Kim Richey
Jumpin’ Hot Club
The Cluny
Newcastle
Friday 24th May 2024
It’s been a while since I went to two gigs on two nights; but I couldn’t possibly miss Kim Richey playing Cluny II, one of my favourite venues and one of my favourite singers.
She last played the Jumpin’ Hot Club pre-Covid at the Live Theatre in Newcastle, but I’ve seen her since supporting her friend Gretchen Peters across the North.
Tonight, Friday was the release date for her latest album EVERY NEW BEGINNING which I absolutely love and my review says so.
At first sight support act Carla J Easton was a surprise choice as she would appear to be more suited to the ‘young’ Indie market, but she’s done a couple of Songwriter retreats with Kim, and the odd couple have become firm friends.
Accompanied by her friend Paul Kelly on acoustic guitar, Ms Easton looks and sounds a bit … ‘quirky’ but her self-depreciating wit and charm when telling her stories between songs won the large crowd over within seconds on the lead up to You Made Us; about her home town of Glasgow.
During the fabulous second song, Blooming For You a song that came about after too much criticism from an ex and then hearing that ‘when you remove the thorns from a rose’ …. ‘you kill it’ … the penny dropped that her singing reminded me of fellow Glaswegian Clare Grogan (Altered Images … swoon).
Every song was preceded by a fabulous story; especially a song from her TeamCanteen girl-band days, How We Met, Cherry Pie and Get Lost which was about a hazardous trip in Northern Scotland through scrub and bog to get to a beautiful beach …. which may or may not be a metaphor for finding love.
It’s been a long while since a support act won my heart so quickly, but Carla J Easton most certainly did tonight; and I wasn’t alone.
Whenever I’ve seen Kim Richey she’s been solo; but tonight she was accompanied by Luke Blighty on a semi-acoustic Telecaster and the combo spiced up her songs right from the get go, an older and intricately beautiful song Angel’s Share.
I know many singer-songwriters and if anyone else had a song like Pin a Rose in their canon of work they’d no doubt have to keep it to the end of the show perhaps even an encore; but Kim Richey has so many great songs tonight it arrived as the second song of a well put together set list.
As I said earlier I’ve seen Kim a lot over the years, but tonight she seemed somehow ‘more confident’ and ‘comfortable’ with her performance that ever before; possibly because of having Blighty beside her on stage… just a thought.
One of the things I love about gig going is that whatever I see will never be repeated; for a variety of reasons … tonight it happened a few times.
When Kim introduced Chapel Avenue from the new album someone ‘whooped’ which amused her, as she doubted he’d heard it!
Later when struggling to tune her guitar, she had to move her head several times to focus then made a joke about age and glasses that received applause as loud as any of her songs, then later totally forgot the first verse of one of the new songs, so started with the second.
The ninety minute set flew by with a mix of older songs; some of which I didn’t recognise but loved anyway and a few from the new album, which coincidently ‘was on sale at the merch stand’ #wink.
As the gig moved on, Kim put her guitar down which allowed Luke Blighty to stun us with slide guitar on Girl In a Car then the couple were joined by Paul Kelly on guitar to ‘beef up the sound’ on Every River then stayed alongside Carla J Easton on keyboards, which completely changed the dynamic of the gig, especially for new song Joy Rider and one of my favourite ever songs, Chase Wild Horses too.
Earlier in the day I’d read a report saying ‘gig going’ was on the decrease and small venues were closing at a frightening rate … but tonight this venue was 99% full and the upstairs room with some hippity-hoppity act headlining was Sold Out and on my way earlier, I passed two other venues with queues outside …. so Live Music is alive and well in Newcastle my friends!!
Photo-Set from Harrisonaphotos
https://www.harrisonaphotos.co.uk/Music/Kim-Richey-JHC-at-The-Cluny/i-PHwLSvs
The Rocking Magpie 