A singer with something to say (From Somerset County Gazette)

A singer with something to say

5:05pm Wednesday 23rd May 2007 in Leisure By Gazette Reporter

THE internationally-acclaimed Irish singer/songwriter Eleanor McEvoy received a warm welcome at Taunton's Brewhouse last Thursday.

An array of instruments dressed the stage, giving the impression Eleanor might be accompanied by her band, but we were soon to discover that the multi-talented Eleanor would be playing each of these herself.

She opened with a brace of songs with something to say, accompanying herself on electric bass, thus demonstrating that this was to be anything but your average evening of foot-tapping folk fayre.

Eleanor's songs make you sit up and listen - from the wit of 'Non Smoking Single Female' and 'Quote I Love You Unquote' to the melancholic beauty of 'The Rain Falls'.

And there's even space for one or two covers, including the gloomy prescience of Marvin Gaye's 'Mercy Mercy Me', truly heard here for the first time by many, stripped of its incongruous groove.

The classically-trained Eleanor is a remarkably secure performer, capable of tackling anything from folk and blues to pop, soul and country, swiftly swapping electric guitar for violin, mandolin or bass.

But for her encore the audience provided the orchestration and it was fingerclickin' good.

This concert was a real treat for Taunton as well as a commendable coup for the Brewhouse in securing an international talent in between tours of Spain, Ireland and Scotland. Also of note was the wide age-range of Eleanor's audience music of depth touches all, it seems. An evening to file under 'beguiling'.

ROD HANCOX