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Ten years ago we asked Eleanor McEvoy if she would continue in “acoustic” mode for the foreseeable future and whether she would ever consider going back to the more ‘electric’ format that she followed in the mid to late 1990s. She seemed quite happy with her acoustic direction (on the back of the release of the superb ‘Yola’) and set in train a live format that has remained unchanged since.
In more recent times, Eleanor has rekindled wider attention in Australia, whilst continuing to tour her ‘Girl In A Black Car’ persona to her coterie of admiring fans in the UK. She can sometimes be found in the back room of a pub near you plying her trade. This allows her audience to get up close and personal, witnessing an intimate performance by one of our finest, unsung, singer songwriters.
With a fantastic catalogue of material to draw upon, a setlist is always going to be a challenge – not least for her audience who will always find that a ‘favourite’ has been omitted. Her current album – ‘Stuff’ – is really a recount of her recent career, including re-recordings and hard-to-find collaborations. In theory, it’s a great way of bringing her music to a new audience and for trainspotters a lesson in how some tunes have developed organically over the years.
As Eleanor reiterated tonight, since 1999 she has been freed of the shackles of big label shenanigans. How else would it explain that the current tour is billed as ‘Alone…The Performance’ and strongly featuring an album she released in 2011?
Stripped bare, with just a guitar, an occasional fiddle or a keyboard and occasionally punctuated by some percussive guitar slapping or rattling matchboxes (honest!), her songs are exposed as exquisite three or four minute vignettes, the lyrics always thoughtful and the Irish-inflected vocal infectious and alluring.
Tonight, in front of her adoring coterie and in salubrious wine bar surroundings she swept through a selection of favourites that to the initiated are as cosy and familiar as a pair of threadbare old slippers. And she also paid dues to other songwriters, with authentic and impassioned renditions of ‘True Colors’, a poignant ‘Eve Of Destruction’, and an encore of Dylan’s ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight’.
Amongst the highlights, in the first half a funky rendition of recent single ‘The Thought Of You’ whilst ‘Deliver Me’ and ‘Harbour’, demonstrate her regular knack of penning a heartfelt, judicious tune that in better times would be guaranteed mainstream radio airplay. And in the second half the likes of ‘Wrong So Wrong’ and the song where it all began – ‘Only A Woman’s Heart’ – confirmed that she is up there with those artists that she covers.
The Irish songstress delivered a perfectly balanced set, enhanced by her engaging between-song banter. Eleanor is currently recording her next album but tonight’s set suggests that a live album would be rather welcome too.
Review and photos by David Randall
David Randall presents ‘Assume The Position’ on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio every Sunday at 22:00 GMT.
Eleanor McEvoy is a Featured Artist at Get Ready to ROCK! Radio and her music is included in the singer-songwriter sequence, Mon-Fri 14:00-16:00 GMT.
Album review (Stuff)
UK dates
Fri 13 March
St Michael Irish Centre, Liverpool
Tue 17 March
St Mary’s Parish Church. Kingskerswell (near Exeter)
Wed 18 March
Prince Albert, Stroud
Thur 19 March
Joiners, Southampton
Fri 20 March
Arnold House, Masonic Buildings, Rugby
Sat 21 March
The Greystones, Sheffield
Sun 22 March
Chapel Arts, Bath
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Latest session: Sunday 14 April
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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 7 April 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 2 April 2024.
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KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
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12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)
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