NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
Adrian Byron
Burns
Adrian Byron Burns at The King's Head,
Allendale
It took a bit of warming up, but in that special way that real friends are made, after we get to know each other, audience and Mr. Burns settled down to a fantastic set of brilliant running-along blues.
Frankly, the first short set was a composite of virtuosity that was just a bit difficult to get into. Adrian showed off his snappy guitar licks, and his swooping and diving voice, and his jazzy 'Summertime' carved out a whole territory for this Gershwin favourite. Some politics on the Jimmy Reid number, 'Big Boss Man' moved over to Smokey Robinson's 'Tracks of my Tears' which got the whole ennervating Burns treatment.
But I hoped that Adrian's own sparkling composition, 'Massah John', with its invitational refrain to 'Put your glad rags on' for the party, presaged a little more sustain, a bit more trackable melody, for the second half, and so it proved to be.
Swelled by a small horde of Swedish eco-tourists, the crowded room welcomed the big man back on stage. How about acoustic Hendrix? Moving steadily through the repertoire, even plucking out a line or two from the 'Stars and Stripes', but pausing now and then to 'excuse me while I kiss the sky', we were back into incredible virtuoso territory, which gave way to the fulsome standard 'Ain't no sunshine when she's gone'. It was just about this time that we all got to know each other real well, and realised we really wanted to be friends.
Enjoining the Carl Perkins number, 'You can do anything that you want to', it was time for a bit of swaying, and some more rapt attention during Adrian's own sweet 'Find me when you fall' -- a real standout number in the show.
A Beatles suite built around 'Let it Be' with a bit of 'Yesterday' and then a couple Neil Young numbers 'Only love can mend a broken heart' and 'When you dance' felt like golden melodies slipping through silvery syncopating fingers.
Jazz notes with 'Key to the Highway', and popular feelings with Sting's 'Every breath you take' brought us along to the place where old blues hang out 'Down to the crossroads', and finally it was another too short evening brilliantly realised, alive and amongst friends. Considering Adrian Byron Burns has just been voted UK Acoustic Performer of the Year by 'Blues Connection', it was certainly a great privilege to hear him, all the way from Leicester, in friendly Allendale.
