Letham Nights 44 – The Review – Kirsten Adamson
The nights were getting colder but down in the hall things were as hot as ever with the realisation of Letham Nights 44 (The Boom Boom). Dancing, drinking, cavorting and exhorting were the watchwords as the heady brew of music and mischief was bottled and drank off almost simultaneously if you can imagine such a thing.
First up we had Cupar’s own Tom Beaver with his beautifully written eulogies to getting drunk in Dundee, dogs chasing badgers (or vice versa, I’m not quite sure) and gigs going bad. Tom’s nice simple picking and quirky little thumb bass runs counterpoint to his vocals charmingly as he flits between his own stuff and covers such as a sublime Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone by Bill Withers. Mr Wrong by California alt rockers Cracker was less expected but no less a stompin’ triumph for all that. Nice one, Tom!
Kirsten Adamson is part of Scotland’s musical aristocracy, coming, as she does, from the loins of Big Country’s Stuart Adamson. Here she was, the six-string purebred, complete with her pedigree chums, kicking out the jams, grooves and licks a la boom boom. From opener Born to Die Kirsten belts out her lyrics like a cross between Kate Bush and Beth Ditto, all the time keeping things moving on guitar and keys. Phil (Guitar) Hopwood must have broken a few tremolo arms in his time and here he was throwing some seriously dangerous guitar shapes while maintaining a reputation as the happiest man in Guitarland. Ru Stewart kept things pounding along nicely with flip-hot drum fills and some solid squalid beats while bassman Steve Whitlock (late addition to the band and only two gigs under his belt, folks!) kept things thrumming along like a well-tuned automobile. On the strings of love, Diana de Cabarrus filled the spaces with some proper tidy cello and guitar action while backing up on vocals to boot.
And as if all of that wasn’t enough, a party set encore complete with The Bangles, The Sweet and even a bit of Ike and Tina. Bish, bash and, oh why not, bosh!
Check out Kirsten here: www.kirstenadamson.com
And Tom here: https://soundcloud.com/tom-beaver-1994
