Guests : Carrivick Sisters

30 April 2010

From the opening bars of their first number , “Darling Corey”, these amazing twins Charlotte - guitar; mandolin and banjo (with tea-towel muffler!) - and Laura ( Dobro slide-guitar and violin) catapulted us onto a joyride of prodigious musicianship ; pitch-perfect vocal harmonies and irresistible good humour. All delivered with a skill and aplomb astonishing for ones so young (21 , actually) .

Their sound is tinged with bluegrass throughout (think of Alyson Krauss’ band) and their programme includes plenty of self-penned songs plus traditional material material , and they have an interesting P.A. technique, singing and playing their instruments whilst leaning head-to-head towards a single omni-directional mic which produces a warm, intimate, acoustic sound.

There is an occasional loss of clarity of diction with this technique, but that is more than compensated for by the power of the overall effect. And they sure know how to decorate a mic stand ! Beauty; natural charm ; incredible talent : watch out world !

Review by : Brian Spencer