Acoustic Routes May concert review
Review—May concert: Alan Downes, opened by Downundermutts and Madillionette
(Review by Helen Dorothy)
NZ Music Month!! And what better way than to host some of our own musical members
in a concert that covered all bases—thought-provoking originals through to real mood-lifters, with a waft of ‘blue smoke’ and plenty of wit. All up, we had a “country good time” on a chilly evening in our “windy city nestling snuggly in the hill”.
...........
Our headline act, Alan Downes—always a treat! Making the trip down with his guitar from the Hawkes Bay back blocks for this concert was so worth it because we never tire of this ‘country boy’s’ take on rural life. Now several albums down the track since he first tentatively showed up at Mojo
Invincible Open Mic on Willis St all those years ago, he is on a roll, churning out his song-stories like nobody’s business.
Except it is our business…his collection is a treasure chest, and we hold each song up to the light to study, marvel at.
They are wistful. They are witty. Wonderful documentations of daily life in days gone by that we, somehow, all relate to.
Alan’s set bursts with songs about “stubborn old dudes” of horses, second-hand automobiles, ‘Diamond Nights’ in a Hastings bar, “that ol’ Shag dog” (it’s always his fault), and of course the ‘Neighbour’s Wife’.
There were poignant songs too: a soldier’s ‘Redemption’ (“a moment when the shadows bring the evening on and sunshine finds another place to fall”), and ‘Mother’s Beer’ providing a way for those who spend the day “sorting tricks of nature out” to share their heavy loads. Then it’s back to the quirky, a Christmas gathering wrapping things up with “who’s gonna take Mama home tonight”, and “dancing styles extended” in the Woolshed. His punchy ballads don’t need any musicalembellishments.
He’s a master at his straight-up, as-it-is delivery. Brilliant!