It’s a mark of the ever growing respect East Coast powerhouse singer Sari Schorr is held in the blues world that the very best have been queuing up to collaborate with her, most recently Robin Trower joining forces on last year’s ‘Joyful Sky’ album. Given the boost to her profile I was rather disappointed this show, originally billed for the Garage, was moved to its much smaller and more basic upstairs sister venue The Grace, which was packed to the gills.

There was also the bonus of a set of generous length from another respected figure, Matt Pearce, veteran of countless original and tribute bands, now with his own act The Mutiny. Refreshingly they draw on a much broader palette than the over-exposed blues rock sound with big dollops of soul and RnB thrown into the melting pot.

Theirs is a full sound including female backing vocals, keyboards and the sax of Pete Back, which was notably prominent when trading lines with Matt’s always fluid guitar work on the insistent melodies of opener ‘Got A Thing Going On’. In a set drawing heavily on recently released second album ‘The Soul Food Store’, the tempo of the songs were rather too similar for a while, but ‘Bring It All To Me’ stood out- slower and soulful, the sound building in increasingly rich fashion.

Matt introduced ‘From Here To The Moon’ as an old-school boogie, while in contrast the seventies style synths on ‘A Better Way’ gave it an old-school funk feel and ‘King of the World’ was equally impressive.

The musicianship was uniformly excellent, my only slight gripe- as a newcomer to most of the songs- being the difficulty in making out the lyrics in Matt’s vocals which felt a little indistinct in places. ‘Scarecrowing’, from his first album, was more straight ahead blues rock giving him more scope to shine on guitar, then they justified one of those overplayed covers in ‘Oh Well’ by really bending it to their trademark sound. All in all I was very impressed.

This was a very different Sari Schorr set from previous shows I’d seen for a number of reasons. First of all, for this tour there was no keyboard player, which made for a more raw and basic sound, albeit with fewer subtle embellishments. Secondly, it was a rare, maybe even one-off, chance to hear those songs from ‘Joyful Sky’. Openers ‘The Circle is Complete’ and ‘The Distance’ segued into one another and long-time guitarist Ash Wilson successfully imitated the inimitable Trower style on his Stratocaster with plentiful use of the wah-wah pedal. After the dreamy title track, ‘Peace of Mind’ completed a quartet of numbers to open the set.

Then in another difference she debuted a new song in ‘Hometown Girl’, which was in a more straight ahead rock mould with a searing solo to match from Ash. After paying tribute to another great in Mike Vernon who had kickstarted her career, some old favourites from her first album included ‘Ain’t Got No Money’ with another lengthy solo from Ash and the out-and-out blues of ‘Demolition Man’. She had a unique vocal style I had not fully realised before, tightening her facial muscles almost in a rictus grin, controlling those rich sounds which come from deep in her throat.

She also has a very friendly and confessional style, taking the audience into her confidence, notably in introducing very personal and more reflective songs like ‘Ordinary Life’, to which her new band gave a jazzy arrangement, and ‘Beautiful’. ‘Damn the Reason’ built to a massive chorus with good backing vocal support while she let us in on the secret that ‘Aunt Hazel’, a bluesy rocker with a catchy ‘I’m in trouble refrain’ was New York slang for heroin.

She debuted another new song in ‘Highway 69- I got the impression she was testing it before deciding whether it should be on an album, and as an impressively raunchy rocker my answer would be an emphatic yes. Indeed a similar pace was maintained with ‘Valentina’ and Maybe I’m Fooling’ both kicking up a storm to end the main set.

The encore saw a different side of her with her ingenious re-arrangement of LeadBelly (and Ram Jam’s) ‘Black Betty, full of twists and turns. At this point what I assumed was a hard 10 o’clock curfew loomed. However not only did the band carry on, but another blues standard in ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You’, again given a contemporary re-working, turned into a lengthy jam, indeed overly so, with both Ash and bassist Chris Cliff given solo slots, Chris continuing his with drummer Harry Bent. Even then there was a third cover, in ‘Rock and Roll’, overplayed to the point of cliché, but one Sari attacked with aplomb.

In truth this was far from my favourite gig of hers: the middle section was outstanding but I found the Trower-Schorr material rather dry, and the covers seemed excessive. Nevertheless the two new songs were among further proof that Sari Schorr is one of blues rock’s most talented and engaging vocal treasures.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)