The Be Good Tanyas LIVE

**Walking into a room of over-40s in the middle of campus was slightly unnerving, albeit not always an unusual sight at the Arts Centre. In retrospect, I’m not sure what I was anticipating, going to see an alt-folk band like The Be Good Tanyas. They developed their cult following when they started performing in 1999, when I was at the highly musically developed age of seven. Regardless of the age group surrounding me, everyone keenly anticipated the folk/country/blues night ahead.**

The supporting act, **Emily Portman**, began the evening with a few songs about myths, lullabies and other classically folk topics. Her chit-chat was likeable and her conversational preamble contextualised the music well. However, her voice came across almost saccharine and warbling, only rounding out with the accompanying singers. It simply didn’t match up emotionally to the subject matter. The performance improved as they warmed up though, and in the last few songs Portman hit her stride, with ‘Hatchling’, which recently won Best Original Song at the BBC Folk Awards, and ‘Hinge of the Year’, where we heard her idiosyncratic phrases woven into utterly poignant lyrics.

**The Be Good Tanyas** were an immediate change of gear, kick-starting their songs with a vibrant pace and their characteristically quirky and developed sound. While Portman’s music was strongly located in Britain, The Be Good Tanya’s music showed how folk in North America has developed a bluegrassy lyrical maturity. Frazey Ford sang lead, while Trish Klein effortlessly switched between electric and acoustic guitar, banjo and harmonica. The crowd wasn’t sure what they were missing without the presence of Sam Parton (Guitar/Vocals), who couldn’t be part of the British tour due to an injury. She was replaced by Caroline Ballhorn, who didn’t do much to create a memorable performance, but maintained the sound of The Be Good Tanyas.

What was most surprising in the performance was Ford and Klein’s confidence, which just didn’t come across in recording. Ford was outspoken, from her voice to her green tights and pink hair piece, while Klein exuded _cool_, with her chilled strums and downcast stance. They were aware of how they fit into the folk genre, and pushed into blues, country and bluegrass. Though it did sometimes feel as though they were caught between styles, their self-awareness gave them room to experiment and move further away from their folk core. In ‘Hey Little Mama’, the band swayed towards their country edge, and succeeded in capturing the essence of what a lullaby should be. It was sweet and smile-inducing, with a distinctive voice that eluded Emily Portman’s lullaby earlier in the evening. Even when the band performed recorded songs, like the crooning of ‘Human Thing’, there was a flair and whimsy that captured the lyrics much more authentically than their recording. It was a song like this, with its earthy grounded feel, that defined the band’s music that night.

The other stand out factor was Frazey Ford’s live voice, which was powerful, husky and honeyed all at once, something like a crossover between Alison Krauss and Elvis. It almost didn’t matter that you couldn’t always hear what the lyrics were. Her distinctive sound came across especially in despondent songs like ‘Junkie Song’. She held a sombre tone, while Klein interspersed the electric guitar strums in an Eagles-esque fashion. The heaviness weighed on the room; it was in melancholy that all elements of the band really came through strong. Similarly, their haunting final number, ‘Gospel Song’, was a mournful exhalation of their voices and instruments to create the most emotionally engaging song of the night.