This was one of the most complete vocal performances I’ve ever seen, not just in a woodland setting but in any auditorium. I don’t often cry at gigs but, in amidst the smiles, I was a goner. These are songs in the great tradition, stories to stir the soul and fearless performers holding out their hearts to an audience willing to return that trust with unconditional engagement. If you went down to the woods today, you will have been charmed.
Technically this was a gig but it was also some of the most dramatically theatrical music I’ve heard live. It’s hard to resist the superlatives when trying to describe what we heard and saw… all I could think of saying to Butler and Buckley was “brilliant” much in the manner of Paul Whitehouse’s character in The Fast Show but gradually a word cluster of expletive-laden praise resolved itself down to a more structured appreciation and the Word is Love.
They say that most people stop listening to new music past they age of 33 in which case I and the attending “Whispering” Bob Harris are freaks – in the nicest possible way Bob. Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler’s album, For All Our Days that Tear the Heart, isn’t just another new album I’ve listened to, it’s one that has moved me in ways that make this old heart of mine sigh, cry and smile like a fool. I’m head over heels for this album, falling hard for its irresistible mix of past, present and future, songs that do indeed celebrate all our days with plaintive echoes of Joni, Sandy, Nick, John Martyn, Lou Rhodes, Terry Callier, Jeff and Tim, Bert and Anne, any number of Wainwrights, songs with a new alchemical potency.
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| The venue |
Bernard Butler, the man with the best hair in rock, as
Jessie announced, is also one of the best collaborators and simply one
of the best musicians to emerge from the 1990s. He has forged a varied career on
his own or in collaboration with the likes of Dr Catherine Anne Davies (aka The
Anchoress), In Memory of My Feelings (2020) and Sam Lee, Old Wow
(2020). I watch a lot of silent films with improvised music and seeing the act
of collaboration taking place between the players and the screen, the audience
and each other is to watch creative confidence and generosity in action.
Butler always allows his collaborators centre stage,
steering them to their own conclusions, with flourishes of guitar, arrangement
and production bring out the best of the writing, performance and personality.
The pandemic bought Jessie Buckley and Bernard together and it took only a few seconds of the sample of The Eagle and the Dove to make me pre-order the album. Jessie is one of the finest actors of her generation, Oscar and BAFTA nominated already for The Lost Daughter and recent winner of an Olivier Award for Sally Bowles in Cabaret. I first saw her at the Globe Theatre, Miranda in The Tempest, not long after the graduated from RADA. She has unique energy and her gifts are prodigious, hidden behind an honest modesty and fearsome work ethic.
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| Lost in music (photo from video someone posted on YouTube...) |
Tonight, she said she wasn’t sure whether Bernard would want
to carry on after their first exchange of ideas but, to quote Florence Shaw of Dry
Cleaning (second favourite album of the year), it was an instant yes! The
results we’ve heard on vinyl and CD but tonight, after a rather fine hog roast,
we were led into the darkened woodlands of Home Farm to seats made of straw
bales and a stage lit up against a backdrop of hundred-year-old trees with the
occasional moth and bat catching the light to add to the atmosphere.
Then on stage they trouped, as if from nowhere, Butler on
guitar and effects, Misha Mullov-Abbado on upright bass as warm, string and
fluid as Danny Thomson, Sally Herbett illuminating all with a one-woman string
section and the most emotionally intuitive percussion from Chris Vatalaro.
There were also two backing singers who helped start things off with a three-part
harmony on the acapella start to The Eagle & the Dove. From those first
notes onwards, it was clear that Jessie Buckley has perfect emotional pitch in
addition to everything else. She knows exactly how to get the most out of her
remarkable tonality and strength and boy can she sell a song…
Her control is remarkable as is her power, on For All Our Days That Tear the Heart she belts out so loud and clear she held the microphone well away, all was clear and true to jaw-dropping effect. I didn’t hear a single off note or even felt her straining at any point; rock and roll “head” vocals with jazz, folk and musical/theatrical styling and restraint. Every song is a story and Buckley acts as well as performs leaving tears and, in this close-nit audience, a feeling that we’re almost intruding.
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| Raw Power, not in the Iggy sense but, more so! |
I Cried Your Tears was a prime example, with febrile,
spine-tingling accompaniment from Butler who barely touched the strings… before
Jessie brought in the most delicious of melodies.
But what does it matter: a painter, a thief?
The sin that was taken wasn't yours to keep
She talked the first line, whispered the second and as the verse
progressed was in full voice.
But how can I return to the night that I stole
Into the arms of your lover who gave you your soul?
And I cry your tears
This was remarkable mix of so much technique all driven by the need to express these emotions. What began as a private collaboration has now reached out and touched the hearts of so many and I mean every word. Jessie said that she wanted the album to feel like an old chest of photographs you find in a dusty room and surprise yourself by going through these new discoveries, experiencing emotions new and old. As a mission statement that’s pretty bold, as a project she and Bernard have been miraculously successful.
The album is uncanny. Everything works, she’s killing us softly.
For a self-professed “actress who sings” Jessie knows how to
work a crowd and we were invited to singalong with Footnotes on the Map
with Bernard providing the lead, and by the end of this song all discipline was
lost and people rushed to dance at the front as Jessie stepped off stage
amongst us.
For the encore a breath-taking cover of Bob Dylan’s Just
Like a Woman was followed by the live debut of the highly appropriate Stars,
followed by an emotional Catch the Dust, as the two hugged each other at what
looks like the end of the tour.
I sincerely hope that this is not the end and that Jessie
finds time to play more with Bernard but they’ve already caught lightning in a
bottle once and for that we should be thankful. Tonight, we were privileged to
see how it was done.
An enriching evening I won’t forget. *****
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| Thank you both! |
