Eleanor McEvoy and Ade Webb Adelphi 6th July By Michelle Dee

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Photograph Gallery   Ade Webb Gallery   Eleanor McEvoy Gallery 1   Eleanor McEvoy Gallery 2

I was very keen to go to this gig to see the leading lady of Irish folk, as she was billed, to see whether she lived up to that accolade. Simon the keyboard player from the highly acclaimed band cowfisH accompanied me I had hoped to avail myself of his extensive folk music knowledge. I digress.. Eleanor McEvoy was being supported that evening by singer/songwriter Ade Webb.

He came across in a warm self-effacing way and was good-natured about being a last minute addition to tonight's line-up. He looks like a young Ian Brown with a loose style and a laid-back attitude. His songs use simple chord structures played on a spider head guitar but lyrically he is incredibly complex.

The titles are also quirky and enigmatic as with the Electric Chair Lament described as being a love song. It is with the storytelling tradition of folk music that he really comes into his own. In The Fable of the Prince and the Liontamer he tells a story set in a circus replete with all the colourful characters you would expect there in. Alliteration and assonance roam freely amongst the grease paint and sawdust, throughout his intelligent and often very clever word play, the line, telephone ringing his neck, comes to mind.

More of this poetic narrative is evident in the faerie tale Echoes in the Wilderness. This one tells a story through the passages of time with the ageless Amanda at its centre. Ade mixes up Roman, Greek and Christian mythological references with ease to weave his time travelling tribute to Heroes and Heroines everywhere. I'm pretty sure there was mention of the Spanish Armada as well.

During this epic he lifts his considerably powerful voice to great effect and captures your imagination completely. He finished his set with an upbeat song called Forget the Dead and Mourn the Dying. A cavalcade of rhyme hits you tripping and spilling over in familiar Dylanesque style. Ade Webb has played at the open mic sessions on a Monday evening at the Adelphi. He has recently reached a level of performance that could and should see him on his way to greater things. No doubt in my mind he should take every gig offered and build up a fan base. I for one look forward to hearing more of his fables.

So on to the headlining act. Eleanor McEvoy takes to the stage and launches into Days Roll By with gorgeous Irish inflection and intonation. She has that true Dublin quality to her voice with rolling consonants and vowel sounds that excite and enchant in equal measure. Then she suddenly skips over the pond for The Way You Wear Your Troubles. With a traditional blues sound that comes straight from Muddy Water's front porch, she begins to reveal her wide range of influences in particular musicians and songwriters from the US.

She played Did I Hurt You from her third album Yola a track where she admits she is not always perfect and sometimes, not very often mind, is in the wrong. This song's powerful strumming stirs you deep, deep inside. She then treated us to another track of Yola this one about being dumped by Email. God, aren't we all cowards? It is meteorologically, metaphorically titled The Rain Falls, after a familiar tale of a broken down morning the bad news comes followed swiftly by a broken heart.

Towards the end of the song Eleanor is barely picking out the notes to evoke the patter of rain on a windowpane. Beautiful.

Ave Maria contains more of that delicate finger picking, as the title suggests this is a religious track and can be found on her new album Early Hours released by Market Square Records. To my surprise she started playing a drumbeat on the body of her guitar much like playing a bodhrán, the Celtic drum. Then showing a more vulnerable side she sang accapella much to the audience's delight. She opened her second set with a Chuck Berry cover Memphis Tennessee a political piece highlighting the plight of fathers in the paternity struggle.

More of her American connections are in evidence here as she tells the captivated audience about her own struggle with Sony Records a huge faceless corporate industry label who she signed to in 1996. The following years were spent trying to buy the rights to her disc that said faceless corporate giants had failed to release. However her story has a victorious ending as the precious first album was released in its entirety in time for Christmas 2003.

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Photograph Gallery   Ade Webb Gallery   Eleanor McEvoy Gallery 1   Eleanor McEvoy Gallery 2

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