For those of us who didn't vote for The National, Lisa Knapp's 'Hidden Seam' was the best album of 2013, and the good people of Proper Music in their folk section agree with this opinion. Whilst the album contains lush orchestration and many special guests ('Two Ravens' her duet with Martin Carthy was recently voted Best Original Track at the BBC Radio2 Folk Awards), tonight's show is a duo of Lisa and her multi-instrumentalist husband Gerry Diver.
Starting with traditional track 'Blacksmith' followed by 'Ruler of The Rest' they clearly understand the dynamics of performing as a duo; the simple accompaniment of a banjo, fiddle, guitar or autoharp working with Lisa's vocals, for which if you want an comparison think somewhere around Kate Bush, or an English Bjork.
Varying the feel further a track from The Month of May EP has sounds of cuckoo clocks, and chimes from ice cream vans adding texture to the track. Gerry plays a beautiful Irish fiddle tune which to lighten the tone of the evening he tells us he was asked to play at a funeral via a message left on his answerphone !
There's a haunting version of 'Shipping Song' from 'Hidden Seam' Gerry starting with the now malfunctioning autoharp but switching to a plucked fiddle. The list of the coastal fishing regions Cromarty, Tyne, South and North Utsire et al have never sounded so beautiful (apologies to Radio 4 and Blur's 'This is a Low').
Performing stripped-down versions of the songs without the lush layering of instruments and special guests from the album has ironically let their best instrument Lisa's unique vocal soar free, which results in an evening of pin-drop moments.
Alisdair Whyte
