One woman and a guitar. Hardly an uncommon sight in the basement bars and clubs of Glasgow. One woman and a guitar who leaves songs stuck in your mind is rather less common. Such a woman was Lorraine McCauley. Perhaps it was her celtic blood - she hails originally from Donegal - or maybe the delicate nuances of her voice but she gave something spiritual and uplifting to her audience. In one of her songs, she sings "…open your arms and I'll fall right in". I looked down and my arms were outstretched.
A rather different kettle of fish was Karmadillo. Well, actually it was one third of Karmadillo - the one called Rishi. He had this strange instrument called charango which looked like a ukulele on steroids on which he battered out the kind of humorous songs that would find a perfect home at the Edinburgh Festival. That said, those politely clever songs also had a tendency to go half demented without warning so he would probably scare the shandy drinking east coasters. The one called Rishi also tried to sell not only albums but also tea towels to the audience. Tea towels to a Glasgow audience? Now that deserves respect.
Lovers Turn to Monsters is a quite impressive name for a band and an even more impressive name for a band that has only one member called Kyle. It seems that member number two is actually a drum machine but said drum machine is out on strike. Struggling on regardless, his fragile voice stretched itself around a set of songs whose lyrical content belied his tender years. He's not really into happy songs but what he writes rings true. I like that kind of thing.
Jocky Venkataraman rounds things off for the evening. He decides on doing a few new songs. Donning his reading glasses, he covers the gaps in his fractured set with self deprecating humour. The end result was something like you'd expect of an angry young man with a Squeeze fixation. Dry humour, grumpiness and a laidback approach make for an interesting cocktail. Yes they do.