When: 19th-20th November 2016
Where: Various locations, Leeds
Now in its third instalment, High & Lonesome continues to evolve. The brainchild of local live music promoter and the man behind independent record label Dead Young Records, Nick Simcock and the Leeds-based musician Harry Ridgeway (who performs under the name of Altar Hanglands), the High & Lonesome festival began life two years ago. As its name might suggest – the term high lonesome is used to describe the sound of bluegrass music – High & Lonesome was first created as a celebration of all things Americana, a broad genre of contemporary music that embraces country, roots-rock, folk, R&B, blues as well as bluegrass itself. In its short history, though, the festival has expanded and developed its musical reach. Whilst still remaining true to the fundamental principle of showcasing great songwriting from the world of Americana, High & Lonesome now also encompasses more diverse musical styles. The booking of post-rock titans iLiKETRAiNS as one of this year’s headline acts reflects this shift.
Further significant changes have also taken place in High & Lonesome’s relatively brief lifespan. Initially located in Leeds city centre, last year the event moved west and built its operation around the iconic gig venue Brudenell Social Club and, situated just around the corner from this former working men’s club, the stunning surroundings of the former church building at Left Bank; 2016 marks a most welcome return to these memorable scenes of last year’s triumph. A further development sees the festival expand into a two-day event. God Is In The TV was delighted to be there to experience the first of these days.
Arriving a little after 3pm on what is an otherwise wet and miserable November afternoon, the spirits are soon lifted by Low Chimes. Playing ahead of the release of their debut album next year, the indie-folk quartet from Stroud imbue the Brudenell’s Games Room with warmth, eloquence and melody and in Marianne Parrish they have a singer for whom comparisons with the late, great Sandy Denny are not sorely misplaced.
Had Phoenix Nights been relocated to the east of the Pennines then the Brudenell Social Club could well have been under strong consideration as a possible location for filming. It possesses a similarly dishevelled charm to that fictional working men’s club and for those not familiar with the physical layout of the Brudenell, it also has two very well-equipped rooms for the purpose of live music – the Games Room and the larger, 400 capacity main Concert Room, each connected by a very short walk through the club’s vibrant public bar.
Over the next four hours, we cheerfully ricochet between both rooms in what is a seamless flow of often quite spectacular music. And herein lies one of the principal beauties and attractions of the High & Lonesome Festival. There are no extraneous frills or distractions to the experience; it is purely wall-to-wall music in what is an incredibly warm and welcoming atmosphere.
Charlotte Carpenter invests the blues with much vigour, an added pop sensibility and new meaning. ‘Contracts’ is suitably low-down and dirty while ‘Burn’ is furbished with some delightfully melancholic steel guitar. Another excellent young talent is the London singer-songwriter Sam Brookes. Joined here by Rob Pemberton on assorted drums and keyboards, Brookes is blessed by a beatific voice and a clutch of stellar tunes. He carefully balances the old – ‘Crazy World And You’ from his last album Kairos is especially memorable – with newer material destined for his next long player due out in the New Year.
Nathan Bowles transposes the banjo, and with it, the entire genre of traditional folk music, into the modern idiom. The first American of the day to take to the stage he will not be the last to make a deeply rueful and embarrassed reference to his country’s new President-elect. In his song ‘Elk River Blues’, the fiddler Ernie Carpenter laments the loss of his West Virginian home to flooding. Here Bowles takes the song’s sentiments and reflects instead upon losing his country to Donald Trump.
Bowles interjects a run of three mesmerising female singer-songwriters – two Englishwomen, Anna B Savage and Fenne LiIy, and his fellow American Jenny O. – each of whom are markedly different in their sound yet seem strangely connected in the impact that loss would appear to have had upon their individual lives and the personal resilience with which they have then responded positively to such adversity.
And then there is Michael Chapman. Now 75 years of age, like Ol’ Man River himself he just keeps rolling along. His set is sadly cut short due to time constraints, yet in those 30 minutes that he does perform he captures more than most people do in a lifetime. This local legend – rightly feted by such luminaries as Thurston Moore – enthrals us with some of the most beguiling, intricate and exploratory guitar-led music you will hear anywhere between Hunslet and Houston.
