MUSIC
Jeff Tweedy
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
JJJJ
“THIS is one of the most subdued gigs I’ve played in this part of the world,” mused Jeff Tweedy midway through this show. “Last time one of the quietest songs I played erupted into a fistfight. But that was in Glasgow...” Fans who hadn’t been appraised of the revered alt. country musician’s new touring incarnation may have been thinking the same thing. Following on from last year’s debut solo album Together At Last, his current tour is so stripped back it just features Tweedy and an acoustic guitar.
If the Queen’s Hall was subdued, however, the air was more one of reverence than boredom. To say Tweedy is a de but solo artist is to play down a vigorously productive career – in nearly three decades he’s released nearly 30 albums with his bands Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Golden Smog and Loose Fur, been involved with collaborators including Mavis Staples and his son Spencer, and his following are passionate and loyal. Fifty years-old, with long greying hair buried under a cowboy hat, he appeared an unlikely figure for such adoration,until he opened his mouth and sang.
Bearing a unique combination of rawness and delicacy, Tweedy’s gorgeous voice shepherded us through highlights from his catalogue, from the fluttering riff of Born Alone to the plaintive honesty of I’m the Man Who Loves You, the bittersweet melancholy of Misunderstood and the low-key closer A Shot in the Arm.
In an extraordinarily intimate environment, he fielded requests, spoke of his friendship with Bellshill’s Teenage Fanclub and finally watched one over-enthusiastic fan start a battle with the bouncers at the back of the hall. He rolled his eyes, laughed and said “the night feels complete now”.
DAVID POLLOCK