The Star, Guildford
On a blustery night Lauren Housley and the Northern Cowboys kicked up a storm with their vibrant brand of soul/Americana. Housley comes with a solid reputation, three albums in the bag and BBC playlist credentials. For this tour the core band of vocalist Housley, guitarist Thomas Dibb and bassist Mark Lewis is expanded to an impressive six-piece with drums, trumpet and sax.
The rousing opener Nice To See Ya set the tone with a hard-driving soul-drenched rocker. Housley’s strong voice and intense performance captivates and enthuses band and audience alike. The funky High TIme, driven by the rock solid drumming of Dan Wiebe, demonstrated the benefit of adding a rhythm/brass section for live shows.
Midway through, Housley performed a stripped down mini set with guitar and bass of Why Are We Making It So Hard? Sweet Surrender and the requested The Song I Sing.
The band were back for the soul stormer This Ain’t The Life – a funky, catchy, classic soul track in the making, with a blistering trumpet solo by Jonny Murray. Be Good To Me, described by Housley as ‘a bit of a groover’ certainly lived up to her billing, with excellent brass embellishment and guitar solo.
The Waiting Game, one of the songs of the night, had the band jumping and the audience moving. A tremendous foot-stomping sax solo from Dan Berry brought another cool Dibb guitar solo.
Ending the main set with the Stax-ish Ghost Town Blues the band encored with a superb and surprisingly rocky cover of John Prine’s Angel of Montgomery. The current tour has two more dates, London tonight (Friday 3rd Nov) and Gainsborough, Lincs (Saturday 4th November). Special credit should go to the venue’s sound guy Will for producing the perfect sound quality and vocal/instrumental balance.
Housley confidently over-delivered on her reputation. A great vocalist with charisma, humour and a top notch band.
This was a Jasta11 promotion – check out more upcoming shows in Aldershot and Guildford.
Chaz Brooks -- Music Reviewer. Contact: chazb@chazb.com 