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Advantage of having a theatre on your doorstep #236: When it comes to 8 o’clock on a Sunday evening and you’ve been lounging about on the couch watching movies all day, a snap decision to pop out can lead to a great night of music. Last night we got to see Cathy Davey, supported by two great acts – Molly Jenson and The Raglans.

We arrived in the middle of Jenson‘s set and she was doing a great job of warming up the crowd. Engaging in conversation and having a joke with the audience, then delivering some beautiful songs, she really made her mark. Having toured extensively in the US and with an impressive MySpace following, Jenson will surely be huge when her album, Maybe Tomorrow, goes on full release in March 2009.

The Raglans are a three piece band who, as Cathy Davey says, are far too young to be this good. Although they are local lads, Stephen Kelly, Luke Carrig and David Hayes have spend a lot of time touring Ireland and spreading the good music. I look forward to hearing a headline set from these three guys in the near future.  It was nice to see so many people showing up just to hear them. For these people Cathy Davey was merely a bonus. I missed out on getting one of their EP’s (they sold out) but there are a few tracks on their website.

Davey describes her Bare Bones Tour as..

…a chance to play intimate venues without being too noisy for sensitive ears. Rearranged songs to better suit candlelight. Three of us playing as many instruments as we can fit in our suitcases and the chance for me to babble nonsense if I so choose as the bigger venues tend to echo unpleasantly, and I do so hate the sound of my own voice.. don’t we all. That’s the Bare Bones Tour. It’s nice. And slightly special.

It is nice and it is very special. Her beautiful voice suits the more stripped down versions of her own tracks. This is how they were meant to be heard. A relaxed crowd at first finally broke out of their shells when she played her hit Reuben. From then on, it was a magical night.

A song I hadn’t heard before, Rowing Your Own Heart Away (I stand to be corrected on the song’s title), really stopped me in my tracks. Beginning with a gorgeous, soothing melody, the latter half of the song broke into haunting and near disturbing harmonies. It was fantastic. Just three voices on stage and it sounded like an evil choir. Brilliant.

Proving her ridiculous amount of talent, she put aside her mandolin and guitar for a while to take to the drums, singing Can’t Lose It from the drum kit. She then nervously introduced The Nameless, but I’m not sure why she was so tentative about it – it was one of her best tracks.

Showing her relaxed professionalism, she had to stop the performance midway through Wild Rum, a song about alcoholics, because she forgot to plug in her mandolin. With ease, she laughed it off and picked right up where she left off. Just one of many lighthearted moments in a fun evening that ran until midnight in the intimate venue.

She closed her set with the 1920’s George Gershwin song, Do It Again. It was beautiful and relevent and closed her set perfectly. She returned to the stage for a crowd pleasing sing-along, Cole Porter‘s You Do Something to Me, where she dragged the very perplexed Raglans back on stage to do backing. With the whole crowd singing along, it was a very satisfying finish to an exciting night.

Notes:

• Check out more from Cathy Davey on her website or MySpace page.
• The Raglans have their own site too and there’s some tracks on their MySpace page.
• Molly Jenson is here and here.

Keep an eye on Greystones Theatre’s website to see what acts are coming up next. This week sees Director (plus very special guests) take over on Wednesday night and Brian Kennedy on Thursday, playing tracks from his new album of covers, Interpretations.

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