Lorna Reid From Paris To Texas EJBF 2022 Review Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival Assembly Roxy 21st July Review
Lorna Reid “From Paris To Texas” at The Assembly Roxy this afternoon as part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2022 was a new musical project and a new direction from Lorna and guitarist/Weissenborn player Neil Warden.
Many people have over the years probably seen Lorna perform as a regular at previous EJBFs with her own take on classic Jazz and Great American songbook songs but, this year, we are definitely heading into Americana where country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues fuse together in Lorna’s own (or co-written) music.
Anyone who has been reading my reviews for a while will know that I have been a supporter of Lorna’s own developing songwriting abilities for some years now, and like many writers forced into unplanned breaks, the Covid years have obviously been a time for finding new paths in her writing and music and growing in confidence as a writer of both words and music.
It was good to hear today some of the songs that I know from Lorna, including more a funk based arrangement of “Sacrifice Me” and still one of my favourite songs from Lorna to date “Sweet Baby Blues”. While both of these are very good songs, some of the new material clearly shows a writer who is developing in her use of words and not only starting to paint pictures with those words, but often writing more with her heart and not just with a pen, and “I Will Tell Your Story” is a good example of Lorna’s growing confidence in her own abilities. When you write anything from your heart you of course always (intentionally or not) expose to anyone reading, or listening, a little bit of your own feelings, your sadness, your happiness, perhaps even a little bit of your soul, and some of Lorna’s musical heroes that have inspired some of this new direction in music (Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt to name but two of them) have long ago proven that honesty when writing is essential to creating something that will last through time.
As always, it was a pleasure too to hear Neil Warden play guitar and often add a warmth of tone that often contrasted, but fitted so well with some of the darker words in some of Lorna’s songs. It was a pleasure also to get the chance to hear Neil (with harmonica and drums backing) playing some of his own compositions on Weissenborn, and his 4 track EP, “Adventures in Weissenborn Land” is well worth checking out online for more musical adventures.
With Lorna and Neil onstage this afternoon were Fraser Spiers (harmonica), Andy Mitchell (bass) and Pat McCann (drums).
I am not sure where Lorna’s new musical journey is going to take her (maybe Lorna herself does not even know with any certainty), but I know it is going to be interesting following her words and music wherever they may take us all.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Many people have over the years probably seen Lorna perform as a regular at previous EJBFs with her own take on classic Jazz and Great American songbook songs but, this year, we are definitely heading into Americana where country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues fuse together in Lorna’s own (or co-written) music.
Anyone who has been reading my reviews for a while will know that I have been a supporter of Lorna’s own developing songwriting abilities for some years now, and like many writers forced into unplanned breaks, the Covid years have obviously been a time for finding new paths in her writing and music and growing in confidence as a writer of both words and music.
It was good to hear today some of the songs that I know from Lorna, including more a funk based arrangement of “Sacrifice Me” and still one of my favourite songs from Lorna to date “Sweet Baby Blues”. While both of these are very good songs, some of the new material clearly shows a writer who is developing in her use of words and not only starting to paint pictures with those words, but often writing more with her heart and not just with a pen, and “I Will Tell Your Story” is a good example of Lorna’s growing confidence in her own abilities. When you write anything from your heart you of course always (intentionally or not) expose to anyone reading, or listening, a little bit of your own feelings, your sadness, your happiness, perhaps even a little bit of your soul, and some of Lorna’s musical heroes that have inspired some of this new direction in music (Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt to name but two of them) have long ago proven that honesty when writing is essential to creating something that will last through time.
As always, it was a pleasure too to hear Neil Warden play guitar and often add a warmth of tone that often contrasted, but fitted so well with some of the darker words in some of Lorna’s songs. It was a pleasure also to get the chance to hear Neil (with harmonica and drums backing) playing some of his own compositions on Weissenborn, and his 4 track EP, “Adventures in Weissenborn Land” is well worth checking out online for more musical adventures.
With Lorna and Neil onstage this afternoon were Fraser Spiers (harmonica), Andy Mitchell (bass) and Pat McCann (drums).
I am not sure where Lorna’s new musical journey is going to take her (maybe Lorna herself does not even know with any certainty), but I know it is going to be interesting following her words and music wherever they may take us all.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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