After seeing 21 artists in three days last weekend, this week’s blog is a collection of six of the best from the Black Deer Americana Festival. Enjoy!

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Nashville – CMAT (2022) Main Stage Friday Afternoon

With the sun belting down on the Deer Park on the opening afternoon, the second act we caught turned out to be one of the performances of the weekend. Although it sounds like one of those duff Gen-Z acronym names (yes, I’m looking at you, Charlie XCX), CMAT is the stage name of Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson. She hails from Dublin and comes with a huge dollop of gobby Irish personality, injecting her love of country music with a glam pop sensibility that makes her stage performance a joy to watch. With her excellent band all in white, she was decked out in sky blue with red frills to match her hair and the obligatory cowgirl boots. There were hilarious dance routines and at one point she even did the splits at the front of the stage. She clearly enjoys what she does, quipping “I always wanted to be Tammy Wynette when I was a kid and I’m halfway there!” to loud cheers from the crowd. All this imagery would be fine but it’s her music that really lifts this into something special. Her 2022 debut LP was called If My Wife New I’d Be Dead – presumably the mis-spelling is intentional for maximum impact. With hook-laden tracks on there with titles like Every Bottle (Is My Boyfriend) and I Wanna Be A Cowboy Baby!, you’d be forgiven for thinking she is just another wannabe country singer. But she is much more than that as a listen to the brilliant pop of this equally country-titled track will show. The clever lyric has her telling all her friends she is doing that cliched move to Nashville but admitting to us listening that it’s a lie, so that if she never gets there, she won’t be let down. It was a live standout as she strummed her beautiful white Gretsch acoustic and put those Irish vocal chords to great use in the soaring ear-worm chorus which will be locked in your head after a couple of listens. Her lyrical wit also stands out on the great I Don’t Really Care For You single where she sings: “I spent seven hours looking at old pics of me/Trying to pinpoint where the bitch began/Somewhere after the Passion of Christ/And before I had Instagram”. She is an entertainer and not for nothing is her new single called Have Fun! She deserves to be a huge success if there is any justice in the world of music (which there probably isn’t).

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Head Home (Live) – Midlake (2023) Ridge Tent Stage Friday Evening

Not being a frequent festival attender, I had to learn how to deal with performance clashes on different stages the hard way. On Friday afternoon, I opted to miss the traditional/contemporary folk mix of Bonny Light Horseman for the squalling wall of very loud guitars performed by Kurt Vile and the Violators. Maybe not the right decision but seeing the one-time stoner wunderkid perform the amazing Walking On A Pretty Day using a Gibson acoustic which was channeled through a distortion pedal for the wailing, feedback-drenched solo at the end was the upside. It was incredible, as was the ringing in my ears some time after the end of the set. Later that same day, we chose to go for Main Stage headliner Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats over Midlake who were playing last in the Ridge Tent. It was a tough call and one I am happy to admit I got wrong. I know Midlake’s music so much better than Rateliff’s but had listened to quite a bit of his back catalogue in the run up to the event and convinced myself they would be the better live act. As it turned out, the much-vaunted, soulful horn-driven tunes were everything I had heard on his records. But, sadly, no more than that. They were very tight and polished but seemed to be playing with no edge whatsoever. The large crowd was respectful rather than rapturous and I kept hoping it would take off at some point and connect with the audience but it never really happened. We bailed out halfway through and dashed to the other stage where inevitably we found Midlake were playing a stormer of a set to a much smaller but highly appreciative crowd. Equally accomplished and tight, the difference was the band were playing on the edge, working their studio recordings for the stage. While their classic rock revivalist tendencies could have resulted in them veering towards noodling to some listeners, my ears considered they were careful never to let their extended outros get there. Their famed Laurel Canyon harmonies were spot on and I was particularly impressed by the drumming of McKenzie Smith on tracks like Bethel Woods and The Old And The Young, where his controlled snare rolls in the outro were amazing. I first heard the band through the inclusion of Head Home on a magazine covermount CD in 2006 when it’s parent album was released and they chose to finish with it on Friday. It’s the final track on their recently released Record Store Day album Live At The Roundhouse so it’s this longer live version that makes the playlist, flute opening and all! I’ll let you decide on the noodling…

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Just Like That – Bonnie Raitt (2022) Main Stage Saturday Evening

