Alela Diane at St Giles Church
William Elliott Whitmore
St Giles In The Fields, 30 March 2009
After a lot of confusion about just what church we were going to (there are a lot of St Giles churches in London it seems and Ticketmaster had sent out an oh-so-helpful email directing everyone to wrong one!) I made it to St Giles In The Fields, which is the church just off Tin Pan Alley, in time to secure a place in the front pew. Good thing too because, unlike the Union Chapel, which seems tailor made for music as well as services, the stage is very low and I'm sure I would have had difficulty seeing otherwise.
First act is a bearded Iowan singer-songwriter called William Elliott Whitmore, who just released a great rootsy album called Animals In The Dark. He begins his set with an acapella number, his great, rich and raw voice booming across the church. It's a magnificent start and it just gets better when he picks up his banjo and starts finger-picking his way through blues-filled woman-done-me-wrong, riding-the-railroads numbers, the highlight being Hard Times, a song that wouldn't be out of place on a Seasick Steve album.
When Alela Diane Menig takes to the stage, dressed in office-appropriate white shirt and black skirt, she's so small and unassuming that at first barely anyone notices her there. But taking up her acoustic guitar and beginning to sing, her soaring, bittersweet voice echoes
around the church and the room turns to silence. She begins with a few numbers on her own but soon invites up her band, made up of backing singer Alina Hardin, the very rock looking Matt Bauer on bass, bearded drummer Benjamin Oak Goodman and Tom Menig - Alela's dad - on vocals and guitar ("he's pretty cool really" Alela tells us laughing, like we hadn't guessed already!). While the stark acoustic numbers recalled Alela's debut album The Pirates Gospel, it's a treat to hear her with a band, with stomping drums and banjo backing her folk-tingued tunes, more in keeping with the country-esque sound of her latest album, To Be Still.
The set is heavy with material from To Be Still but the jaw-dropping moment for me was a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Gold Dust Woman, which Alela and band took the song from its theatrical rock arena present to its more folky beginnings. It's easily the best ever cover I've heard of this classic Stevie Nicks song.
The band was once again shooed off for the show's few nods to her acclaimed debut album with a gorgeous rendition of The Rifle, a moving tribute to her family's women, Oh! My Mama, and, perhaps best of all, Tired Feet, which she tells us was inspired by a lonely trip to London where she, rather appropriately, would find solace in the city's many open churches. The minimal style of these acoustic numbers seem to suit the setting perfectly. She ends the set, full band back on stage, for an effectively slow-building take on the folk standard Matty Groves.
I met her afterward and got her to sign by ticket but was so entranced by the evening I forget to mention the Fleetwood Mac cover, which I had been aching to ask her about, but if a show takes you in another world that takes you a little while to return from, that can't be a bad thing can it?
Here's Alela, looking stunning with her new fringe (or bangs as they call them in the States), singing one of the new album's highlights, White As Diamonds, the day after the show I attended, on French TV (apparently France, very wisely, love her).
First act is a bearded Iowan singer-songwriter called William Elliott Whitmore, who just released a great rootsy album called Animals In The Dark. He begins his set with an acapella number, his great, rich and raw voice booming across the church. It's a magnificent start and it just gets better when he picks up his banjo and starts finger-picking his way through blues-filled woman-done-me-wrong, riding-the-railroads numbers, the highlight being Hard Times, a song that wouldn't be out of place on a Seasick Steve album.
When Alela Diane Menig takes to the stage, dressed in office-appropriate white shirt and black skirt, she's so small and unassuming that at first barely anyone notices her there. But taking up her acoustic guitar and beginning to sing, her soaring, bittersweet voice echoes
around the church and the room turns to silence. She begins with a few numbers on her own but soon invites up her band, made up of backing singer Alina Hardin, the very rock looking Matt Bauer on bass, bearded drummer Benjamin Oak Goodman and Tom Menig - Alela's dad - on vocals and guitar ("he's pretty cool really" Alela tells us laughing, like we hadn't guessed already!). While the stark acoustic numbers recalled Alela's debut album The Pirates Gospel, it's a treat to hear her with a band, with stomping drums and banjo backing her folk-tingued tunes, more in keeping with the country-esque sound of her latest album, To Be Still.The set is heavy with material from To Be Still but the jaw-dropping moment for me was a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Gold Dust Woman, which Alela and band took the song from its theatrical rock arena present to its more folky beginnings. It's easily the best ever cover I've heard of this classic Stevie Nicks song.
The band was once again shooed off for the show's few nods to her acclaimed debut album with a gorgeous rendition of The Rifle, a moving tribute to her family's women, Oh! My Mama, and, perhaps best of all, Tired Feet, which she tells us was inspired by a lonely trip to London where she, rather appropriately, would find solace in the city's many open churches. The minimal style of these acoustic numbers seem to suit the setting perfectly. She ends the set, full band back on stage, for an effectively slow-building take on the folk standard Matty Groves.
I met her afterward and got her to sign by ticket but was so entranced by the evening I forget to mention the Fleetwood Mac cover, which I had been aching to ask her about, but if a show takes you in another world that takes you a little while to return from, that can't be a bad thing can it?
Here's Alela, looking stunning with her new fringe (or bangs as they call them in the States), singing one of the new album's highlights, White As Diamonds, the day after the show I attended, on French TV (apparently France, very wisely, love her).
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