NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
KRISTINA OLSEN &
PETER GRAYLING
Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling are
Dangerous at the King's Head
It's never a good idea to break up with a singer-songwriter -- you just might recognise yourself dangerously immortalised in a song! The California blues singer Kristina Olsen's third appearance with Peter Grayling, cellist from Australia, last Friday at the King's Head in Allendale brought out an enthusiastic, standing-room only crowd who were enthralled with the hauntingly realised humanity encapsulated in her songs.
It was an emotional roller-coaster of an evening, as Kristina skates on a fine line between bawdy commentary on life and revealingly emotive interludes that twist the listener's soul into knots. But with the counterpoint of Peter's cello playing a Greek chorus as the intimate revealer of innermost feelings, the combined effect was like being buffeted by a soft, tender, all-embracing storm.
'Draw a line' might have been the song the audience came to hear, and Kristina poised it three numbers into the first set, to capture her audience totally. Come the musicians, come the evocation, and 'Phoebe's Iceberg' was such an echo of softly keening reminiscence and loss of a tiny girl.
Or how about the firm and stout-hearted welly behind the 'Flying' song, where the long-suffering wife saves to gain her pilot's license? Or the multi-keyed 'Sweet William', as intriguing a piece of traditionally informed contemporary music as was ever written. You're up, you're down, maybe 'It's the kind of mood I'm in' that draws the next piece into touch and brings the audience together with the performers. Sings the cello, listen to the feeling, and sigh in recognition.
David Dodson may have written 'The Big Oh', but only one performer could do it justice, and Kristina's perfectly raw blues voice came on strong to close the set, while what Peter did on the cello can't really be described in a family newspaper.
Ten songs into the second set, and it was rapture, with snappy transitions from clever asides into exquisite lyrics, and impressionistic instrumentals, even before the final number, a paean to a real world without television. Anyone for tango? I'm certain Kristina made several converts to this expressive dance form, just by delivering a instrumental with Peter that brought the dance to disembodied life.
Then the encores started to pour out, in a heartfelt tribute of appreciation from the entertainers to the promoters, agents and audience for having launched the duo on their increasingly successful UK career. 'If I left you' moved on to the bitter humour of 'Don't do so well', and then 'Heart on the Hill', before the Tom Waits number, 'Broken bicycle' wrapped up the evening and left the audience finally satiated, carrying the music home with them by the CD boxload.
It seems entirely likely, on this form, that a larger venue will be needed for this duo's next appearance in Tynedale.