Saturday brought more sunshine and we had an enjoyable afternoon of very good, rootsy guitar based acts like Cardinal Black (for me, too many long solos), the Teskey Brothers (too many drawn out endings) and Calexico (absolutely spot on – no complaints!). I then dashed round to the tiny stage at Hayley’s Bar where the fabulous Ian Prowse left everything out there, as usual. After all these men, the early evening sun on the Main Stage was then graced with a true legend of Americana. Bonnie Raitt started out releasing her first record in 1971 and has followed this with a series of twenty roots albums blending blues, folk, rock and country. Although she writes songs, she is primarily known for her singing and guitar playing – she was the first female musician to receive a signature Fender guitar line. Her most successful record was 1989’s Nick Of Time and she has collaborated with the likes of Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and Little Feat. Beloved across the industry, she stood out like a true star with a warmth to her interaction with the crowd that was fully reciprocated. She really is an excellent guitar player and we were treated to several superb slide solos and crisp twang duels with her excellent six string stage partner Duke Levine. As you would expect, the rest of her band were brilliant too and when she lavished praise on them, it came from the heart. Like everything she does. She spoke lovingly of her close friend John Prine and her deep sadness at the legendary songwriter’s passing during the pandemic and we were treated to her definitive cover of his beautiful Angel of Montgomery. But it was this track from her 2022 LP of the same name which was the emotional lynch-pin of her set. She explained she had written it after she had read a newspaper story about a heart transplant patient surviving through an organ donation by a woman whose son who had died in an accident. The patient then contacted the woman to meet her and during that meeting let her hear her son’s heart beating in his chest so she could be with him again. An incredibly moving story which she had put words to but had been struggling to write the music for it. When Prine died, she said she was determined to channel him into her writing of the tune for this beautiful song. Not only did it win the 2022 Song Of The Year Grammy, but the hush over the huge crowd as she sang it that afternoon tells you she succeeded in every way. Pure class.

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4th Day Prayer – Allison Russell (2021) Ridge Tent Stage Saturday Evening

Prior to the stage schedule being released, we had Allison Russell down as a ‘must see’ from the line-up posters where she had a second top billing slot. As it turned out, she ended up going on the Ridge Tent Stage head to head with The Pretenders on the Main Stage. Having had the screw up the night before, we went with our gut instinct and were rewarded with a memorable first experience of this amazing French Canadian artist and activist. Up close and personal, the atmosphere in the tent was electric with an audience that had come to hear the music not talk to each other loudly while waiting for the hits. Russell is a product of her upbringing in an abusive family and she speaks eloquently and proudly of what drives her to write and perform. Having collaborated in bands with a host of other like minded musicians over the years, she has stepped forward to write her own music and lead her own band. Her ‘Rainbow Coalition’ sisterhood in the band were given loving introductions with two long term US collaborators on the bass and keyboards and two recent European recruits on the guitar and drums. All five of them sung on most tracks giving Russell’s fabulous voice a real depth of backing. As well as singing (and talking!), Russell occasionally plays the banjo and frequently reaches for that rarely sighted instrument, the clarinet, for her solos. I find it almost impossible to classify the sound they make – sometimes it is soul, sometimes it is blues, sometimes it is pop and sometimes they can wig out, particularly when the Korg Synth gets wound up. At all times, they are a joy to watch, full of positive energy and an emotion which sweeps you up. Russell’s 2021 debut record Outside Child was only created with the artistic support and commercial heft of Brandi Carlisle, who loved her work and got her a recording contract. It is full of great tunes (try Nightflyer and Persephone if you don’t believe me!) but it is this track played towards the end of the set that had the tent bouncing. There is a dim star remix of this tune here. During the set Russell performed tracks from her new LP including the title track The Returner which someone in the Black Deer audience filmed and there is a not too bad crowd video here. Our friends who had stayed for The Pretenders told us they were brilliant and I was sorry to have missed it. But this set by Alison Russell was a true “I was there” moment.

