Blessed by lady luck, I’m just in time to catch Luke Tuchscherer and Dave Banks being joined on stage by headliner Jess Morgan for the greatest version of Whybirds song “Foolish Heart” I have ever heard.
It is a love song, a broken heart song and usually it’s sung by a single vocalist all the way through. Now it’s sung by Jess and Luke, female and male vocals taking it in turns, adding layers of depth and meaning to an already deep song. Jess Morgan leaves the stage and the rest of the set is made up of Luke and Dave spinning out the Americana and Country tracks that are the bread and butter of the Whybirds. To finish Luke and Dave play “Before I go Crazy” another original Whybird song, that is great to sing a long to and stamp your feet.
Even though every table is full tonight the audience are very respectful and you can here a pin drop between songs and even during the interval. I don’t know whether it’s the ornamental sound inhibitor on the wall that’s frightening people or it’s just the audience is full of people who like to listen to tunes and not to each other.
An attractive and alluring 1920s flapper girl approaches the stage clutching a guitar and metamorphosizes into Jess Morgan. She settles in centre stage introducing herself to the audience in her quirky, self-deprecating manor and starting her set in the same way as her new album with the song “Due Grace Coming”.
Jess’s beautiful voice fills the room and you just have to listen.
This being an album launch gig, most of the songs played tonight come from the new album “All Swell” Songs played include “At Sea” a love song, “Eels” a “coming from Norwich, living in Essex and yearning to be back in Norwich” song, “Pamela” a sad story song, the enigmatic “Crow Song”, “Crosses” a catchy tune that was the title track of Jess’s first EP and “Onyx” a dark depressive song (as Jess introduces it). It is one of the darkest songs on the album but a fantastic tune, with a great noir thriller storyline.
Next up is “Connecticut” a new story song based on Jess’s experiences when she recently toured America on her “Bruce Springsteen” coffee house tour, staying in cheap motels that had showers where people obviously smoked. Jess makes many funny life observations between her songs and entertains both whilst singing and in her friendly funny chats with the audience. She is never boring and doesn’t let the audience get away with being boring either.
“The Result” - Jess’s only political song, brings the set to a close. Unfortunately, finally it’s nearly time to go home and Jess returns us to the album for her encore - the beautiful and magical “Talisman”. A great finish to a great gig.
