Terry Reid, CCA, Glasgow,
Rob Adams THREE STARS
There's something Shakespearean about Terry Reid. The comparison with Falstaff comes easily enough through his, shall we say, refreshed demeanour but deeper down, where a stage actor might draw on the great soliloquies, Reid has rhythm and blues and soul classics in his DNA. He doesn't actually sing Ray Charles' Greatest Hits but you can hear them in his phrasing and in the depth of expression he reaches at times.
Reid doesn't do slick. His performance isn't polished in the wham-bam, thank you fans way of today's mainstream, and he can ramble and reach the next song by collision rather than decision. He'll even tackle one he's never sung live before, working it out - approximately - on guitar and then using some inner compass to get through it. It might not be tidy but it's part of the thrill of getting to hear him at work.
Forty-odd years in California have only sharpened Reid's sense of where he came from. Brave Awakening may sound like a Crosby, Stills & Nash song in the making but its connection to his paternal family in Durham run deep and his segueing into Allen Toussaint's Working in the Coal Mine emphasised the escape music offered him.
Other songs found him creating a one-man band effect, through implication and leaving spaces rather than showmanship: Faith to Arise felt almost like a Neil Young & Crazy Horse number and the Beach Boys' Don't Worry Baby danced, if a little precariously, through a samba make-over. He left the best to last, though, delivering Seed of Memory's anti-war message with a power and resonance that was clearly heartfelt and genuinely moving.
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