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Stripes – Brandy Clark (2014) Main Stage Sunday Afternoon

Apparently in her headliner slot on Saturday, Chrissie Hynde made some (ironic?) comment about there being too many bands led by women at the festival. To highlight this, Sunday had a high proportion of females in the centre of the stage and the afternoon offered up an excellent three in a row of Amanda Shires, Elles Bailey and Brandy Clark. I knew Shires from her role in Jason Isbell’s band, the 400 Unit, but she is clearly much more than that and proved to have a commanding presence on the Main Stage. She led her excellent band from the front, throwing in her trademark fiddle solos to a mix of tunes ranging from pure country through to rock. Great voice too. Talking of which, Elles Bailey was in the Ridge Tent next and proved to be a huge hit with the crowd swelled by the light rain falling outside. Her smokey blues voice and boundless energy saw her lead her tight band through some really classy Americana rock from her 2022 breakthrough record Shining In The Halflight. But it was when we were back out in the increasing drizzle that Brandy Clark lit up the Main Stage. Honing her craft for many years as a ‘Music Row’ songwriter in Nashville, she specialises in songs that explore the dark side of country music, often with black humour. Her decision to step into performance ten years ago is vindicated as, dressed in an amazing white Elvis-style flared suit and sporting a red shirt and shades, she really lifted the spirits of the crowd. Supported on guitar, drums and upright bass, she and the band delivered the full range of her back catalogue from the upbeat country pop of Northwest to the crowd-pleasing twang of Get High and Pray To Jesus – “there ain’t no genie and there ain’t no bottle/So we pray to Jesus and we play the lotto”. Drama was provided by the beautiful Hold My Hand and her recent duet with the other Brandi, Dear Insecurity. But the set concluded with this fan-favourite track telling a dark but humorous tale of a woman who decides not to murder her cheating lover as prison uniforms aren’t flattering. Yes, you read that right – the video is here in case you need convincing. It’s a brilliantly crafted song and anyone who can deliver a lyric like “There’s no crime of passion worth a crime of fashion” is worthy of your attention.

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Find Yourself – Lukas Nelson and POTR (2017) Main Stage Sunday Afternoon

As the chorus to the old Steve Earle song about subsistence farming in the dustbowl goes: “And the rain came down/it’ll wash you away and there’s never enough.” Well the weather really broke mid afternoon on Sunday and for those standing in the main arena the rain certainly came down and there was plenty, thank you very much. Earle chose not to play that song in his excellent rumbustious solo acoustic walk-through of the highs of his back catalogue. But we were treated to popular classics like Devil’s Right Hand and Copperhead Road as well as the beautiful Goodbye and My Old Friend The Blues. His emotional cover of his late son’s Harlem River Blues was a poignant highlight. Earle’s set was impacted by the end of the cloudburst but not as much as Lukas Nelson and Promise Of The Real who arrived on the Main Stage as the deluge began and continued throughout. As you’d expect from the son of country legend Willie, the boy Lukas just grabbed his guitar and kicked his fantastic band into action with a spellbinding set which cut right through the precipitation. One of my “must see” acts of the weekend, they did not disappoint. They were punchy and tight as they knocked out tune after tune of bluesy country rock and ballads with gritty style. Nelson’s guitar playing was exceptional and his stagecraft must be in the genes – stories were told and his witty knowing lyrics cut clean through an excellent mix from the sound desk. Not one to lean too heavily on his family connections, he did take time out to say how proud he was to be playing at his dad’s 90th birthday gig earlier this year and play a touching solo acoustic version of Willie’s Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground. But it was the songs from the band’s self titled 2017 album which stuck in the ears – numbers like Just Outside Of Austin, Four Letter Word, Die Alone and the fantastic Forget About Georgia which was delivered with real soul, befitting a song whose chorus namechecks Ray Charles. The one that makes it to the playlist is the wonderful loping beat of Find Yourself which had the drenched crowd singing the call and refrain chorus with Lukas as the rain thundered biblically down. After jamming with Lukas and the band at Farm Aid 2014, Neil Young borrowed the POTR musicians to record a couple of studio and live albums. They are that good!

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Last Word

In addition to the above rambling, I have created a page of photos of all the acts that we saw over the weekend which can be found using the menu in the top right corner of the page. They are generally pretty crappy zoomed iPhone shots but they give a sense of the whole shebang which was a great weekend.

And a further quick thanks to Fraser Maxwell for last week’s blog – I’ve just realised that Richard Hawley didn’t get a mention above – he and the band seemed slightly bemused to be at an American festival but they were brilliant, Fraser!

The Master Playlist has now had a Black Deer six pack boost and all your favourite tunes can be found at the usual link.

WeekInSoundMaster

AR