A great night out
The Finn Collinson Band go down a storm at ACE Space
Finn Collinson Band, Anna Renae at ACE Space on Friday, April 8
YOUNG singer-songwriter Anna Renae delighted an appreciative audience with impeccable guitar work, powerful vocals and a largely original set, taken from her debut album Skin and followup EP Speaking Her Mind. From Skin, she opened with Alaska (inspired by seeing feature film Into the Wild), with the title track up next. At her father’s request Anna performed Fleetwood Mac classic the Go Your Own Way. Where to Belong told of places she has felt most at home, The Rain at Night described the cathartic experience of dancing in the rain and Speaking Her Mind concerned what we think but are too shy/slow to express. Another cover next; John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads, a song Anna liked due to her connection with Arkansas. Homeward Bound, a song about the joys of heading for home after time away was followed by The Blame, about a relationship gone wrong.
For her last song, we heard Loving You Silently, sung beautifully, accompanied by a string quartet backing track she composed. Somewhat overcome by the rapt audience calling for an encore, Anna gave us Drawing Love Hearts.
Heralded as “a folk recorder pioneer”, Finn Collinson is already recognised as a leading exponent of the instrument. His band comprised local virtuoso Emma Beach on oboes, Archie Churchill-Moss on accordion and guitar and Evan Carson on bodhran and percussion. Against the sound of waves, a rousing tune, The Ship That Never Returned, with Finn on guitar and Archie on accordion, was followed by a set of reels, the Time For Bed Set, which, despite the title, was energetic. The band slowed the tempo with Pool’s Hole, a baroque/folk tune based on an 18th-century Italian sonata.
On to Evie’s & Emma’s, with Finn and Emma playing instruments in a lower register, starting gently with drums and guitar coming in later. Aardvark followed, a bright tune named only because
Finn liked the word and featuring Emma on ‘shaky egg’. Jimmy Rankin’s Orangedale Whistle, told of the effects on a community of its railway station closing.
To close, the band returned to the baroque with a reworking of Purcell’s The Threshold, although I doubt Henry ever heard it played like this. It earned enthusiastic audience participation. The band got their deserved encore and Finn decided on the tune January Walk, claiming the band hadn’t rehearsed it, although from the quality of the playing you would never have thought so.