Gilmore & Roberts
Their voices fit together perfectly and are also comfortable taking lead, usually on their own compositions. But when you listen to the lyrics of each song you realise that the inspiration often comes from a very specific source.....
I've seen Gilmore & Roberts several times before, the last time being at Folk East in 2017 when a particularly squally day meant that the main stage had to be shut down for a few hours. Not to be thwarted, Katriona and Jamie simply adjourned to the marquee that was doubling up as the Eastfolk Village Hall, and we all squeezed in for a more informal, but no less enjoyable performance. In fact, such is the engaging nature of a Gilmore & Roberts gig, it was literally a case of the ill wind that did blow good for those lucky enough to find a space in which to watch.
This show is by no means their first visit to Norwich, but it is their first time at the Guildhall, invited by the team from Grapevine for Music. The new album, A Problem of Our Kind, was released last month to positive reviews, and provides much of the material for tonight's set-list. There is no support tonight, which enables Gilmore & Roberts to split the show into two sets, and take a much more leisurely journey through their ten years of song-writing, and giving us plenty of background to each of the twelve songs featured.
I guess the first thing that strikes when you first listen to Gilmore & Roberts is that they are a violin and guitar duo that fit comfortably into the traditional folk mould. Their voices fit together perfectly and are also comfortable taking lead, usually on their own compositions. But when you listen to the lyrics of each song you realise that the inspiration often comes from a very specific source – either a news item on the radio, a line from a book, or even a photograph. These really are snapshot songs rather than sagas or ballads, but are developed into something all the more interesting by extrapolation into full stories.
Hence the set begins with Bone Cupboard, inspired by a single line in a Marjory Allen book where the bone cupboard is used as a synonym for skeletons in the closet. From that idea is spawned a haunting acapella spiritual, the first of six songs tonight taken from the latest album. Another is The Smile And The Fury, a fast and lively number inspired by the iconic and widely-seen photograph of Saffiyah Khan smiling in the face of EDL protester Ian Crossland at a march and rally in Birmingham last year. On The Line is born out of a travel item incidentally heard on Radio 2 when rail disruption had followed reports of a suicide on the line. Some are personal and reflective, like Katriona's memories of her late aunt's laughter in Things You Left Behind, or her grandfather's confused memories in an older song, Travelling In Time.
Other earlier numbers included Doctor James, inspired by the 19thcentury physician and surgeon Dr James Barry, after whose death in 1865 was revealed to be a woman; and Selfish Man which turns out to have been inspired by a TT motorcycle rider's realisation of how his passion for racing was at odds with his responsibilities to family and loved ones.
Each of these songs is not only performed beautifully, but is introduced with warmth, wit and real engagement with tonight's audience, making the entire evening an absolute delight. The final song is the only cover of the evening, a song by Dawes (and not, as Katriona stressed, The Doors) called A Little Bit of Everything, the title which really seems to sum up both Jamie and Katriona's approach to their own music.
The encore is a song which Jamie claims was 'too silly' to put on the album, but was inspired by listening to country music stations on the car radio in America. Wrong Country cleverly steals country and western clichés and applies them to British culture, referencing both the Blues Brothers and Countryfile along the way.
If you haven't ever seen Gilmore & Roberts before, and a quick show of hands organised by Katriona revealed that quite a few of tonight's audience had not, then you are definitely missing out. Your next chance in this region will be in Cambridge on December 12th, when they appear at St Barnabas Church in a special Christmas show called A Winter Union. Tickets can be purchased through www.gilmoreroberts.co.uk
The next Grapevine for Music event at Norwich Guildhall will be on December 5th, with Fred’s House and The Shackleton Trio. Tickets available from www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk
