“Wandering men” Billy Bragg & Joe Henry at the Warwick Arts Centre

My knowledge of Billy Bragg comes predominantly from our mutual political party; his political polemics aside, I’m not exactly fluent in his back catalogue. But even if I had been, I doubt I’d have expected what I got from his and Joe Henry’s Shine A Light tour.

Bragg explained at the start of the evening that he and Henry had spent four days on trains heading through the south of America to try and reconnect with the culture of railroad music, and the journeys and scenery which inspired it. On their trek, Bragg and Henry utilised their time waiting in various stations to record covers of classic railroad music, which eventually formed their album Shine A Light.

It turns out that railroad music is bloody good, and bloody powerful.

Now, I’d not anticipated this being a gig about trains. And despite being an ardent champion of public transport, the idea of a tour built entirely around railroad songs did make the sceptic in me somewhat bristle. But it turns out that railroad music is bloody good, and bloody powerful.

The songs were melancholic, escapist and (despite Bragg’s claim otherwise) nostalgic. They harkened back to a freedom which sprawling public transport can no longer provide, due to technological advancements and high-alert security. Bragg and Henry stressed that the choice to record the album was not nostalgic, but rather an attempt to understand what the personal effects of cultural and technological shifts which changes to railroad culture had been.

Henry and Bragg’s voices complemented one another magnificently, far more effectively than I could have imagined. Bragg’s voice was sonorous, and tamer than usual; gone were the rallying cries of ‘There Is Power in a Union’ (although this song did resurface in the second half), and ushered in were low, thoughtful, and at time quite sad vocals. Combined with Henry’s southern American-tinged voice, we were left with two almost archetypal voices of wandering men; having never heard Henry before, I was moved by the total honesty of Henry’s warm, caring and maybe even reminiscent voice.

We were left with two almost archetypal voices of wandering men.

The show was not an upbeat one, as both men relayed their difficulty to come to grips with last week’s election result, and difficulty with understanding today’s state of global affairs. Offering an explanation “on behalf of my country”, the American Henry told us (to much applause) that “this might be where we are right now – but it isn’t who we are”. Statements like these from Henry and Bragg created a solidarity between the performers and the audience, one which ultimately was an encouragement to never give up on the fight for fairness and justice, even if you feel the world has turned its back on your ideas.

The songs, the show and the performers were all trying to come to terms with a lot of things. And perhaps that’s why it was such a powerful night. By channelling the 20^th century fears of a changing world through railroad music, Bragg and Henry left the audience thinking; where, and how, are we to travel from here?