The smell of whiskey burning

It's been a busy couple of weeks for live music, Thursday night was Steve Earle at the Irish Centre in Leeds. 


It galls me to report that the first time I saw Steve Earle was with Jim in 1987, when we were 19. I still have the ticket. That was before his (that's the artist, not Jim) jailing for heroin / crack / firearms offences, after which - for me - his songwriting really took off and he recorded a sequence of fantastically immediate records which mixed bluegrass, folk, country and psychedelia. In all honesty I have lost track of his recent albums but I was looking forward to seeing him play with a band for the first time since at Cambridge Corn Exchange which must have been about 10 years ago.


The Irish Centre is a terrific venue, intimate and atmospheric, and I was struck by the fact that Elaine and I were clearly younger than most of the audience - I guess the audience has aged with Mr Earle. He has a crack band with him at the moment, including a terrific guitar player called Chris Masterson , as well as his current wife (the uxorious Mr Earle has been married seven times), Alison Moorer.


It's odd - the first half dozen tunes were unfamiliar to me, presumably being drawn from the later albums, but after 30 minutes or so he played 'My Old Friend The Blues', which I found very moving for reasons which escape me right now. It's not a tune which has hitherto made me misty-eyed in any way, but something about it on Thursday made me come over all emotional. 


Friday night we scarfed a quick curry after work and beetled off to see Ewan McLennan, at the Grove in Leeds; apparently one of the oldest folk clubs in the country. The Grove is a perfect pub - a bit grubby, but very friendly and with fantastic beer. It has a warm fug of conviviality, and the atmosphere in the back room for the gig was very jovial. 


We booked Ewan for the Gate To Southwell Folk Festival three years ago, he was so good we invited him straight back; he's a terrific singer and a very good guitarist, he reminds me of Dick Gaughan. At a time when politically motivated singers and musicians are hard to find, Ewan is combining his own excellent songwriting with a refreshing choice of covers, whilst nailing his political colours to the mast in a way that few of his contemporaries seem to be doing. More power to him.