Music
Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack, and Andy Fairweather Low
Perth Concert Hall
Graeme Thomson
five stars
THIS year’s terrific Southern Fried concluded on Sunday night with a deluxe recreation of an old fashioned Nashville guitar pull. Looking less like a band and more like masterminds of the Hatton Garden heist, three of Britain’s most venerable and versatile artists delivered a superb show full of wit, warmth and lightly-worn virtuosity.
The trio “toured” once last year (all the way to a south London boozer), and are redoubling their efforts in 2016 with two dates, of which this was the first. They clearly relished the opportunity: with the excitable Fairweather Low as comic foil, the tone was part Everly Brothers, part Chuckle Brothers.
Armed only with acoustic guitars, they passed around lead vocals, pitched in on harmonies and guitar, and took the scenic route through a shared past. Loose, lovely versions of Merle Haggard’s Shelley’s Winter Love, Buck Owen’s Crying Time, Bobby Darin’s Things and Goodnight Irene merged with pages from their own musical histories. Lowe pulled out a wonderful Cruel to Be Kind and a ragged but right I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll). Fairweather Low revisited his Amen Corner days for crowd-pleasing renditions of Bend Me, Shape Me and If Paradise Was Half as Nice, picking up his 1975 hit Wide Eyed and Legless en route. Carrack whistled through Over My Shoulder, written and sung for Mike and the Mechanics, and ended proceedings with a spirited version of his classic soul stomper How Long.
A gentle encore of Lowe’s ever-apt Peace, Love and Understanding sealed a memorable night. Fairweather Low was right: they really should do this more often.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here