Early Saturday afternoon, and the Corn Exchange is already
busy. During the following hours around
800 fans will fill the place up for the inaugural Edinburgh Blues’N’Rock
Festival – a successful first outing, which will hopefully be built on in years
to come.
So to begin at – well, the middle, at around 6pm as the Bernie
Marsden Band take the stage. Right away Bernie and co set about delivering the goods to
an audience whose appetite has been whetted by the four acts that shaped the
afternoon. Kicking off with ‘Linin’
Track’ from his 2014 album Shine,
with its opening gospel feel slipping into something more heavy, and sidekick
Jim Kirkpatrick weighing in with spot on slide guitar, Bernie swiftly has a crowd gathering at the front of the stage.
 |
| Bernie Marsden - gertcha! |
They limber up a bit more with the Santana-ish instrumental
‘Strictly Latino’, with locked in guitar harmonies between Marsden and
Kirkpatrick, before getting down to business with a selection of Marsden solo
efforts, blues classics, and the big hits from his heyday with the pre-1987
(and best) formulations of Whitesnake.
Albert King’s oft-covered ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’ is a
decent showcase for Marsden’s vocals. He
may not have the resonance or the range to be a top-drawer blues bawler, but
then neither did Albert King. He’s
earthy enough, with strong phrasing, and has developed a bit of a blues growl into the bargain. On this, Fleetwood
Mac’s ‘Oh Well’, and ‘Sitting On Top Of The World’ – popularised by Howlin’
Wolf, but going way back to the Mississippi Sheiks and probably beyond – it’s evident that Marsden
is as familiar with such blues mainstays as he is with his own backyard.
Shine also
supplies ‘Kinda Wish You Would’, a short and sweet slice of boogie that works
as a neat curtain-raiser to the hits Marsden contributed to Whitesnake.
Marsden can’t quite emulate David Coverdale’s vocal on ‘Fool
For Your Loving’, but it really doesn’t matter.
It’s a classic riff from a musician who really is in the major
league. ‘Ain’t No Love (In The Heart Of
The City)’ is a truncated version of the Bobby Bland original because, as
Marsden has famously admitted, he overlooked a verse when he taught it to his Whitesnake bandmates. But it’s still a
crowd-pleaser, and he supplements it with a chunk of ‘Thrill Is Gone’ for good
measure.
‘Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues’ is one of my all-time
favourite blues-rock tracks, and after a teasing intro it lives up to that
billing here. If I have one regret, it’s
that it isn’t given its own moment of acclaim, but slides into ‘Here I Go
Again’. Marsden knows how to work the
crowd with it, as they bawl out the chorus, and he adds an upbeat, high revving
coda to round it out.
‘Walkin’ By Myself’, in the manner of Marsden’s old pal Gary
Moore, rounds out proceedings. With old
Whitesnake compadre Neil Murray on bass (a chant of “One Neil Murray" starts up
at one point) and Micky Butler on drums Marsden has a suitably substantial
rhythm section, and Jim Kirkpatrick’s guitar and backing vocal contributions
suggest that Bernie has also found a foil to rival Micky Moody. The only thing that’s missing is the gutsy
sound of a Hammond B3 organ – but who could step into those shoes?
More reviews from the Edinburgh Blues’N’Rock Festival to
follow . . . !
No comments:
Post a Comment