Laura Veirs @ The Jazz Cafe

Last night we made our first visit to the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town to see Laura Veirs in concert as part of her short British and European tour. It's a deceptive venue - it looks quite small from outside but enter and you find yourself in a huge double-height space with a balcony overlooking the ground floor standing area and stage on three sides. Artists enter and exit via a strange route too, using open steps that lead from the edge of the stage up onto the first floor. It's a bit unusual for a Camden venue in another respect - it's clean and very well appointed, unlike the grungy dives that litter the strip elsewhere!

I was really looking forward to this event as it was our first opportunity to see Laura perform since the launch of her last album, 'July Flame', in January of this year, and it didn't disappoint. Before she took to the stage, two of her long-time collaborators, Alex Guy of Led To Sea and Karl Blau did individual sets before joining Laura for the main event. Alex's set was a bit different to what you'd normally expect from a supporting artist, as she only used a viola to accompany her singing alongside a couple of boxes of tricks allowing her to layer tunes and rhythms. Her songs are full of melancholy and sorrow, well suited to the plaintive sound of this unusual choice of instrument, but I'd recommend only listening to her latest album, 'Into The Darkening Sky', when you're in a bright and sunny mood if you don't want to spend the rest of the day right down in the dumps! Karl Blau's set was a lot bouncier, with many of his songs with a tongue in cheek quality about them, like "Hey Low, Halo" and later on everyone was encouraged to join in with the chorus of his song, "That's How I Got To Memphis", about chasing after a love interest.

Laura was joined back on stage by Karl and Alex, and her produced cum drummer, Tucker Martine, for the main performance of the evening and, as usual, what she gave the audience was emotional and hearfelt.  Mixing in songs from July Flame with a couple of her old classics, including some of my favourites including the breathy Rapture with its tinkling accompaniment and lyrics in tribute to performers long gone but not forgotten, and the water-logged Shadow Blues with its gravelly deep accompanying vocals, it was a good set with her three collaborators bringing a near album-quality sound to the proceedings. Overall it was a wonderful evening and I'd recommend checking out the new album on Spotify if you can, particularly the title track, 'July Flame', which really represents Laura at her best.