Live Review

Amelia Curran – Tron Theatre, Glasgow

• 30th Jan 2015

Amelia Curran returned to Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival last night, playing a fine short solo set in support of Jeffrey Foucault. The Canadian songstress mixed tracks from her newly released album They Promised You Mercy with older tracks, and the crowd was enthralled by her lyrical style and smooth vocals.

The Tron Theatre is a lovely venue and the main auditorium has a capacity of 200 or so. The banked seating faces a stage that isn’t raised, meaning the audience is very close to the performer. Amelia Curran seemed to feed off this intimacy and it suited her poetic songs, sung beautifully over acoustic guitar. Curran was relaxed and chatty, changing the set list as she played, and the audience response was strong.

The opening I Am The Night from the new album felt slightly slowed down, the rich lyrics gaining extra emphasis. Blackbird On Fire from 2013’s Spectators followed, another lovely song, before it was back to the new release with Coming For You. Curran introduced this one as an odd love song, and its passionate declarations were forcefully delivered. Again the solo performance was slower than the album version and it worked well.

Two older tracks came next. Curran said that What Will You Be Building was a song that meant a great deal to her and she certainly delivered it with real feeling, her smooth voice imparting great emotion to her words. In A Town (200 Days) has a world weary feel, a song of travel that uses metaphor very well, and again the vocal performance was perfectly attuned to the lyrics. And then it was back to the new material with album opener Somebody Somewhere. Again a slowed down version of an upbeat song give it a slightly different feel, but the strength of the lyrics still shone through.

The Mistress, a song of love gone wrong from 2010’s The Hunter was described as an attempt to create a new musical genre: folk-rap. It may not have caught on, but the description is apt for a fine song with fast paced vocals delivered over a beautiful finger picked guitar melody. Another lovely new song, The Reverie was quite gorgeous before the closing Time Time ended the set on a high. Some more fine guitar work backed lyrics sung with real feeling as Curran’s voice soared one last time

Amelia Curran is a confident performer and her solo shows allow the lyrical beauty of her songs to stand out. Hers are more than just folk songs, they have depth and meaning aplenty and are sung quite delightfully. This too short set was very much appreciated by a large crowd, and hopefully her next visit to Glasgow will feature a longer performance.

Venue: Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Support Band: none