Sunday Sessions

In early September of this year I decided that it was maybe time for me to dip my toe into promoting some gigs again.
Something on a smaller scale than I'd previously done as I was keen to avoid taking the financial bath that I've found myself splashing about in more times than I care to recall.
I suppose in hindsight the urge to get involved again was down to Kelly and myself visiting Su Casa and being impressed with the set up that they have.
Getting the cream of the local crop from the west coast of Scotland to perform once a month on a Sunday afternoon seemed appealing, and easily do-able.
So after checking if there was enough people interested in it that's just what we did.
The first one was in October and we managed to secure Matt Scott, Little Fire and Emma Forman to perform for us.
Sadly Emma had to drop out of the line up due to feeling ill, but at very short notice Colin Hunter stepped in and saved the day.
It was a fair success for a first stab at it.
Instead of charging the audience a set price we billed it as a 'pay what you want' afternoon with the audience deciding themselves how much the entertainment was worth by donating to a bucket being passed around.
Colin performed first and played a set that set the bar high for Little Fire and Matt Scott.
Refreshingly, and bravely, he didn't rely on material that we were familiar with and instead decided to run with brand new songs that he has been working on for a band project he is trying to get off the ground.
Based on what we heard that afternoon this is going to be an exciting prospect to look forward to.
Colin really is exceptionally talented and I'd love it of people started to let what he does sink in and gain some appreciation for it.
Next Little Fire ran through some material that cemented his reputation as an artist who is going places.
Previously I'd heard him to a song or two at Su Casa, but this was my first experience of a longer set of his songs, and the performance certainly lived up to expectations.
Currently I'm aware of a few opportunities that could push his career forward to another level so fingers crossed that come 2012 Little Fire will be the name on the lips of everyone as the next Scottish act to break through nationally.
Matt Scott finished the first Sunday Session with a solid performance in front of a home town crowd that had them baying for more. So successful was his set that he ran out of material, and for a couple of seconds it looked like the audience were going to insist that he ran through them again.
Over all I would have preferred it to be a bit busier, but that's not a complaint.
Those who had made the effort to attend were enthusiastically appreciative of the artists who were playing, and they certainly had no problem with dipping into their pockets to contribute towards paying Colin, Matt and Jamie aka Little Fire who all got an even split of the money raised.
Oh, Did I say this was a non profit venture with all proceeds going to the artists?
No.
Well there you go.
With the success of this under our belts I immediately went home and started work on Novembers line up.
This was to be Emma Forman, who was over her little bout of ill health, Ari Pournaras IV who is better known for fronting the excellent Rose Parade, Ross Gilchrist and Anna Sweeney.
Anna kick started the afternoon off with some lovely country tinged songs that managed to beguile the audience and from the comments expressed definitely garnered her more fans.
Emma arrived just in time from Dumfries to basically walk in, do her set and then rush off for the second and last train of the day home.
The effort she made was greatly appreciated and similar to the last time that I'd seen her play she effortlessly impressed.
First of the men to play was Ari whose stripped down take on his bands material was as good as the versions played with his band mates.
This was his first gig off the back of a very successful appearance at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut so it was an honour to have him play and once again those who had made the effort to pop along were richly rewarded for doing so.
Lastly to play was Ross Gilchrist and I've waxed lyrical often enough about his talents for everyone to know that I'm a fan.
His performance was what I'd been waiting to see for a while.
Normally Ross has played a supporting role on bills, and has had to tailor his material to fit the context of that, but with this he had the freedom to just go for it, and that what he did to great effect.
I'm very pleased with myself that I played a small part in getting people to listen to Ross and hopefully he is another artist that will get the recognition that he deserves.
This second Sunday Session wasn't as well attended as the first, not by much though, and those who did come along dug deep and all the acts got roughly the same as those who had played in October.
So, so far so good.
December is a busy month for people so I've decided that I'll shelve the Sunday Sessions for one month and return in January with more artists who deserve a platform to entertain an audience from.
I hope you can come along.
If you are unsure about it then ask about and see what those who have come along say about it, and I'm sure they will tell you that you should get your behind down to Jollys on a Sunday afternoon.
Big thanks, as always, must go to the venue management and staff in Jollys Sports Bar who continue to punch above their weight in both supporting and providing live music to Ayrshire.
If they were to be marked out of ten then they get an eleven.

