Live review: July 5th At The Basement, Sydney.
Album launches don’t usually pack them in unless the artist is very high profile or the management has made sure that the tickets are spread out freely amongst the hoi polloi. With sold out shows in his home country, some word of mouth and quite a bit of pre-launch press, the work was done and this show on a chilly night in Sydney was packed with a well lubricated bunch of punters. There was not much room to swing a cat in The Basement as this gig was a sell-out.
Marlon Williams is the 24 year old Kiwi that everyone had come to see and hear. Although he may be the new kid on the block in Australia, his chops and skills have been honed back in Aotearoa.
Coming from the musical setting of Lyttelton New Zealand his style and musical knowledge has been influenced by his parents, his choir boy background and teaming up with other musical artists in that neck of the woods. Over the last decade he has had his own band there (Unfaithful Ways) they have supported a number of international acts around the North and South Island.
With his home base now being made in Melbourne, Williams is about to burst into the musical public eye here. Taking to the stage and the spotlight here at The Basement with an acoustic guitar and rosy cheeks and a cheeky glint in his eye, Williams soared with a cover of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’. This classic folk song written by Ewan MacColl’s (and made famous by Roberta Flack) showcased the vocal pyrotechnics that are the first things that make your ears and the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It appeared that a number of people were gob smacked.
He was not alone in bringing his album and other songs alive tonight. He joked he had picked players at random for the show, but of course this was a collaboration that has hit their strides after a number of nights doing their thing. Multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, and fiddle) Dave Khan and bass player Ben Wooley came out for some bluegrass harmonies on a Stanley Brothers number and Bob Carpenter’s ‘Silent Passage’ was tremendous.
The chills of the evening were replaced by goose bumps of joy. The band, known as The Yarra Benders were filled out with a drummer and Williams then launched into some of the tracks from his debut release.
[include_post id=”444626″] Whether it be the more sombre and dark ballad of ‘Dark Child’, with some great guitar work by Khan, the blistering pace of ‘Hello, Miss Lonesome’ or any of the other numbers off this new record, they were all bursting with that voice. It’s unmistakeable and with his higher register Williams will be compared to Roy Orbison and the like. That is all well and good for his publicity machine, but his true worth has been displayed in the variety of work he can reproduce live.
His banter and ability to connect with the crowd shown through as he follows a timeless folk tradition. He made chit chat about New Zealand with the crowd, talked to people who were saying things to him at the front of stage and had great rapport with all. He introduced the rollicking ‘Trouble I’m In’ by telling the crowd he had written it when he was 17. He said the title sounds worse than it is as it was written about the angst he was feeling about an exam at the time.
His strength is truly about making a song his own, not always being the songwriter. His interpretations of others writings continued tonight, with his cover of Nina Simone’s ‘When I Was A Young Girl’, which ended the main set proper. Once again, as he did at the commencement of the show, everyone was almost silent, as he gave it his all. Following that was hard to do, but he invited the rest of the band and supporting act Laura Jean back on stage for one more cover, The Zombies, ‘Time Of The Season’.
Williams has charisma and talent beyond his years. Within this evening he went from a folk balladeer, a bluegrass trio, a soulful singer of dark ballads, a country and soul singer and a rock and roll band leader. His album may be a little disparate when you first listen to it, but it all becomes very clear live that this Williams is no one trick pony. Switching gears through a lengthy set and keeping the room attuned to your songs and your art is a skill and a gift. Williams is going to be walking those stages for some time to come. The season is just right for some Marlon Williams.
