Shelter. Not only a fine name for a charity but also what you need when summer arrives in Glasgow. The rain, it doth truly fall upon the streets of this no mean city. Just the thing to impress visitors like Hope Hoffman and Mark Cool.
Another visit to the well established night like the Free Candy Sessions in the Liquid Ship was on the cards. That or get wet on the outside (and that’s never a good idea). The aforementioned Mark Cool is on the stage and shows that curiously American level of confidence. His songs twist in an oblique and dark way but he makes it all look so easy. Must be the way they do it in North Carolina. He invites fellow visitor Hope Hoffman – she’s from Maine – to the stage to add her fiddle. Much in the way of relaxed musicianship follows (commonly referred to as a jam session, I believe).
Hope Hoffman then does a solo set split between jigs on that fiddle and interludes of delicate yet affecting acapella vocals. A charming performer, she seems so nice and normal. Not like a musician at all. I hear her voice even now.