As this exceptional performance begins to draw towards a close, Willy Vlautin, guitarist and songwriter with The Delines takes time to reflect upon the occasion. “This has to be the nicest place we have ever played in,” he says. And the nation’s longest-running music hall with its beautifully restored Victorian architecture and delightfully intimate atmosphere has certainly brought out the best in the five-piece country-soul band from Portland, Oregon tonight.
Opening with the title track from Mr. Luck and Ms. Doom – their latest and arguably strongest album to date – The Delines proceed to play the bulk of this impressive record. “Ms. Doom was half livin’, in a car…” As Amy Boone breathes life into the song’s very first line you immediately know that you are once more entering that familiar Willy Vlautin territory, a subterranean world populated by doomed individuals. Yet for all the gloom that can be found in his songs, this time round Vlautin has let a little light shine through. And it is this carefully constructed balance of light and shade that provides his music and this performance with such an impressive depth of field.
The hopelessness that lies at the heart of ‘Little Earl’ – the lead single from The Delines’ previous album, 2022’s Sea Drift and dedicated here to the band’s hardworking manager Chris Metzler – is leavened just a little by Cory Gray’s delightful trumpet coda. And the funky groove laid down by Willy Vlautin on ‘Nancy and the Pensacola Pimp’ possesses its very own brightness and humidity.
The B-side of The Lost Duets’ single, ‘Golden State,’ with Vlautin and Boone trading vocals in typical Nancy and Lee knockabout fashion guarantees to raise spirits and while ‘Left Hook Like Frazier’ does highlight the depressing issue of domestic abuse it comes with a most upbeat poppy vibe. It is this unerring ability to harness such a stark dichotomy between subject matter and melody that is one of Willy Vlautin’s many creative gifts.
With a soaring melody that is firmly anchored by Freddy Trujillo’s solid bass lines, ‘Don’t Think Less of Me’ – another jewel taken from the new album – is perhaps the absolute standout track of the entire evening, though the four-song encore that follows also takes some beating. The deeply atmospheric instrumental ‘Lynette’s Lament’ drifts into the earliest song that The Delines will play tonight, ‘Calling In’ from their 2014 debut album, Colfax before we get a stunning reading of the title track from their second album, The Imperial. All that then remains is for Vlautin, Boone, Trujillo and drummer Sean Oldham to convene stage right to collectively sing a spellbinding ‘Dilaudid Diane’ to Cory Gray’s expressive keyboard accompaniment.
“Lovely sound, lovely voice,” concludes the chap in the row behind at the end of Peter Bruntnell’s opening set. It is impossible to disagree with his assessment. The British singer-songwriter seems to have been around forever and despite releasing umpteen critically well-received albums still, quite unfathomably, flies under the commercial radar. Accompanied tonight by the excellent Danny Williams on upright bass, Peter Bruntnell deliver half a dozen wonderful songs, including ‘No Place Like Home’ from his most recent album, Houdini and the Sucker Punch. Who cares if the melody is strangely similar to that of an old tune by The Byrds, it still sounds absolutely great.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of The Delines and Peter Bruntnell at City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds
