Gig Review: Laurence Jones + Amy Eftekhari
Sunday 15th Feb – The Marrs Bar, Worcester
Laurence has struggled with his health over the years and, at this point, opted to revert to a solo career, launching his own RON label for his new solo album, On My Own. Never far from Laurence’s side is fiancée Amy; tonight she was offering support on stage, having released her first EP.
There was plenty of appreciative support for Jones. He’s stood on this stage many times since his first outing at 15 years old, a young blues guitarist promising so much. Over the years he’s taken a few different paths, from full rock through to soulful love songs, though the blues has always called him back.
Amy opened proceedings with ‘Patience’, a lovely song so fresh it didn’t make her newly released EP. She has a fine voice, perfectly suited to her chosen folk style. A couple of well-received covers followed: ‘What’s Up?’ and then, how about a bit of Dylan, ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’. From her EP, Amy bowed out with ‘Your Eyes’ — eyes always tell the story — and this evening we were about to find that old sparkle back in Laurence’s.
Truth be told, Laurence was looking well — at ease in familiar territory — sitting centre stage with three resplendent PRS acoustic guitars. Slide in hand, stomp box thumping away, he launched into ‘One Life’ from his album, the rhythm pumping as surely as a beating heart, the slide bringing that Delta roots vibe. A great start. It transpired that this combination of slide and guitar would carry much of the load for the evening, along with the hard-pressed stomp box. A Rory Gallagher-inspired ‘Walking Out That Door’ proved to be a hard-driven, swampy blues, with that unmistakable groove driving it along.
Jones then launched into the superb, bluesy title track, ‘On My Own’, a steady, throbbing piece deserving of its top billing, swapping guitars for a bass-heavy rhythm sound. It’s easy to forget how good Jones’s finger-picking is, as opposed to the note-bending fireworks of his electric mode. We got really swampy for the Robert Johnson classic ‘Come On in My Kitchen’ — excellent stuff.
Talking of Hendrix, you don’t often hear an acoustic version of ‘Voodoo Chile’, but the slide was busy again in a mash-up that incorporated a Zeppelin-style ‘Whole Lotta Love’ bridging the centre section. Superb — Laurence was clearly having fun with this, and the gathered fans loved it.
We were taken right back to Laurence’s first song, ‘Thunder in the Sky’, rarely played acoustically, but it stood up to the task well — perhaps it should always have been this way? Beautifully delivered, fingers pushing those strings to the limit.
It seemed a good place for me to sign off. Amy rejoined Laurence for a folksy duet from her EP before I joined the queue for a bit of vinyl. Thankfully the rain kept away for my walk home, no threat to my freshly signed 12-inch. ‘Hard Times’ indeed — these days I’ve been immersed twice in the bow wave of inconsiderate drivers, ignorant of people on pavements; down to my last dry clothes — but warmed by a brilliant evening at Marrs.
By: Graham Munn