem like a band making music that they want to make – and just loving being able to perform their songs.