It is cold and wet outside but the Bluesbunny is ensconced in the warmth of the Liquid Ship. With a Guinness safely in hand, it is time once more for another Free Candy Session featuring tonight Shaking off Sloth, Claire Wood and The Cliftons.
First on tonight are Shaking off Sloth. The duo warm up with a couple of songs before launching into a bizarre choice of a cover version - "King of the Swingers" from the Jungle Book - complete with a yellow kazoo. It has been a long time since the Bluesbunny has seen a kazoo let alone heard one used in anger. Gary Hendry's vocals are not unlike those of Jim Diamond and it has to be said that their up-tempo songs like "Higher" and "Under the Influence" work best. They certainly have some decently commercial songs but being on first robbed them of what the following acts got - a full house.
It is certainly getting crowded now and getting to the bar is proving a bit problematic (but not insurmountable, of course!). Claire Wood is on next and this is her third time before the Bluesbunny. Our enjoyment of her previous performances had been marred by inadequate sound that obscured the subtleties of her performance but not tonight. Joined tonight in the more intimate surroundings of the Liquid Ship by Paul Tracey on guitar and Nicola West on cello, it is immediately clear that we are in the presence of a class act. The arrangements to her songs show great attention to detail and are performed with polish and style. She does a new song called "Our Latest Adventure" along with familiar ones like "Save Yourself and Go" and "Cut Me Out". Of particular merit were the hypnotic harmonies with Nicola West. Bluesbunny has a well kent fondness for harmonies and tonight's performance was ambrosia (that's the nectar of the gods and not the rice pudding by the way) to our ears. That was not just our opinion either as we noticed that no one nipped out for a cigarette while Ms Wood was singing. Like we said, Claire Wood is a class act. It is as simple as that.
Rounding things off for the evening are the Cliftons. Now, there are quite a few of them and it has to be said that getting 6 musicians into the Liquid Ship is a bit of a squeeze. Being observant, we notice that they have hijacked Paul Tracy from Claire Wood for tonight's performance as well. Pete MacDonald's voice has a pleasing, melodic quality - he does a nice line in self effacing humour too - and the band come across like a restrained version of the Yellow Bentines. It takes them a few songs to get into their stride but it is clear that their indie pop sound goes over well with the crowd and "Mother Nature's Way" and "Five Minutes" impress us too. A quick look at the demographic of the crowd is quite interesting as there is a large percentage of young women whose attention seems directed towards our Mr MacDonald and that surely bodes well for this band's potential for commercial success. They are at an early stage at their career but the promise is there and they will certainly be worth watching out for.
Tonight's result? Claire Wood wins by a length but the Bluesbunny will be following the career of the Cliftons with interest. It was also good to see tonight's Free Candy Session being so well attended despite the fact that it was a wet Tuesday night. The rain, however, did not deter this Bluesbunny from his chicken pakora on the way home.