Ben Bedford doesn't write love songs very often, although when he does set his own feelings to music he applies the same mastery and eloquence that he brings to what we might call less frivolous topics.
Thus his dedication to his wife, Guinevere Is Sleeping, while personal, added to the general richness of a performance here that more than confirmed the promise Bedford showed on his previous trip to Scotland and established him as certainly one of the best young singer-songwriters working today.
There's an assurance about Bedford that allows him to take perhaps-unlikely subject matters for contemporary songs, such as the lost Mississippi city of Cahokia, and turn them into compelling verses carried on easily appreciated melodies and sturdy guitar-picking patterns that add drive and drama to their narratives. An effortless, sincere singing style completes an already attractive package.
Bedford may tackle serious and ambitious subjects – encapsulating the life of Jack London, the millionaire turned bankrupt author, in three or four gripping minutes is no small feat – but he has an easy manner of introducing them that makes them more approachable without lessening their impact or gravitas. What We Lost, inspired by a collection of old photos and recollections of his grandfather's war experiences, was by no means diminished by Bedford remembering that the last words he, as a seven-year-old, heard the hero say were - "Hey, stop that."
Fire in his Bones, Bedford's homage to blues pioneer Charley Patton and the sensitively-handled same sex love story Fallen were other particularly strong items in a set that covered a lot of ground without a weakness.
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