No one could ever say Henry Wagons wasn’t born to be a star. From his early days as a confrontational agitator in Wagons, at some point he must have realised you catch more flies with honey, now giving off a best friend’s easy-going storytelling vibe, and peppering it all with Elvis circa ’77 stage moves. His songs keep getting better while the baritone remains as deep and decadent as if born from the depths of gothic hell. A sweet ode imploring couples to Give Things A Chance and not fight about parking spaces or who forgot to bring money (both issues torn from the headlines of my night) seamlessly followed a dark country hymn about lusting for Mary Magdeline. Joined at the end by co-vocalist Kelly Day and Caitlin Rose’s pedal steel player Seamus, Wagons ended on a sky-high note with Elvis’ Never Been To Spain and elicited reluctant crowd participation for Willie Nelson.
Caitlin Rose is a wildly different but no less transfixing performer. What she lacks in Wagons’ ability to end an anecdote succinctly she makes up for in treacle-coated vocal chords and an endearing awkwardness. The last tour saw her backed minimally by a guitarist and a pedal steel player, and she’s since added bass, keys and a fancy drummer in Kanye shades to the mix. Songs like No One To Call and Silver Sings do benefit from the rock treatment (her new guitarist is an absolute monster on the Telecaster), though I think I prefer things stripped down to the bare essentials. Rose also squeezed in a couple of covers-with-cool, nailing The National’s Pink Rabbits and Gene Clark’s She Darks The Sun solo and seamlessly back to back. Her vocal range covers all bases of the holy country Trio; from the throaty sass of Dolly before the enhancements, the fragility of Emmy Lou of the Gram era, to equal even Ronstadt’s power before the 80s put her in shoulder pads and diluted her appeal. She’s a bona fide southern mannered Americana country superstar who simply needs to hang around long enough to become a hall-of-famer, and I for one am thankful that she’s alive and making music.
BY NICK ROE
Picture by Tony Proudfoot
Loved: Slide galore.
Hated: The bass was a tad loud, taking up valuable aural space.
Drank: Hefeweizen x 10.
