Tuesday night in MacSorleys in Glasgow. Guinness in hand, Bluesbunny observes a certain emptiness on the stage. It would seem that one of the acts booked for the night has not made an appearance so promoter Martin Forry takes to the stage and sings us a few songs from his canon. He starts with the reverential, even devotional, "Eleanor". He's not having a good night though, what with missing artistes and technical problems with the sound so he decides to cut his set short and deal with those issues.
Technical issues sorted, James Alan Gourley takes to the stage. Now this is interesting. He is a big guy who plays a remarkably sensitive guitar. You would think from his appearance that he would be all power chords but this turns out not to be the case. He even starts with an instrumental. His dexterity impresses - probably the result of some classical training, we suspect - and his lyrics have that kind of poetry that comes with best of folk music. All his songs do seem similar but there is something about them that rewards the diligent listener. There is probably some musical term for it but his songs seem to develop internally within their overall structure. It is quite difficult to describe but Bluesbunny is now curious about the album that Mr Gourley is about to release.
Last on is Chris Blair. We have seen him before and note that he seems a lot more confident tonight. He seems positively jaunty after the reflective Mr Gourley. "Anxious" is upbeat and almost provokes a sing along from some inebriates who have entered the bar. Unfortunately they lose interest and start pestering young Mr Blair for something from the Oasis back catalogue. As revenge no doubt, he throws in a bit of French into his lyrics. "Grace" is altogether more introspective but the inebriates have had enough and find innovative ways to amplify their mundane conversation i.e. shouting. He throws in a few covers but as he does not know any Oasis songs he is on to a loser in the battle to appease them. However we note that Chris Blair is turning into a rather classy performer and we look forward to hearing him again.
Not that great a night then but there is always chicken pakora …