Lissie plus support from Tyler Ramsey

First on tonight a new artist to us, Tyler Ramsey, who was the guitarist with the American band, Band of Horses. He already has a handful of solo albums under his belt, along with his new one, ‘New Lost Ages’. His songs are a deep look at almost seemingly mundane things, delivered with intensity, accompanied with some serious finger plucking guitar playing, and a voice we thought sounded at times like a very young Neil Young. You wouldn’t call his material commercial, but the packed crowd tonight seemed to get it, giving him an extremely warm ovation.

As big fans of Lissie, any chance of seeing this super talented singer and we’re there, and first thing we notice is that seems to be at least six or seven months pregnant, congratulations! But as this is purely an acoustic tour, this would suit her condition, you know a bit restrained, sedate, hell no! Lissie doesn’t do sedate, and it’s not long before she’s prowling to the back of the stage and dashing back to deliver a fiery vocal, flinging her hair backwards, and even jumping! Even with her big boots on. This was a little, but nice surprise tour, as she’s not promoting an album, as her last album, ‘Carving Canyons’, was released last year. And what a lovely night this was, firstly its sold out, and the reaction and banter between Lissie and the crowd was fantastic, including after having a drink of red wine an audience member shouted out singing Red Red Wine. She said she learned to dance as a youngster to it and said if she knew how to play it she would. And when she said she was going to play a song she wrote years ago but never played it, she started and within a couple of bars, she completely forgot it. She just started laughing with the audience and did something else instead. This is the great thing about seeing bands and singers without all the hullabaloo of an electric set. She played a lot of fan favourites, ‘Oh Mississippi’, ‘In Sleep’, ‘Shameless’, Blood & Muscle’, ‘Best Days’, and of course, ‘When I’m Alone’, which had some great singing from all in the Institute.

After an energetic, but very personal night, it was over. She seemed to absolutely love the night as we did, her voice sounded excellent and glad to hear she’s working on new music, so hopefully we will get another album, soon.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe