The CB2 cafe is a special place for gigs and really is the closest to the Glastonbury Green field’s tent experience you can get indoors. Scatted cushions all over the floor of the basement venue, tiny stage and fifty people and the place is packed. Good food / beer / wines and a very pleasant crowd, the evening is set. 

Greg McDonald and Gemma Gaynor (She was battered and bruised from falling off her bike earlier in the week) put on a delightful set of folk tunes. A debut record from the pair is currently being recorded with the guy’s from Slow of Hands, in the West Country.

 

GGs.JPG

 

Next up was Ethan Ash. A jolly fellow with a great collection of songs. I guess you would say pretty much in the Ed Sheeran mode and from the look of his hand-outs a master of social networking. Boundless energy and free jelly babies for the audience, he was well received.  

 

Rachel Sermanni took to the stage once everyone had visited the bar and had a stretch,  immediately the audience are smitten. Rachel’s voice can sing the most fragile, delicate song one moment, to blasting through a powerful up-tempo tune the next. Her guitar playing is also getting better and better meaning the instrument comes as a perfect match for the voice.

 

We first saw Rachel last year at SXSW and then Homegame (The Fence Collective’s occasional bash in Fife) where she was sparkling. Last night’s performance was even stronger after a year’s worth of touring and recording.

 

Much like seeing Laura Marling on the bandstand in Hyde Park before her first album had been recorded, to the stage she is at today three albums later, this must surely be the path destined for Rachel. Catch her now in the smaller venues while you still can!

 

Pete

 

RSs.JPG

 

Photos

 

Rachel’s upcoming tour dates

 

Thursday 1 March - The Latest, Brighton

Friday   9 March - Whelans, Dublin

Friday 6 April - The Catstrand Arts Centre, Galloway

Saturday 7 April  - Stockton Calling, Stockton on Tees

Thursday 19 April - The Lexington, London

 

Rachel

 

Ethan

 

Gregg & Gemma

 

CB2

 

The Living Room