Whilst the evening schedule in the Brudenell continues in a similar vein – that of strictly alternating between the two music rooms – night-time also brings the additional experience of Left Bank. Here the former St Margaret of Antioch church building – built in the early part of last century, but long since deconsecrated – comes into its own. Set back from the busy thoroughfare of Cardigan Road it presents as a ghostly, almost gothic apparition in the half-light of evening. Yet any sinister sense is quickly dispelled upon entering its huge cavernous interior, the fantastic natural acoustics of which add another huge dimension to the whole High & Lonesome experience.
The three harmony voices that provide the signature sound of Applewood Road were surely meant for such captivating surroundings. The balance, sophistication and the manner in which they so delicately and effortlessly intertwine are raised to fresh, even more breathtaking heights. Their interpretation of R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’ is stunning and, whether it is by accident or design given the occasion, their closing cover of ‘My Dear Companion’ – featured on Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Emmylou Harris’s superb Trio album – contains the wonderfully apposite line “I wish I were a swallow flying, I’d fly to a high and lonesome place”. Looking up into the vast apex of this former house of worship, these words strike an emotionally resonant chord.
Applewood Road’s appearance, though, hits the one bum note of the day in that their set coincides exactly with that of Steve Gunn back in the Brudenell. Such clashes are the perennial curse of all festivals, but to High & Lonesome’s great credit their excellent programming schedule keeps any such difficult choices to an absolute minimum.
Another act who benefit from the ethereal environment of Left Bank is The Leisure Society. Stripping back to an acoustic trio for this run of shows gives the band chance to play many songs that they would not otherwise routinely perform live. Their first ever single, ‘The Last of the Melting Snow’ – released almost eight years ago now – is dusted off, as is ‘Better Written Off (Than Written Down)’. Lead singer Nick Hemming explains that they recently performed the song for the very first time in concert in Pompeii and you do sense that it is a song best played in such compelling, historical surroundings.
A quick dash back along Royal Park Road rewards us with the first few songs of iLiKETRAiNS’ homecoming show. After what seems like a very long absence from these shores, the Leeds’ outfit return with a typically intense performance, one that is high on passion, power and atmospherics. This festival appearance coincides with the release of their new album, A Divorce Before Marriage, an instrumental soundtrack to a feature-length documentary on the band.
And then it is an equally prompt return journey back to Left Bank to catch Robert Ellis. So keen are the America troubadour and his crack band to get going and thus ensure that they pack as much in before the strictly enforced curfew, they even take to the stage before their allotted time. And it is plenty they pack in too. From LA country – Ellis is resplendent in a magnificent Nudie suit, complete with a cosmic spaceman stitched elaborately onto his back – to Southern soul, they have it all. And quite why this man is not a huge star is beyond comprehension.
Producing what is undoubtedly the performance of the day – well, give or take Michael Chapman that is – Robert Ellis and his band take us on a mesmeric journey across the endless highways of his home country. Dedicated somewhat improbably to Kanye West and Kim Kardashian and the inspiration of their love, ‘Steady As The Rising Sun’ is all restless yearning. ‘Good Intentions’ rips up any conventional country template with its drum solo and torrent of blistering dual guitars. And Ellis’s favourite song from his new, self-titled album, ‘Elephant’ is a wide-open tearjerker of which Bruce Springsteen in his 80’s country pomp would have justly been proud.
And with a suitably valedictory ‘Sing Along’, Robert Ellis brings this year’s High & Lonesome festival to another triumphant close. The continuing success of this exquisite little festival lies in its ability to keep things very simple. Two absolutely fantastic venues, both with the most friendly and welcoming of atmospheres undoubtedly helps, as does a carefully planned running order, but it is High & Lonesome’s continuing focus upon the importance of the music it presents that places this event above and beyond most, if not all of its small, metropolitan festival competitors.
Photo Credit: Simon Godley
More photos from High & Lonesome 2016 can be found HERE
