The female- and coat-heavy crowd – sheltering from the naggingly persistent drizzle outside – are getting warmed up inside Jamm, the refuge for Brixton’s bohemians and b-boys.
They let out impassioned howls, high-pitched screams and whoops as dark-haired and black leather-clad Emma Garrett walks on stage with her five-piece string-driven thing.
Garrett has come from nowhere to build up this kind of following and, as she struts, leans back and howls, crouching over the microphone against the backdrop of the country-folk-rock, it’s like a homecoming.
Backed by two guitars, two violins and a drummer, Garrett’s powerful voice reflects her classical training as she kicks off with the darkly passionate hillbilly-folk stomper ‘Petrified’, which finds the male and female violinists battle it out in a country and western showdown.
The second track ‘Change Your Bones’ is acoustic rock with its insistent beat as it journeys through loud-soft enigma variations – with added ingredients of operatic flourishes and pizzicato strings.
Again greeted with loud whoops from the fans is the track is set for release as a single in a couple of weeks (25 November). With lines like, “You walked right in, bold as sin, unexpected and triumphing”, ‘Dose Me Up’ is a highly-charged, country-rock jig with Garrett’s voice climbing into falsetto territory over the galloping backing.
‘Miss You’, with its talk of “demons” and “dangerous love” wraps the audience up tightly in a folk-rock cocoon and, on ‘This Is It’, Garrett gets animated while violins and vocals meet in a soaring collision.
Finally, ‘Carry Me’ is stomping, bass-driven funk-folk and the best tune of the night. It’s a short set but all the better for it in the finest leave-them-wanting-more tradition. Garrett’s voice is strong and the ensemble is assertive, confident and as driving as the rain outside.
A sign, surely, of brighter days to come.
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