Post by jonnymosco on Mar 10, 2022 10:04:00 GMT
Last night I saw Olivia Chaney play at the university in York.
I first came across her in 2009 when she sung with Zero 7 for a KCRW gig for Youtube - I remember posting the video on the old Acoustic mag forum, oddly she didn't feature on the Zero 7 album at the time and I wanted to know who she was as she had a great voice.
I'd forgotten all about her until she recently popped up on my Facebook feed advertising the gig in York. I went with a guitar maker from York who is a big fan; turns out her parents are local and she's recently settled here with her baby (also at the gig sitting right in the middle calling out mama, Olivia called back, very sweet).
She played the piano, Indian harmonium and three guitars: Gretsch dread, Martin OM and an electric resonator. She commented that following her formal music training (at the Royal Academy of Music) she taught herself the guitar, didn't know the rules, so tuned them as she saw fit for her music. All her arrangements with perfect, very spartan, just a repeated riff with a bass line. She was accompanied by a violin which would play just a single note as a drone, very effective (the opposite approach to Martin Simpson!).
She is clearly influenced by Joni Mitchell and referenced her a few times; she also sung a song in tribute to Norma Waterson and spoke a little of the folk/gypsy tradition that impacted her own music. Some Bach played on the piano featured as a segue between two songs and she also sung (unmiked) a Sephardic traditional song/prayer for the dead for those killed in the Ukraine. She sung 'O Solitude' by Purcell, explaining that her record label wasn't impressed that a 17th century song would feature on her album, but gave in eventually.
She had a very natural chatty patter between songs, often changing the setlist and giving us an insight into the inspiration for her songs, some quite dark about depression, others quite dark and about happiness!
She ended explaining she's off to New York next week to record her new album, then invited everyone to the local pub after the gig - sadly I had to head off.
I first came across her in 2009 when she sung with Zero 7 for a KCRW gig for Youtube - I remember posting the video on the old Acoustic mag forum, oddly she didn't feature on the Zero 7 album at the time and I wanted to know who she was as she had a great voice.
I'd forgotten all about her until she recently popped up on my Facebook feed advertising the gig in York. I went with a guitar maker from York who is a big fan; turns out her parents are local and she's recently settled here with her baby (also at the gig sitting right in the middle calling out mama, Olivia called back, very sweet).
She played the piano, Indian harmonium and three guitars: Gretsch dread, Martin OM and an electric resonator. She commented that following her formal music training (at the Royal Academy of Music) she taught herself the guitar, didn't know the rules, so tuned them as she saw fit for her music. All her arrangements with perfect, very spartan, just a repeated riff with a bass line. She was accompanied by a violin which would play just a single note as a drone, very effective (the opposite approach to Martin Simpson!).
She is clearly influenced by Joni Mitchell and referenced her a few times; she also sung a song in tribute to Norma Waterson and spoke a little of the folk/gypsy tradition that impacted her own music. Some Bach played on the piano featured as a segue between two songs and she also sung (unmiked) a Sephardic traditional song/prayer for the dead for those killed in the Ukraine. She sung 'O Solitude' by Purcell, explaining that her record label wasn't impressed that a 17th century song would feature on her album, but gave in eventually.
She had a very natural chatty patter between songs, often changing the setlist and giving us an insight into the inspiration for her songs, some quite dark about depression, others quite dark and about happiness!
She ended explaining she's off to New York next week to record her new album, then invited everyone to the local pub after the gig - sadly I had to head off.