Morton Valence – sounds like a solo artist doesn’t it, but no, it’s a four piece, at least it was at this gig, because I do believe it fluctuates. Featuring Robert ‘Hacker’ Jessett on classical acoustic guitar and vocals, and sharing the vocals was Anne Gilpin who also played a marxofone, which is like a zither. With these two were a drummer and a bass player, sorry guys I didn’t catch your names, but the attention is drawn to Hacker and Anne. They were extremely laid back, think Cowboy Junkies meets Leonard Cohen, I don’t know if they are always like this this, but I am so intrigued to know that I am going to check out some of their eight, yes eight albums. That’s what’s great about going to gigs, you get turned on to people you otherwise might miss completely. Stand out song for me was Black Eyed Susan.
The room filled up in the interval and by the time The Long Ryders hit the stage it was pretty rammed. They had the audience in the palm of their hand from the first chord. This tour is a celebration of their first album Native Sons, which was held off the number one spot of the European Indie Charts by none other than Mancunians The Smyths Meat Is Murder. Which they did mention, in fact they seemed to have a little love affair going on with Manchester and its rock n roll history.
So they did a few more recent songs then launched into the full Native Sons in sequential order, Sid Griffin commenting that he never thought he would be singing Run Dusty Run again. Standout songs for me were Ivory Tower, which Gene Clark from The Byrds guested on, on the album version, and single from the album Tell It To The Judge. I’m always a sucker for a great rocker
Sid Griffin picked up a mandolin for the Everly Brothers inspired Fair Game, and you hear the inspiration in the harmonies, and then it was back to rocking.
They started to wind up the set with a single which wasn’t a hit for them, Dan Baird of The Georgia Satellites or our very own Dave Edmunds, called I Want You Bad. It really should have been a hit for all three artistes as it is a great little country rocker.
Called back for an encore, they started with a curious number sang by Murry Hammond on bass, Jefferson Airplanes White Rabbit, which personally I think should only be sung by Grace Slick, but a brave attempt by Murry who was on loan from The Old 97s.
All in all a great show, which delivered what the audience wanted, and left them wanting more
Sid Griffins parting shot was – “there is a song called We Built This City On Rock And Roll and this city really was.” This was after him telling us that the band had spent the day listening to Manchester bands, on Spotify I guess. I think he likes Manchester. And Manchester liked him.
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