AMBER CROSS
at The GREEN NOTE, London 16th April 2019
It's been a long time since I last wrote a 'live' review and I suspect it will be an even longer time before I write another but very occasionally an artist creates such an impression that coming up with an appreciation of that person's music just can't be helped. Such an artist is the wonderful Amber Cross. Anyone who knows me personally, and many who don't, are already aware of just how much I love Amber's music, so writing anything relating to that subject makes objectivity if not impossible, certainly an exercise fraught with difficulties. Those people will also know what I think of the Nashville 'production line' of often bland, formulaic sounds that are difficult to tell one from another. Certainly most have beautiful voices, generally decent songs, production polished to a dazzling sheen, great playing (as it should be because many artists have the same highly skilled studio musicians 'thrust upon them' as their peers) This is where it's impossible not to generalise without turning these few paragraphs into a book, but It's often difficult to tell one woman or man singer from another, the studio sheen that has been applied becomes too dazzling and consequently just ends up being tiresome and fading into the background, as do many of the lyrics. I find many (but not quite all) of the lyrics come from the same, often cliched roots, consequently making it obvious that the vocalists are lacking in soul simply because they are singing the words without really believing in what is coming out, possibly the same applying to the studio staff and backing musicians; in other words, 'music by numbers.' Perhaps that is taking a few too many liberties as well as being a huge generalisation but it is essentially true in far too many cases.
That was a pretty convoluted way of at least partly explaining why Amber Cross is such a unique, hugely talented singer songwriter who fits into the broad generic field of 'country music' and missing the distant 'country pop' field by a country mile with the gig on the 16th providing confirmation of her huge talent in a live setting. Hopefully I didn't embarrass her too much after the gig when I told her that I don't think even she realises quite how good she is. I have been attending gigs for over half a century and have seen some of the 'greats' from a variety of genres, if mainly from 'roots music,' and can say hand on heart that Amber is up there with those greats and ahead of most. Much of that reasoning is down to what came out in her performance at the Green Note and no doubt elsewhere. Amber gave an explanation of what prompted her to write each song and it was made clear that all of them came from her life or the lives of people she is or has been close too irrespective of the drama and mental anguish that is evoked by those tales. She has made no attempt to polish the rough edges off of those stories, many of them being about people who have or have had very little chance in life but to her are more important and have a more powerful resonance than any multi millionaire despite never having the chance or wherewithal to cushion the drama inherent in their lives.
Whilst many of the songs played at the Green Note came from that incredible recording, 'Savage on the downhill,' there were a couple from her 'gospel' album 'My kind of church' as well as some from the also essential 'You can come in,' topped off by an excellent Bruce Springsteen cover, although most that were played were her own. Those uniformly excellent Amber originals are such intensely personal stories that no one else could possibly have written them, dealing as they do with real life experiences. In the hands of other writers they would be thematically just too personal for anyone else to record but Amber's talents are such that the melodies are as memorable as the lyrics and as word gets around I would not so much be amazed but have my faith in the music industries inability to 'see the light' confirmed if none of the big Nashville 'country stars' recorded their own versions of these stunning songs!
Of course, powerful lyrics played with a depth of commitment and 'knowing' (not just 'believing') could be said (but not by me) to be not enough of itself but in Amber's music you also get beautiful melodic sounds that soon become ear worms; beauty and the beast is an analogy that springs to mind! I'll never be able to fathom a mind that can take real life experiences and intensely dramatic situations and put them to songs that last just a few short minutes, whilst still telling the story with all of its variety of colours and details. I suppose the ability to be succinct is the key, not something I've ever been accused of! Added to these skills is her voice. There is a beautiful hardness that perfectly emotes the melody but has such a deep powerful and heartfelt soulfulness and no listener can ever fail to be convinced that this lady's extraordinary musical projections are anything but the truth and the listener finds themselves going along with that truth, with all of the emotions implied. I think everyone at this gig and no doubt every gig that Amber and James play virtually lose themselves in this world, not so much a world created by Amber but the actual world, or at least the parts she has inhabited.
Between them Amber and husband, James Moore, create a very 'duo' atmosphere thanks to James excellent lead guitar and mandolin playing as well as his vocal support and their often humorous stage rapport that keeps everything relaxed despite the drama in the songs. The first song in a gig always provides the benchmark for all that follows, not always successfully, and at this gig the first song was Trinity gold mine, a quite brilliant story song that following Amber's explanation of how it came about took on an added sad but realistic poignancy that further enhanced the drama of an already dramatic song. I wondered if starting with such a great song was a mistake, but no, with each and every song that followed the incredible quality was maintained with an added highlight for me being the outstanding title track from her recent album Savage on the downhill.
