Jefferson Hamer & Kristin Andreassen
Jefferson Hamer & Kristin Andreassen
Admiral Bar, Glasgow
Rob Adams
Tonight Jefferson Hamer and Kristin Andreassen end their short Scottish tour with a house concert in Edinburgh. They could have been playing a house concert here such was the informality and intimacy they generated over two sets where one led and the other joined in with accompaniments and vocal harmonies that at the very least highlighted their status as neighbours and at their best sounded sibling-like.
Andreassen got up to sing first, like a visitor demonstrating how to integrate body percussion and a soldier's hymn, and this disarming, charming and unfussy style continued through songs that ranged from the frankly but likeably nutty through catchy folk-pop and country waltz recollections to staples of folksong imagery and inventive, indeed artistic, amorous declarations.
The best of these, although they were pretty much of a piece, was her holdover from bluegrass band Uncle Earl, Crayola Doesn't Make a Colour for Your Eyes, whose honest, heartfelt sensitivity gave way to the most wonderful, brilliantly phrased tap dance solo while Hamer provided apposite, impressive flatpicked guitar.
Hamer's lovely, high keening vocal style can give the closest impression you're likely to find, this up close and personal anyway, of Neil Young singing traditional folk ballads. His tenor isn't quite as fragile as Young's and it lends itself beautifully to both factual reportage of folk heroes and chronicling the unlikely cast of characters who people his slightly Beatles-esque The Busker. As the two voices wrapped around each other on the a cappella ending to American Civil War song The Faded Coat of Blue, this duo did seem to have found an entirely natural habitat.
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