Review: Morganway, The Lousiana – ‘A massive, stadium filling, country-rocking beast of a thing’

Do you think that there’s some sort of a rule when a band chooses their support band for a tour? A complicated equation? One that balances the band being good but them not blowing you away?

No one wants the audience leaving their gig solely enthusing about the support act, do they? Whatever that equation is, it was seriously tested tonight.

Morganway– six-piece Americana rockers, winners of the 2021’s Best Group award at the British Country Music Awards – are always a thrilling prospect live but someone, somewhere has taken a massive risk on this tour.

Alyssa Bonagura is a songwriter from Nashville and is destined for stages much, much bigger than The Louisiana.

She opens with New Wings, a perfect country song about letting go and moving on, to a half full room. By the time the song’s finished the place is packed.

They talk about exciting cricketers “emptying bars” as people rush to check out the action , Bonagura totally empties the bar.

Every song sounds like a classic, country radio friendly hit. Every song just increases the amount of people in the room. Every song makes you think “how are the headliners going to be better than this?”.

The Other Side of the World shows off Bonagura’s fine voice. It’s all sweetness and sandpaper, utterly beautiful with the rough edges still intact.

It’s the rough edges that make these songs so special. As much as Circles has a glossy pop sheen, it’s her voice that makes you listen. This isn’t airbrushed, big-hat, knucklehead country, it’s music for endless dusty roads, for sunshine and days of limitless possibilities.

It’s also music that’s desperate to be blasting out of a radio somewhere. Jealous is a pure country pop banger and, if it isn’t a huge hit, then there’s really no justice in the world. It’s feather light and chorus stuffed; a song custom-made to sing along to. One to turn the radio up for.

I Make My Own Sunshine is another instant classic. Covered by Steven Tyler (of Aerosmith) on his country album it inspires sing-alongs and wild applause.

As a set closer it puts one hand on its hip, cocks its head and grins, “follow that”.

So Morganway simply have to follow that.

With a massive powerchord, furious violin and huge drums the opening of Let Me Go “follows that” in such a way that, all of a sudden, everything that has come before is forgotten.

This small room has something enormous in it. Morganway are a massive, stadium filling, Country-rocking, 70s inspired beast of a thing.

And that’s before SJ Mortimer opens her mouth. Oh my! What a voice! She’s a throwback, she has the sort of voice that you’d want to hear at Woodstock, the sort of voice that would have been extraordinary at the Filmore.

In the UK, in 2023, it’s just amazing. She has power and restraint, a remarkable blues belter with the deepest of soul, it’s the sort of voice you just don’t really hear much anymore.

By an absolute country mile, the songs that Mortimer sings by herself are the highlights. Come Over, from forthcoming album Back to Zero, is slinky and sensuous, a late-night blues with a huge tune.

Latest single, The Man, is another built around her incredible voice, thunderous drums failing miserably to match her power.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrDlguGs9bJ/

Burn Every Page is a furious lockdown song and is absolutely huge. Guitar, violin and drums surging around Mortimer, they play call-and-response with one another,  carefully building a deep-seated rage.

Aside from Mortimer’s voice the other star in Morganway’s firmament is Nicole Terry and her fiddle. If some of these songs threaten to be overwhelmed by Fleetwood Mac-y AOR then it’s the fiddle that rescues them every single time.

It adds bounce and spark, it keeps some of the excesses at bay. On Wait for Me the fiddle combines with an electric piano to delightful effect. Then, on London Life, there’s a fabulous folk exuberance that keeps the whole place jumping.

So, are headliners threatened by incredible support acts? By the encore Alyssa Bonagura was onstage with Morganway, harmonising with Mortimer on Hurricane, both were grinning, both of them striving to out-sing one another.

There was no jealousy, no sense of competition, just the unalloyed pleasure of hearing two serious singers absolutely belting it out. The perfect support for one another.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

Read next:

• Review: Bartees Strange, Rough Trade – ‘It’s all you can do not to crumble into a puddle of tears’
• Review: Ben Gregory, Rough Trade – ‘The gig is a celebration’
• Review: Noble Jacks, Lost Horizon – ‘Huge heaps of collective joy’

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