There was a short break mid way through the evening where the 'duo' were able to gather their thoughts and the fairly well packed venue ground floor patrons were allowed to replenish their glasses before setting out on the second session of an evening that concluded all too soon and with Amber and James having to play two encores that even then were not enough!
We talk about artists as being the 'real deal' and a variety of other descriptive cliches but all of them can genuinely be applied to the recordings made by Amber Cross but when you put her in a live setting she really is 'the complete package!'
https://www.ambercrossmusic.com/
That was a pretty convoluted way of at least partly explaining why Amber Cross is such a unique, hugely talented singer songwriter who fits into the broad generic field of 'country music' and missing the distant 'country pop' field by a country mile with the gig on the 16th providing confirmation of her huge talent in a live setting. Hopefully I didn't embarrass her too much after the gig when I told her that I don't think even she realises quite how good she is. I have been attending gigs for over half a century and have seen some of the 'greats' from a variety of genres, if mainly from 'roots music,' and can say hand on heart that Amber is up there with those greats and ahead of most. Much of that reasoning is down to what came out in her performance at the Green Note and no doubt elsewhere. Amber gave an explanation of what prompted her to write each song and it was made clear that all of them came from her life or the lives of people she is or has been close too irrespective of the drama and mental anguish that is evoked by those tales. She has made no attempt to polish the rough edges off of those stories, many of them being about people who have or have had very little chance in life but to her are more important and have a more powerful resonance than any multi millionaire despite never having the chance or wherewithal to cushion the drama inherent in their lives.
Whilst many of the songs played at the Green Note came from that incredible recording, 'Savage on the downhill,' there were a couple from her 'gospel' album 'My kind of church' as well as some from the also essential 'You can come in,' topped off by an excellent Bruce Springsteen cover, although most that were played were her own. Those uniformly excellent Amber originals are such intensely personal stories that no one else could possibly have written them, dealing as they do with real life experiences. In the hands of other writers they would be thematically just too personal for anyone else to record but Amber's talents are such that the melodies are as memorable as the lyrics and as word gets around I would not so much be amazed but have my faith in the music industries inability to 'see the light' confirmed if none of the big Nashville 'country stars' recorded their own versions of these stunning songs!
Of course, powerful lyrics played with a depth of commitment and 'knowing' (not just 'believing') could be said (but not by me) to be not enough of itself but in Amber's music you also get beautiful melodic sounds that soon become ear worms; beauty and the beast is an analogy that springs to mind! I'll never be able to fathom a mind that can take real life experiences and intensely dramatic situations and put them to songs that last just a few short minutes, whilst still telling the story with all of its variety of colours and details. I suppose the ability to be succinct is the key, not something I've ever been accused of! Added to these skills is her voice. There is a beautiful hardness that perfectly emotes the melody but has such a deep powerful and heartfelt soulfulness and no listener can ever fail to be convinced that this lady's extraordinary musical projections are anything but the truth and the listener finds themselves going along with that truth, with all of the emotions implied. I think everyone at this gig and no doubt every gig that Amber and James play virtually lose themselves in this world, not so much a world created by Amber but the actual world, or at least the parts she has inhabited.
Between them Amber and husband, James Moore, create a very 'duo' atmosphere thanks to James excellent lead guitar and mandolin playing as well as his vocal support and their often humorous stage rapport that keeps everything relaxed despite the drama in the songs. The first song in a gig always provides the benchmark for all that follows, not always successfully, and at this gig the first song was Trinity gold mine, a quite brilliant story song that following Amber's explanation of how it came about took on an added sad but realistic poignancy that further enhanced the drama of an already dramatic song. I wondered if starting with such a great song was a mistake, but no, with each and every song that followed the incredible quality was maintained with an added highlight for me being the outstanding title track from her recent album Savage on the downhill.
There was a short break mid way through the evening where the 'duo' were able to gather their thoughts and the fairly well packed venue ground floor patrons were allowed to replenish their glasses before setting out on the second session of an evening that concluded all too soon and with Amber and James having to play two encores that even then were not enough!
We talk about artists as being the 'real deal' and a variety of other descriptive cliches but all of them can genuinely be applied to the recordings made by Amber Cross but when you put her in a live setting she really is 'the complete package!'
https://www.ambercrossmusic.com/