Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies ~ 2008 September 19 ~ Me & Thee Coffeehouse, Marblehead, MA
Band personnel: Jez Lowe (lead vocals, guitar, cittern, mandolin); Kate Bramley (lead and backing vocals, fiddle); Andy May (pipes, keyboards); David de la Haye (electric bass)
Setlist
Greener in the North Country - Will of the People - Taking On Men - Another Man's Wife - The Waltzer - Cursed Be the Caller - High Part of the Town ... interval ... No Fun Without Fools - The Bergen - The Carter's Fair - Northumbrian pipe medley - These Coaltown Days - Fancy Goods - Jack Common's Anthem - Sugar Water Sunday ... encore ... Black Diamonds
Review
Jez Lowe is nothing less than my favorite folksinger. He is as English as a Sunday roast beef, but his temperament and approach to the world remind me of Woody Guthrie. He is from the northeast of England, from an area that was dependent on coal mining until the mines were closed down in the relatively recent past, and many of his songs deal with the coal mining life and associated issues. He is a songwriter who really sympathizes with the struggles of the working man (and woman) and paints vivid word pictures of people's lives along the windswept coast of the North Sea where he grew up.
The Me & Thee is a coffeehouse venue in a Unitarian Church, with excellent baked goods and coffee, but it is off the beaten track. We got extremely lost after the concert just trying to escape from this little town and wound up goodness-knows-where. I have come to accept this as part of the price I pay for my music.
The show was opened by a folk duo, two guys known as Ryan & Ortolani, accompanied by a female singer whose name I didn't catch. They played an enjoyable set of about five songs, and Jez and the Pennies came on immediately without a break. I have seen Jez solo a couple of times, and now this is my second time seeing him with his band, the Bad Pennies. Jez's toe-tapping, hummable melodies are enhanced by the excellent accompaniment of these four musicians. They are Kate Bramley on fiddle and vocals, Andy May on pipes and keyboards, David de la Haye on electric bass, and Jez himself on guitar, cittern and mandolin.
Kate sang lead vocal on a couple of songs, and has a mellow contralto voice that has a sonic quality that echoes the sound of the fiddle she plays. Kate sang a co-lead vocal with Jez on "Fancy Goods," a really funny song about a couple who has two much stuff; he collects musical instruments and records, and she collects chatchkes and trinkets ("fancy goods"). Andy, the multi-instrumentalist, played one solo tune on the Northumbrian pipes, during which song the rest of the band left the stage. I thought the song was a bit of a momentum killer, but if you're into Northumbrian pipes, it would have been the highlight of the evening. Northumbrian pipes are a small relative of the bagpipe, a more subtle instrument. I really dug the performance of bass player David de la Haye whose stage moves and playing style were so lively and varied that they ranged on rock. Just give these guys a drummer and they could slide right over into the rock realm.
The Bad Pennies are a very democratic band, in terms of song intros. Each member of the band gets to introduce one or more of the songs, and it gives the audience a glimpse into their varying personalities. These four individuals have a rapport and easy familiarity on stage. Kate, David and Andy are not the original Bad Pennies; since Jez started the band 25 years ago, every original musician has moved on to other things and been replaced, one by one. The excellence of the current band compensates me very nicely for never having seen the original Bad Pennies.