Su Casa - Little Fire/ Emma Forman/Taylor Buntain/Trusty and the Foe

On this dark and chilly evening the light that spills from Su Casa is a welcoming sight.
Outside it's sodium street lighting, empty shadows and hot breath being snatched away by an icy breeze, while inside it's warm, softly lit and imbued with the aroma of fresh coffee.
Sinking into a leather couch I pour myself some wine and relax as Little Fire eases everyone into the nights entertainment.
He reminds me of a young David Gray when he was still raw and had the rough edges that success ultimately smoothed off.
It's intimate and immediate with no sense of artifice in the performance.
Instead it's the perfect fit for the surroundings and sets the tone perfectly for what will follow and that's Emma Forman.
She's tiny. A little bundle of talent making tentative steps forward into the consciousness of the audience.
In the space of three songs more ground is covered than would initially be expected.
The song choices seems to be made to give a fuller representation of what her oeuvre is rather than focussing on here recent output, and as a novice to seeing her perform live it was a welcomed introduction.
Emma is the sort of artist that would fit rather snugly into a Lilith Fair line up, and while some men would baulk at that I certainly wouldn't.
She has all the charm and talent required to beguile, and similar to artists like Suzanne Vega and Ani Difranco there is the ability to move from one smaller pool to make a splash in a bigger one. Especially as she seems to have the knack to sound like virtually every female star who has stepped into the spotlight in the last thirty years.
Very impressive. So much so that I now have four of her self released albums in my possession.
The next act was the first band that I've seen play Su Casa.
A duo going by the name of Trusty and the Foe who keep it simple with just a couple of acoustic guitars and a single voice.
There's nothing that urgent about what the do, and instead it has a relaxed ambience to it. A beautiful escapist feel that lulls the listener with intricate guitar playing bolstered with some lovely vocals.
Everything they do seems to have to have a great deal of room to breath and there's nothing discordant or jarring about it all.
Instead there's some hints of Jeff Buckley when he was at his introspectively best, but without the wailing, and there's even a little nod towards Simon and Garfunkel.
The main thing that I got from it was the balance though.
The music and vocals snugly fit together so closely that any seam is invisible.
Unfortunately, and it pains me to say this, but Taylor Buntain, who followed them, just didn't grab me.
His guitar playing is beyond criticism, but the songs and his vocals are at odds.
He's drifting, slapping on the body work, tapping on strings and making the guitar talk, but over this is a rather mundane vocal delivery and lyrically the material seems a few steps behind the musicianship that's on display.
Can you imagine Paco del Lucia playing and then bursting into song with a singing voice like Kermit the Frog.
Not that I'm using Kermit as a comparison to Taylors vocals, but instead I'm simply going to an extreme to illustrate a point.
The way I see it is that the option is there to either tone down the musicianship to match the song-writing and vocal delivery, or up the quality of the song-writing and have someone on vocals that can keep up with the musicianship.
At the moment it is like trying to fit two pieces of a jigsaw together and then realizing that both pieces are from different boxes.
There's untapped potential there, but Taylor is still looking for the key to unlock it.
Within the set is a singular instrumental and if that was all I had seen then I would have been raving about the performance, but I really have to say that much of the set detracted from it.
As the headlining act of the evening. Alan Frew, was a no show Trusty and the Foe very kindly returned to play another few songs, and even threw in a covering of the Smiths 'This Charming Man' to the audiences delight.
In its entirety it was another successful, if maybe a little under attended, evening in Su Casa, and even for Taylor Buntain I seen more to his set than I had previously.
Maybe given a bit of familiarity I'll get it.
(Just as a side note I'll add that my girlfriend Kel, and myself, took her eleven year old daughter with us, and although it was a late night for a midweek outing she had a great time and even bought a Emma Forman CD for herself as well as muching out on the free nachos)

