CATHERINE BRITT - THE STUDIO - GEELONG - 28 JUNE 2008
 |
The
arrival of Newcastle nymph Catherine Britt in a studio above the local
Gaza Strip was a blessing in disguise for the Geelong gendarmes. Unlike the nearby discos, speed and dance clubs there was no need for body bags or ambulances to transport vanquished victims from the scene of the rhyme. There was a convoy of sorts of Utes parked in the shadows of a former cop shop and historic courthouse but no country clientele with non-transferable digs - a cell for the night. Britt's only osmosis into ecstasy was her hedonistic lyrics or accessible vocals when she dismissed her pick-up trio. And those moments were pure delight and sadly happened after Port Fairy folk fest booker Jamie McKew decamped when the singer opened with Janis Joplin's aching for a Mercedes Benz and a Guns and Roses cover. |
Having studiously
avoided traffic cops secreted in bushes in my drive north from a birthday
dinner at Jan Juc on the Surf Coast, I arrived as the singer performed
the title track of her third album Little Wildflower.
Song choice was not a problem in this stanza.
Poor Man's Pride - a blue-collar vignette penned with Texan Guy
Clark and Jerry Salley - segued into Lucinda Williams oft-recorded Change
The Locks.
Equally memorable was her powerful cover of the assertive anthemic Dirt
Cheap - penned by latter day chart topper Luke Bryan, Hilary Lindsey
and Dallas Davidson.
Britt delivered an anecdote about a song inspired by a friend named Jedd
- (was it Jedd Hughes?) who provided solace when she wanted to escape
Nashville and live a simple life back home.
But we didn't hear that song as band members seem to suffer an unlucky
dip as they flipped their sheet music to the wind.
Instead it was You Run - a tune penned with the late Bill Monroe's
daughter Ashley, 21, who also lost her Nashville deal after recording
an unreleased album with the title of Satisfied - that filled the
void.
She also reprised two-time Aussie tourist Patty Griffin's penchant for
red shoes from the title track of her 1998 Flaming Red disc.
But the peak may have been the singer's show stopping acoustic version
of Canadian tourist Fred Eaglesmith's epic Drive-In-Movie that
she has recorded twice.
The band returned for vitriolic eternal triangle tune Bruised -
introduced as a "song about an ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend."
Britt's final encore was her a capella version of her breakthrough hit
Hillbilly Pickin' Ramblin' Girl.
The song, like the show, seemed a tad too short - a good test of an audience
wanting more.
A desire rarely felt reaching back to the embryo of a 43-year stint reviewing
rock, jazz and blues concerts.
But, with Britt's rare invasions of the Deep South, this was a night to
recall.
A contrast to the sentiments of her new video hit What I Did Last Night.