Climb Duane Forrest Edinburgh Fringe 2022 Underbelly Bristo Square August 3rd Review
Climb by Jamaican-Canadian singer-songwriter Duane Forrest is at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022-Underbelly Bristo Square Dexter (part of the new complex underneath McEwan Hall). If you like your music in a very laid back Jamaican guitar style with an effortless backbeat with hints of jazz blended in, then this could be the show for you.
Duane Forrest has been writing, singing, playing and touring his own music for a long time and this is evident in his very easy-going presentation style and the comfortable music groove that he very quickly gets into with his music and his audience.
Climb is more than just another music show for Duane; it is his own story, and at times a very personal one which few musicians/writers are willing to tell with such honesty, and this is all done with gentle words to match the songs. Duane Forrest is a natural storyteller, and time seems to go by all too quickly when he is taking you into his world, his music, and his songs.
What is Climb though, what is this show actually about? Well, the answer to that lies both in the title of the show and Duane himself. As we all travel on along our own lives’ pathways, we all have our own paths to climb and these can take infinitely different routes for an endless variety of reasons. Some of these pathways to climb are here in the real physical world and these are, if anything, the easy ones. The far more difficult paths to climb are the ones within our own self, the ones that shape our life and ultimately make us who we are as individuals.
This show in words and music is the very personal story of Duane Forrest from childhood to the performer in front of us at this show, and whether his story be a “climb” on foot to reach lofty placed places of spiritual retreat and worship, or working out relationships with friends and a few very special people in his life, the story is always an interesting one.
The real power of Climb both in words and in music is, however, in Duane’s honesty about his own personal battles at times in his own life, battles with self-doubt and all too often depression and just how difficult it can be to climb out of that seemingly all-consuming darkness and somehow back into the light again. The paths to a better place in mind and body for Duane have been many, but always somewhere in there have been the healing properties of family, good friends, music, and the beauty of the physical world around him that he has encountered on his travels along an ultimately unique pathway that we all call our own life.
Climb is on throughout the Fringe (not 13, 14, 15), and you can also catch up with more music from Duane Forrest with a very different reggae-based show at The Merlin in Morningside as part of The Free Fringe.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Duane Forrest has been writing, singing, playing and touring his own music for a long time and this is evident in his very easy-going presentation style and the comfortable music groove that he very quickly gets into with his music and his audience.
Climb is more than just another music show for Duane; it is his own story, and at times a very personal one which few musicians/writers are willing to tell with such honesty, and this is all done with gentle words to match the songs. Duane Forrest is a natural storyteller, and time seems to go by all too quickly when he is taking you into his world, his music, and his songs.
What is Climb though, what is this show actually about? Well, the answer to that lies both in the title of the show and Duane himself. As we all travel on along our own lives’ pathways, we all have our own paths to climb and these can take infinitely different routes for an endless variety of reasons. Some of these pathways to climb are here in the real physical world and these are, if anything, the easy ones. The far more difficult paths to climb are the ones within our own self, the ones that shape our life and ultimately make us who we are as individuals.
This show in words and music is the very personal story of Duane Forrest from childhood to the performer in front of us at this show, and whether his story be a “climb” on foot to reach lofty placed places of spiritual retreat and worship, or working out relationships with friends and a few very special people in his life, the story is always an interesting one.
The real power of Climb both in words and in music is, however, in Duane’s honesty about his own personal battles at times in his own life, battles with self-doubt and all too often depression and just how difficult it can be to climb out of that seemingly all-consuming darkness and somehow back into the light again. The paths to a better place in mind and body for Duane have been many, but always somewhere in there have been the healing properties of family, good friends, music, and the beauty of the physical world around him that he has encountered on his travels along an ultimately unique pathway that we all call our own life.
Climb is on throughout the Fringe (not 13, 14, 15), and you can also catch up with more music from Duane Forrest with a very different reggae-based show at The Merlin in Morningside as part of The Free Fringe.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com