I went along to this show not knowing very much about either of tonight's act and arrived at the Borderline just as COREY CHISEL came onstage. He's the second member of the Chisel family I've seen this year, but unlike his long lost Australian cousin Cold Chisel he isn't a living legend.
What Corey Chisel turned out to be is a not quite sad and mordant enough country duo of Corey on guitar and vocals and a rather cute woman on Keyboards and vocals who looked like she might be called something like Wynona, but as she wasn't introduced, so I don't know for sure.
They opened with a song about wanting someone to wait for me. Corey displayed a good deep voice and indulged in some good playing. They followed that with Never Meant to Love You: a song about, well, falling in love with someone who doesn't want you to fall in love with them. It was a well played country lament that was followed by a song about this is how it goes and it sort of went with some nice keyboards and twin vocals.
Laura was a song of longing but seemed to be missing something which summarised their set. The only songs that stood out were Tell Me Why The Times Won't Change, because instead of being about failed love, it was about the state of the world, but in this case the lyrics were far too general to have any impact and Over Jordan which I'm pretty certain is an old gospel standard. Whatever, it sounded really good.
They closed with These Four Walls which was decent enough but for me, though they sing and play perfectly adequately there was something lacking, a spark of some sort.
After the break it was time for HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF who are a country-based 4 piece formed by Alynda Lee Segarra who grew up on the prairies of the Bronx before hightailing it out of there beatnik-style by hopping on a freight train or two and ending up in that bastion of down home country music that is New Orleans.
They opened the set with Little Black Star: a gorgeous song and with the Double Bass twanging nicely and two acoustic guitars and fiddle melding. As the set progressed there was much swapping of instruments between them, well apart from The Bass guy who stayed put.
Now I'm gonna guess a few of these song titles wrong but they started singing about I'm Coming Home (which may well actually have been Ramblin' Gal) about being out on the road and trying to get by. Throughout the show they all came across as really genuinely happy to be playing to a packed club and we were very happy to have them.
Slow Walk was good and Languid and as I watched Yosi Perlstein playing the fiddle I was struck by how much she reminded me of the late lamented Will Glenn from The Rain Parade. She had those same sad eyes coupled with an often beautiful smile even if musically they were obviously rather different.
What I think was Too much of A Good Thing was a good song about getting thrown down on the ground and going for it, as the Riff Raff of the band's name is the underbelly of those poor folk struggling to make it as musicians and the downtrodden of the gays and lesbians and druggies and other outsiders. They followed that with what for me was the weakest song of the set, Ode To John & Yoko. It went on too much about John being a northern man like it was trying to re-write Neil Young's Southern man as a lament for Lennon. Good try, but it didn't quite come off.
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But soon enough they were singing about their Smalltown Heroes and I had finally figured out which other band from New Orleans they reminded me of both in the lyrics they sing and how Alynda's voice sounds. It's The Troubadours Of Divine Bliss.
What's Wrong With Me was pretty great and well I'd say not much on hearing this but then they were drawing us all in with the beauty of the music coupled with the often stark and dark lyricism of the struggles of life and the pain of seeing loved ones screwed up on drugs.
The theme continued as they played a new song the St Rock Blues about the rather rough bit of New Orleans they live in. It was a gorgeous song no matter how dark the lyrics got. They also did a great version of Townes Van Zandt's Heartworn Highways (I Hope that is the right song title) that they dedicated to his memory and told us how proud they were to be playing the song on the same stage that he played his last ever gig. They did him proud, that's for sure.
Daniella was a real high spot; a great song with almost everyone singing "Oh Daniella" at the chorus. It was very sweet indeed and they then encouraged us to dance to The Junebug Waltz but it was too packed to get much dance floor action going, plus I'm not sure how many of the London audience would dance to this sort of slow country waltz, even if it was a fitting way to end the set.
They were soon back for a well-earned encore, opening with a cover of that country classic Be My Baby: a song that really works well as a country hoedown. It was followed by Born To Win (Part 1) which is a nice reply to Born To Lose with some more great playing from them all. They then closed with a cover of Lucinda Williams' People Talking which was something I hadn't heard all night as even in the quiet parts of the set the crowd had been really quiet. It closed the show nicely.
I have to say this was one very enjoyable show. It may have been just a wee bit out of my comfort zone but both the albums they have out on www.loosemusic.com are worth searching out so we can help to make sure these four members of the Riff Raff get to continue making great country music.
Loose Music online
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