Su Casa - Shambles Miller, This Silent Forest (solo) , Celine Brooks, Pammi Quinn, James Fole and Little Fire - Ayr (15/9/11)

Well I finally made it to Su Casa, and what can I say? I'm impressed.
Take some aspects of the New York Coffee Houses and throw in a bit of how the Cubans in Havana will open up their homes to serve as restaurants and you can get a feel for what Su Casa are doing.
While it is a business it seems to me to be run on the highest ethical standards, and that allowed me to settle into an oasis of communal appreciation of the music that was being provided in an atmosphere that went some way towards evoking a sense of it being designed to give respite from the capitalist rat race that exists outside its walls.
The set up is simple and very inclusive.
All ages, five pounds entry, bring your own bottle, six acts and free nachos and cheese at half time.
I had previously heard whispers that it was a bit pretentious, but now that I have experienced it I can firmly say that anyone that considers it as such are really just promoting their own insecurities into the public domain.
There is frankly nothing pretentious about SuCasa at all.
If you want a night relaxing and being entertained by some fantastic musicians then this is the place to go.
On arriving we took our seat midway through a performance by Pammi Quinn.
She's got a bit of country in her voice, but it isn't country music. Instead I kept getting a feeling of the rhythm of how Adam Duritz of Counting Crows pushes his lyrics. It's not blatant, as Pammi's crystal clear and feminine vocals distracts from it, but I reckon it's in there.
It's all rather lovely and faultlessly executed. She's a very talented young woman who I hope to see again.
Next was Squirrel of 'This Silent Forest' who had a nice easy manner about him.
It's all pretty much a relaxed performance, but there's a bit of fire pushed to the fore at times when his foot comes down harder on the beat and the strings are hit with a bit more intensity.
It helps shade proceedings and manages to give it all a little more than is normally expected from a certain style of solo acoustic singer songwriter.
Celine Brooks, a Canadian currently residing in Glasgow took to the mic after Squirrel and took things down a bluesier path in the vocal delivery.
As with all the other acts booked to appear it is still single guitar and voice, but Celine helped to show just how broad a palette of styles can be sampled from the barest of accompaniments.
It was a set that added another eclectic angle to the evening and if I have my way I hope to get here to visit Kilmarnock and play a set for us here.
Everything moved in yet another direction when Shambles Miller stepped up.
I once seen the Barenaked Ladies do an acoustic set in Glastonbury around the time that their album 'Gordon' came out and I got that vibe from Shambles.
He has that same clever and witty lyricism down, but with more of the raw Scottish twist to it.
Fascists get a bit of a drubbing - Hurrah - during a line in 'Things that make me angry' and the national hangover cure that is a fry up and Irn Bru gets a mention in the rather entertaining 'Beer song'.
Both bits of social commentary that I can easily get on board with.
There was one problem with his set.......it was too short. Not really a criticism that will bother him though.
Straight from his work to entertain us came James Fole who is warming up for his ep launch that will take place in SuCasa on the 30th of September.
He classes himself as someone who plays acoustic folk, but I would say that limits how people could perceive what he does.
Unheard it could just be filed away as a run of the mill, seen it a million times, yet another young guy with a guitar warbling about nothing much at all, but that is the polar opposite of what Jamie does.
Relationships between the sexes are pulled out into the light and quietly dissected with great aplomb. The hypocrisy of social interactions are laid bare and the whole set is admirably held together in an effortless manner.
There is nothing lightweight about this performance and it will be interesting to see how it works out with a band backing the material.
The end of the nights is easily reached as Little Fire and Shambles each play a song and in some way that book ended a marvellous evening.
There is no doubt that I will be back in Su Casa.
Next time I'll be there earlier to ensure I get a goods seat.