ROAMING ROOTS REVUE
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Russell Leadbetter
*****
EIGHT songs from the end of this arrestingly fine revue came a spellbinding highlight: a lovely version of God Only Knows by the Parkington Sisters - Sarah, Ariel, Nora and Rose, and probably unfamiliar to most of this capacity audience. Brian Wilson would have been proud.
This concert, organised by Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire, rewarded you with a handful of favourite new bands. The Parkingtons, from Massachusetts, had introduced themselves with one of their own songs and a cover of the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody. The Rails - Kami Thompson (daughter of Linda) and James Walbourne - made many new converts, as did New Zealand's Tiny Ruins, whose songs included Fleetwood Mac's Dreams.
The revue paid tribute to pop's rich vein of harmony singing, with the guests performing some of their own material as well as songs penned by such era-defining groups as the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and the Beach Boys. The Lost Brothers covered two Everly classics, Bye Bye Love and All I Have To Do is Dream, while Rachel Sermanni and Colin Macleod did a gorgeous version of The Boxer. Dawn Landes and Ruth Moody's reading of Teenage Fanclub's Mellow Doubt, and The Pierces' covers of Weather With You and Fleetwood Mac's The Chain were other highlights.
Grant Lee Phillips and Howe Gelb stormed through Fuzzy (Grant Lee Buffalo's hit from the early 1990s), and Moody also delivered a sensitive version of the Beatles' In My Life.
Two original Pierces songs, and massed, all-together-now flourishes of Mrs Robinson and All You Need is Love brought the night to a close, but not before Hart and the Lonesome Fire reprised Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. An excellent show.
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