The Poozies, Voodoo Rooms

I've never bothered to watch BBC's The Voice, probably never will.  Talent shows just don't do it for me.  But I kind of followed  the competition last year, mostly through my Twitter timeline, because there was a contestant who, to me a least, was already far more famous than any of the judges.  (OK, maybe not Tom Jones, but the other lot.)  Sally Barker was a new name, I'd guess, to a lot of TV viewers, but definitely not in the folk world.

As a founding member of The Poozies she has been part of the best all woman folk group in Britain for most of the last twenty odd years (she had a break from membership for a few years).  No, scrub that, I'm underselling them.  The Poozies have been one of the greatest folk bands in Britain for a quarter of a century.  And tonight's performance did nothing to damage that reputation.

Whilst Barker's powerful, bluesy voice is a key element of the Poozies' vocal sound, she is backed up the others taking turns on lead vocals, and all four providing a stirring mix of harmonies, descants and, you know, other twiddly bits.

Musically most of the melodic workload is shared between Eilidh Shaw's fiddle and Mairearad Green's piano accordion, with much subtle interplay between the two.  Sally B provides some rocking guitar rhythms and a steady beat to underpin the fancy stuff.  But the key to the Poozies sound is Mary Macmaster on electro harp, which is an admirable substitute for a bass and also provides melodies, harmonies and, you know, twiddly bits.

The set mixed old and new material, songs and instrumentals, with old tunes given modern arrangements and new compositions made to seem timeless.  Plenty of foot tapping stuff and a few chorus songs to get the audience involved (including actions on one number....).  There are songs in gaelic, more in English and at least one, Small Things in the Cupboards, which provoked a few grins.  As did the band's intros, with all four taking the lead in talking to us out there, and all four proving amusing company, especially Eilidh.  The occasional mistake just provided further excuses for laughter, as did Ms Barker's talking handbag (you had to be there).

The gig ended with their fabulous a capella rendition of Pete Morton's moving anthem to hope, Another Train.  Which you can listen to here.  Enjoy.

After a couple more dates in Scotland the band are touring England for the rest of this month.  Well worth a night out.