Jar's been practising since I last saw her. Or the sound at Sausage Time was shit that time. Anyway, seeing her playing on a real piano at the Folk House and having an audience hanging on every word, the music somehow made a lot more sense. She has a fantastic alto / lady bass voice, which wouldn't be out of place on any number of jazz records and her songs carry a greater intensity than I remember.
'This sounds just like a bloke with a guitar', my friend whispered half way through Thom Gilbert's second song. 'He's a singer songwriter,' I said, 'They're all the same when you get down to it'. Some stand out from the crowd more than others and despite his finger-picking skills and nice melodies, Thom's melancholy songs of love and loss and how the two are so tragically, poignantly entwined seem too standard, too familiar. Intimate yes, but I can't remember any of the tunes. Introduced as the reason Theo - the man behind the night - got into promoting in the first place, I suspect it was more from saying 'you should get into promoting, Theo' rather than inciting a great desire to share his talent with the world. I'm sure Theo will correct me.
I last saw Whale Bone Polly at an acoustic evening way back in October and they were quietly beautiful then, in a little bar where we all strained to hear every note. Today the music was phenomenal. To break it down, WBP are a female trio playing guitar, banjo, violin, the odd bit of clarinet and melodica. They all sing - close harmonies - to great effect and the songs are fun and lovely, in an 'Unusual Folk' kind of a way.
Cajita ditched the laptop (thank God) for this gig, electing instead to go with a snare / ride combination that proved much more effective. I found their song to be a little bit too full on, too strange and not that interesting. I think maybe I'd been affected by the 'Pollies more than I thought!