07/10/2023
The Anchoress, Cambridge Junction, 05 Oct 23
As a music lover, I've always had a fondness for female singer/songwriters, particularly those that can blend their music, lyrics and voices together, to craft the aural equivalent of high art.
Over the last 30+ years I've followed the alt/rock/goth scene, I've come to love the work of a huge swathe of artists, who have birthed some amazing music.
Yet of them all, there have been just two, who three decades on, I still find myself listening to every week, just as I have done since I first encountered them.
Those two artists are Julianne Regan Projects and Elizabeth Fraser, tonight The Anchoress, I suspect, has joined that little group.
As live shows go, tonights was just about perfect, the small intimate venue, the sound mixed to perfection and our host, mesmerising in her performance.
The first three songs rush by . . . I'm taking photo's so I don't pay them as much attention as I should, but that soon changes as I put the camera aside.
As the third song fades away, The Anchoress steps up to the mic, softly speaking to her audience. She mentions the sense of freedom she feels since parting with her label and you can see a degree of exultation on her face, the emotion unquestioningly genuine.
The set tonight is a quirky but satisfying mix of songs, ranging from firmly established favourites, lifted from Confessions of a Romance Novelist and The Art Of Losing, through to her newest release, Versions.
Blended in amongst those better known tracks, are delightful little surprises, such as, what she describes as deep cuts and "hot off the pen" brand new, unreleased tracks.
As she launches into This Is Yesterday, I notice smiles in the audience around me, as minds are cast back to the summer and her performing the song with the Manic Street Preachers at Glastonbury, and at how here, she effortlessly carries it solo.
Highlights of the evening though, for me, were to be found in two particular songs, songs performed with an intensity that seemed to drill down to her very soul and lay it before us, to share.
Those songs, "Let It Hurt" and "5am" are both haunting and beautiful on the album, yet hearing them performed live, for me, elevated them to a whole new level.
I'd wanted to attend this gig, in the hope of hearing The Anchoress perform her reworking of "Martha's Harbour" (what can I say, I'm a longtime AAE fan), that didn't happen . . . but on hearing the two songs above . . . it simply didn't matter.
Enthralling, I think best sums up both this artist and the gig I was fortunate enough to watch tonight. In all honesty though, one could pick any or all of the superlatives and each would still fall somewhat short of what this unique artist brings to the stage and her musical craftsmanship.
Thank you Catherine, for a performance that will linger in our memory, for years to come.
Thanks to:
Gillian @ Hall
J2 and it's lovely people.
