Caroline Martin Review

Caroline Martin
Rose Kemp,
Ed Cottram

Bowling Green, August 24th 2005

To say we had some fun finding this place was a understatement. It said on the advert, Grafton Street, Manchester but I knew from looking at the A – Z there was about 4 of them, so that didn’t help. I rang up the pub abnd was told it was on a road just off the MRI (Accident and Emergency) and we must had walked up and down there three or four times before we found the place hidden away in some dark corner almost literally.

We had come to see Caroline Martin, who Setting Sun has championed for more years than either of us had cared to remember, so by the time we sat down I was really hoping the gig would be worth the wait.

And – oh it was.
First up was a young (ish) singer songwriter who I think was from Manchester called Ed Cottram, who in the space of a just few songs bewitched the crowd with a series of hushed, half whispered songs that certainly bought to mind, Nick Drake which I know would get some people saying oh god not another one but when they are as well done as this, it really doesn’t matter.

Lovely.

Next up was Caroline Martin, who nearly caught everybody out when her voilonist popped up and played a haunting number by himself, which I know for a fact caught out about four or five people (including us) out in the audience, which in a way made sense of the dark tunes Caroline followed up with straight afterwards.

Playing a mixture of both old (From last year’s “I had a hundred reasons to stay by the fire”) and new tracks (which I think were recorded quite recently for a Radio One Session among several new tracks and two surprising cover versions (Liberty X’s Just a little and The Undertones’s “Teenage Kicks” which she dedicated to John Peel), Caroline’s set was even more stripped down from her already stripped down album and previously released Eps, which was given some excellent backing from the violinist and when Caroline played solo, her Leonard Cohen style songwriting (My friend’s opnion which I sort off agreed with) reakky shibem with the single off “I had..” Monn really shining in particular.

Excellent stuff and a extra brownie point too the respectful crowd too.

Rose Kemp, who headlined the night was the daughter of a few folk legends (I was a bit too drunk by this point to remember who exactly), which then explained in contrast to both Ed and Caroline, why she chose to play mostly electric, a one woman show with plenty of powerful screaming which certainly bordered on PJ Harvey in places, but as the set went on went increasingly wider and wilder dare I say and used the electronical backing tapes to mesh into something very different indeed.

Good stuff, all round and well worth the walk all over the streets and back streets and more back streets.
Well, almost but a good, all round gig and I discovered two good new artists – both of which are certainly worth checking out