Reviewed on Friday February 20
The Newsagency (so named for being built on the site of an ancient 14th century newsagency) is an intimate venue. Try to fit more than 50 people into this tiny but comfortable room and the building will likely burst apart at the seams. But what it lacks in capacity is made up by an unsurpassed proximity to the musician; every half-smile and whispered word, each subtle movement is your neighbour, and the effect is quite engaging.
The night’s support was provided by Julia Jacklin, who took to the stage like an icon of ’70s Midwest Americana, her electric guitar and lyrics transporting you to a place far removed from the warm confines of the venue. She has a turn of phrase and sentiment reminiscent of Townes van Zandt, especially in songs like ‘Same Airport’ and ‘Young Hollywood Boy’. Hers is a voice that speaks to you from lonesome evening trails; they’re alt-country dirges carried on the desert air. Despite sticking solely to the electric throughout, Jacklin demonstrated great variety in her set. You left intrigued and wanting to hear more, and really, what better repose can you hope for at a gig?
I’ve been a big fan of Rowena Wise ever since stumbling on a YouTube performance of ‘Hollow Hearts’. It’s a song that has deftly entrenched itself in my mind ever since, and any opportunity to see her perform it should be pounced upon. Wise has a voice that can caress you in one breath and carve you apart in the next. The power of her expression is outstanding, as demonstrated in ‘Oh Man’, which left you reeling in your tiny chair (the furnishings in The Newsagency are, by necessity, scaled quite small; you feel like a giant who has wandered into a kindergarten). This song is particularly affecting, and was composed while Wise was crying in the wake of heartbreak; her sobbing influenced the song’s structure.
Her voice notwithstanding, there is something pleasantly perplexing about Wise’s songs – a sense of history, of depth, that makes you feel as though they were written long, long ago and forgotten until now. The exception to this was a song written just six hours earlier, ‘I Lost My Way’, which, though needing some fine-tuning, was an impressive composition for something so fresh.
Both exceptional though markedly different performers, who delivered a tremendous (if brief) showcase.
