CONCERT REVIEW – Wine,Women & Song – Basingstoke, THE ANVIL – 21 MAY 2009

CONCERT REVIEW – Wine,Women & Song – Basingstoke, THE ANVIL – 21 MAY 2009
SETLIST:
1. Tomorrow Morning GP 2. Bus Ride SB 3. You And Tequila MB 4. Independence Day GP
5. Letting Go SB 6. Wrong Side Of Memphis MB 7.Guadalupe GP 8. Eat At Joe’s SB
9. Racing The Angels – NEW! MB 10. Sunday Morning GP 11. Outbound Plane SB
INTERVAL
12. Nashville Girls MB 13. Ghost GP 14. If You Leave Me Now SB 15. Camille MB
16. Waiting For The Light To Turn Green GP 17. Somebody To Love SB
18. Strawberry Wine MB 19. On A Bus To St.Cloud GP 20. Heartache SB
Encores 21. Wild Horses GP,MB,SB sharing vocals 22. Farther Along GP,MB,SB
It was great to see Gretchen Peters, Matraca Berg and Suzy Bogguss back together in Wine, Women & Song mode. Hard to believe it was 2 years ago they were at this venue when unfortunately Suzy lost her voice due to laryngitis. No problems this time around, though she did resist showing off her “famed” yodelling skills.
Not as many people there as it in 2007 but still a very healthy 350+ crowd.
Gretchen had flown in several days ahead of the Miss Bogguss and Berg to do Radio promotion for her Best of Collection CIRCUS GIRL. Matraca arrived on Tuesday and seemed to have recovered from the jet lag. I am informed that they DO all get on and are flying back together.
The HOT news on the night was that Matraca has new material out – after a 10-year wait in the form of a special tour pre-release called SOUTH OF HEAVEN.
It’s hard to think of another artist as modest as she is. If she were to promote her own music she probably wouldn’t sell a single copy as she merely takes pleasure in others having hits with her songs. She is catching up fast though! Laughing she said she had to have something to sell this time around as she was getting fed up of Gretchen & Suzy after the shows waving wads of notes in her face at the merch desk!

The respect that each of these artists has one another is enormous not just as friends but professionally. In fact Matraca openly admitted she was a “huge girly fan” of Suzy, in the end it got a bit out of hand and Gretchen explained that’s why she’s sat in the middle of them to keep the peace LOL. Yes an evening full of friendly banter jokes and wonderful songs. Matraca’s aired a new song ‘Racing The Angels’ was brilliant. Gretchen’s ‘On A Bus To St Cloud’ probably due the loudest and most prolonged applause. A song she again highlighted was a song that brought her to the UK such was its acceptance over here. Great to hear Suzy interpretation of Lowell George’s (Little Feat) ‘Heartache‘. I wasn’t aware until this night that the video of it was shot in London. Another superb moment was Gretchen performing ‘Guadalupe’, Matraca played harmonica in Neil Young-esque fashion with Suzy adding delight touches on guitar and harmony.


New song ‘Camille’ appearing on both on the WW&S EP The SAWANEE SESSIONS and Matraca’s new offering was excellent, a number all-3 collaborating on it. The encores
‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Farther Along’ were really special. Hearing their 3 voices harmonising was wonderful. On the former Gretchen started on lead vocals, and then Matraca took lead then Suzy then all 3 combining – A great moment. More of this please on future WW&SONG Tour!

Recently on BBC Scotland “Peters, Berg and Bogguss were described in Rugby terms as “not a bad half back line”. They may not have been wearing Rugby shirts but anyone going to any of the rest of the dates on this tour was in for a treat! Do “TRY” to see them if you haven’t seen them before. Go along on spec and I’m sure you’ll be “Converted”! You’ll probably find there will be a bit of a “Scrum” getting signings afterwards on the evidence of this night.

Gretchen threw in a few surprises to possibly wrong foot her mates with ‘Ghost‘, also Peters “The Master Of Melancholy” felt the need to throw in a more upbeat happy song with ‘Sunday, Morning’

Gretchen suggested that next time they might think about bringing the “Boyfriends” along. Suzy looked bemused (Being married to producer Doug Crider). Gretchen thought maybe it wasn’t such a great idea after all LOL. ‘Independence Day’ gave Gretchen the opportunity to tell the audience the ‘Sarah Palin Story’ various spin-offs have raised £1million it seems! ‘Camille‘ from the new EP seems to have been written in the Tennessee cabin whilst Gretchen was cooking and then the juices flowed from all 3 ladies with the writing. Yeah Matraca is definitely a “Girlie fan of Suzy” saying she is “the best interpreter of songs she’s ever known”

Suzy at one point tried to be a rock chick and failed miserably when attempting to throw her plectrum into the audience. Matraca got up and promptly threw it into row ‘E’ left-hand! This prompted a debate on how left-handed people are more creative!

Matraca also has learnt to do a strong Scottish accent saying “Suzy”. We heard about Suzy and her son Ben walking down the street late at night after Celtic Connection festivities and someone yelling out ‘Suzy’ only for Suzy nervously to turn round and realise it was Matraca on a wind-up – Suzy thinking a fan had actually recognized her!
Both Matraca and Suzy spoke about their grandmothers. Suzy remembers hers cooking, always smoking with a long fag ash hanging off the cigarette whilst stirring the saucepans – She wondered how much Fag ash she may have eaten over the years but it didn’t look to have done her any harm LOL
Suzy said Gretchen and Matraca had been “pestering” her with online messages regarding about doing a cover song together. Suzy amusingly wondered why 2 of the best songwriters in the world would “Fri**in’ want to do a cover” LOL Apparently Gretchen said she mentioned doing Amy Whitehouse’s’ REHAB!

Livewire

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