Anna B Savage has moved on considerably since last seen at Cafe Oto in June 2015, supporting Jenny Hval. That memorable solo acoustic performance made an impact with the powerful, reverberating quality of her voice and the incision of her songwriting, which I noted on London Jazz News – link below.
As fortune would have it, the set was captured and issued on vinyl, Live at Cafe Oto, to set the tone for what was to follow, albeit with a 5 year hiatus before Savage rediscovered her songwriting mojo and, with William Doyle as producer, City Slang issued A Common Turn, the first of her impressive three albums to date.
At the Union Chapel, on the final night of her sell-out UK tour, Savage drew on all three with the most recent, You and I are Earth as the main focus of her finely honed set, inset with moments of cheerful spontaneity, in dialogue with her audience and her musicians.
With Savage singing and switching between acoustic and electric guitars, her highly versatile touring band, the trio of drummer Joe Taylor, Peter Darlington on electric bass and Genevieve Dawson on keyboards and guitars, coalesced to bring a brightly uplifting feel to Savage’s repertoire. With impressively balanced sound in the lofty, architecturally imposing Union Chapel, they expanded the musical space to build a sensitive timbre around Savage’s deeply personal songs, elevated by the natural fall of her vocal range.
They were boosted on a couple of pacy numbers by songwriter Cubzoa (aka Jack Wolter) taking up a mean, power guitar and whose enchanting solo set had opened the concert with his high-pitched vocal style reminiscent of early Neil Young.
After the years in the wilderness, grappling with self-doubt and inner and relational challenges, Savage emerged with renewed strength which played out on-stage with a combination of a wicked, self-effacing sense of humour and an emotional connection with her audience. ‘Ask me a question,’ and they flew in from all over the venue. Asked ‘What’s the best gig you went to?’ She said that seeing songwriter / violinist Owen Pallett in a small club in Manchester changed her life.
Savage’s songs chart her personal journey through relationships, through a time when being single was best for her, and now to Ireland where she is based and has found love, as she happily announced. Her new album, You and I are Earth, ‘A love letter to a man and to Ireland’, blends her personal life with the sea, the coast and the landscapes of Donegal. In Talk To Me she resonantly sang, ‘When I cry I taste like the sea.’
Playing the Union Chapel was a ‘bucket list’ dream for Savage, sharing that she was close to tears of emotion just being there. In an interview she had said, ‘I cry three times a day’ and digging to the core of her practice, ‘I think there’s such power in gentleness, and there’s such power in being sensitive and being vulnerable.’
Her openness and engagement combined with her vocal poise and the exquisite musical arrangements of her band made this a night to remember.
Anna B Savage has dates in Ireland, then the US and Canada in May.
