@ Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh, on Thu 26 Mar 2015
An accident of timing means this, the second of the Chapel of Ease gigs at the Assembly Roxy, clashes (ironically!) with the launch of Nothing Ever Happens Here at Summerhall around the corner. It takes a few off the audience numbers for sure. But while the crowd in the Roxy’s candlelit and vintagely furnished cellar snug may be sparse, it is no reflection of the quality on offer in an evening of accomplished acoustic songsmithery.
Sam Gillespie (normally of duo Gillespie and Wolfe) opens proceedings with a solo set of exquisite Bert Jansch-like balladry. He drops in some Mississippi John Hurt, a Leonard Cohen-esque number and a sweet paean to his native Northumberland. He apologises for the sombre tone of proceedings, but it’s unnecessary. His heart-on-sleeve style suits the informal mood to a tee.
Promoter Toby Mottershead steps in for a brief interlude to give the headliners time to prepare. Moustachioed and be-tweeded, he might look like a 19th century riverboat gambler, but he channels a good cottonfield blues holler while offering up a woman-gone-done-me-wrong trad tune.
And then to the headline act…
Opening with a trio of solo songs, Russo‘s modus operandi is clear – pure, jazz-inflected vocals set to guitar in a style that borders French chanson. Her self-penned numbers are intricate little things with a multitude of different sections and tones. A song she wrote for her mother (“but it could be for any mother anywhere”) is endearing when it could be cloying, with lyrics that ask how a mother feels when her offspring roam the world (Russo is from Transylvania, via Aberdeen). Her voice has a precision and clarity that belies her timidity, and the effect is bewitching.
For a song from her native country, she is joined by guitarist Innes Cardno. In this setting, her style is less striking, sitting comfortably with the song rather than adding an extra dimension to it. Maybe it’s just an example of an old folk song stripped of its vibrancy through overuse. The jazziness of her vocal style is taken more literally with a seldom heard vocal version of jazz standard Take Five, beautifully reinvented here, with Cardno taking on the necessary twiddles and flourishes. A French number is equally effective at bringing out Russo’s vocal skills.
Although it strangely suits the music, it’s impossible not to find a kazoo ridiculous, so when she breaks into a kazoo solo you can only smile. “It’s like a little trumpet,” she explains, which in a way is true, and on a budget it makes a nifty little addition to the set. An actual trumpet would have been perfect though.
It’s clearly not true that Nothing Ever Happens Here when there’s two quality gigs within a short stroll of each other on a regular Thursday night. The ambience of the night may have been different from what was happening down the road, but with the quality of music on offer and the fantastic little venue, it’s not hard to see Chapel of Ease becoming a welcome addition to Edinburgh’s live scene.