On a night where Bristol is full to bursting with Folk-y goodness, it speaks volumes that The Fleece is nicely full for a mighty line-up of country/folk/blues/Balkan/noisy mayhem.
Bristol’s very own Southern Soul wonder, Lady Nade, plays a short set to start. With just an acoustic guitar and a voice that would stun a jukebox at 50 paces, she sets about melting hearts. If Willing is a bit gentle for the early birds at the bar, then One of Us knocks ‘em dead. Built around a solid gold chorus, Nade has a voice that is equal parts smoke and sweet. She sends a tiny fan ballerina-ing at the back and a “shush” around the room. By the time Complicated comes to an end, Nade has even won over the chatters, her classic-soul-by-way-of-Bristol burr causing a singalong and plenty of approving nods.
If True Strays aren’t local favourites, then they damn well should be. Stomping blues straight out of the Avon delta (does the Avon have a delta?), the duo mix rocking country stand-up bass with a growling slide guitar. Heal the Haunting thunders along on a wave of distorted guitar – this is blues turned way up with plenty of grit under its fingernails. Let Your Heart Lead the Way has a slower groove, a husky vocal and a dusting of (west) country dirt. Homeward Bound collects various Holy Molys and Lady Nade on stage for a wildly under rehearsed singalong, but fun and good times radiate; they shine like a Resonator. By the time the ragged blues of Ain’t Good Enough descends into a slide guitar/double bass noisy freak out the crowd are nicely warmed up.
This tour is being billed as the Farewell (for now) for Newcastle’s Holy Moly & The Crackers. What started life ten years ago as a folk four piece, with pots and pans for drums, is now a heaving, bouncing six-piece buoyed with more great songs than you can shake a stick at. On this evidence they’re leaving behind a huge, happy gang of people that will be very sorry to see them go.
Their last album, Solid Gold, is drenched in a wide screen Americana and it is this that dominates much of the set this evening. Solid Gold and Like a River show off Ruth Lyon’s impressive voice; it’s full of classic 70s country rock, smokey and powerful, untamed and raw. The drums are huge and as Lyon’s violin cuts through, so the perfect mix of Americana and folk, rock and punk spirit shines.
Angeline is full of sassy stomp with Lyon, again, providing the 80s Fleetwood Mac vocal acrobatics. It’s when a madly drunken accordion and Conrad Bird’s raucous trumpet take over from the electric guitar histrionics that Holy Moly & The Crackers fully come to life though.
A Punk Called Peter uses that accordion and trumpet to amazing effect. A huge collusion between ska and Balkan fireworks, it’s a song to dance yourself silly to. There’s something of, Fleece favourites, Tankus the Henge in its infectiousness, in its glorious messiness. We’re Not Going Home is cut from similar cloth. Bird crooning a Bad Seeds/Opus Kink/Tom Waits slur as accordion, violin, trumpet and guitars cascade and writhe all around him.
Old favourite, Bluebell Wood, gets closer to their original folk stylings, Lyon’s voice slightly gentler, her fiddle no less insistent. The “round and round” refrain all but impossible to dislodge from your eardrums.
Then, after the absolute party banger that is Upside Down, Holy Moly & The Crackers leave the stage. There is, of course, room for a ragged and bruised new one, If I Die Tomorrow, that points to the fact that maybe, just maybe, this won’t be their last rodeo.
For now, though, there’s one fewer folk-y, rock-y, indie band to make audiences smile. It’s a shame, really.
Gavin McNamara
TallFolk 