Review: Dan Stuart, Exchange

February can often be a miserable month, especially a day or three before pay day and particularly when the weather is foul. Fortunately Fat Paul had just the ticket for those suffering – a splendid bill at the Exchange.

The evening opened with Mike Crawford, acoustic in hand, and his Various Sorrows reduced to Rob Norbury on electric.  A seven song set provided a great start to the evening, warm acoustic offset by Norbury’s cowboy noir guitar with added sci-fi flamenco (echoing his work with Candy Darling). Long Grass was a strong opening number and Crawford delivered a fine set interspersed with entertaining wry banter. He has a mellifluous voice and the electric gave the tunes way more vim & vigour than your typical acoustic fare; Typeriter (sic) and Emily Breeze co-write Book of Longing both stood out – songs that made you want to hear the full band versions right now rather than later. On the strength of this performance Crawford proved he’s anything but another monkey with a typewriter.

Fernando Viciconte was up next, although his current LP Leave the Radio On features full band recordings (including Peter Buck amongst others), Viciconte is solo for this tour. He writes tunes exploring the darker side of life (but avoiding the slit yer wrists sentiments common amongst many of the current singer / songwriters), and somehow managed to get a fat enough sound out of his acoustic that at times it was sounded like he was playing three guitars. And a bass. Amusing background stories accompanied the songs, and also explanations of what it was like to be the first Hispanic family in Portland, said story interrupted by a mobile ring tone set to the duelling banjos from Deliverance – WTF? Viciconte is back in the spring with Richmond Fontaine at the Tunnels, which will make for a great night out.

Meanwhile Tom Heyman provided a more retrospective set of tunes – melancholic but not morose; rooted in the blues but with a folky overtone. He’s a fine player (having worked with Chuck Prophet, Mark Eitzel and John Doe) and picked out some beautiful guitar lines to accompany the songs. Chickenhawks and Jesus Freaks was the takeaway tune, a compellingly autobiographical tale perfectly illustrating Heyman’s ability to tell a story in his songs; nocturnal tales from real life that nimbly avoid solipsism. Pleasingly Heyman stayed on stage to accompany the headliner as his set ended just as you felt his playing was really warming up.

Dan Stuart has a sprawling back story – critical if not commercial success with Green on Red, joint recordings with Steve Wynn out of the Dream Syndicate and sporadic solo work followed by all manner of real world issues (the salacious details need not concern us here) resulting in a massive lay off from music, hospitalisation and a relocation to Mexico. In 2012 he started recording again: The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings, recorded with Italian outfit Sacri Couri was a fine return to form (they played a blinder at St Bonn’s) and he’s consolidated with an equally fine recording Marlowe’s Revenge, this time aided by Mexican garage outfit Twin Tones. Both albums easily match his much lauded work with GoR and given his hatred of the term Americana best we describe the work as Mexicana because there’s an excellent Hispanic flavour to the work that differentiates it from Americana by numbers.

Stuart delivered a curfew busting career spanning set, including solo material and Green on Red tunes as well as covers of Vicious and a version of Dead Flowers that was endearingly ramshackle (aided and abetted by a returning Viciconte). There was plenty of engaging on stage chatter, mixed in with storytelling and banter that somehow managed to be self-deprecating and bellicose in equal measures (as well as damn funny). It would be hard to highlight individual tunes but that said Why I Ever Married You stood out and Rock n Roll Disease, well, rocked; The Whores Above sounded especially fine and audience request Time Ain’t Nothing sounded as strong as ever. Heyman’s playing was superb – some blinding lead work and plenty of complimentary rhythm to flesh out Stuart’s acoustic thrashing (meant as a compliment). A fantastic night of quality music and four acts you should be adding to your buy stuff / go to gigs list pronto.

Photo credit: John Morgan