Erin Rae at The Grace

Erin Rae

Henry Grace

The Grace, 22 October 2026

I've been meaning to catch a solo Erin Rae show for ages, ever since I saw her open for Julia Jacklin back in 2022 in fact, and luckily for me she announced this headline show at the lovely and intimate venue, The Grace. It was something of a surprise as she hasn't had a new record out in a while but I'm so glad she did because, wow, was this a lovely show: she truly is a delight live!

It was a horribly stormy night and I arrived way too early for the show but luckily at The Grace there's a little downstairs bar you can wait in until the upstairs venue opens, which is nice. Once in the venue it was also nice to discover that the support act would be on early and, not only that, Erin Rae would be on early too, the dream!

The support act turned out to be British singer/songwriter Henry Grace, who I last saw a few months back supporting Jesse Sykes at The Lexington. Apparently he had been a last minute addition to the show, as Rae had only messaged him that morning and asked him if he wanted to open. He said he actually already had a ticket to the show, as he's a big fan of Rae's, and even offered it on social media to someone for free. In fact the guy next to me at the front even thanked him for it, so at least it went to a good home.

Grace looked a little more tired tonight, like he had just rolled out of bed but that could have been because the show was so unexpected or the fact that he's just done his first ever solo UK tour. He still reminded me a lot of Ray Lamontagne, with his raw, husky voice and Americana sound. 

Before singing Tennessee Dust he told us that it had ended up on some bluegrass playlists online and because of that he keeps getting offered country music and bluegrass festivals, which he says he's always grateful to play to people, but obviously was not a bluegrass artist overall. When he played the song though, it did sound like an old bluesy, country song and I have to say it was probably the highlight of the set, full of cool finger-picking and harmonica (although he admitted he wasn't a big fan of playing the harmonica and told us a story of meeting a Swedish harmonica expect who told him he had been performing with his harmonica holder upside down).

He said that he had an extended version of his second album, Things Are Moving All Around Me, coming out soon and ended his set with a new song from that, Picture Of Innocence, which he said was in an unfinished demo form on the record. Live it didn't sound unfinished, in fact it was one of the best songs he played tonight. 

The crowd wasn't very big when Grace played (he did talk about feeling funny that his name was Grace and he was playing The Grace!), but he definitely went down well and I had a feeling there were a few people there just for him. His songs feel quite world-weary and sad, but he also seems a quite charming and hard working musician.  He said it is too expensive for him to tour in America, which is a shame, as I'm sure there would be a welcoming audience for him there.

Erin Rae had been walking around the venue before the show chatting to people, looking like a 70s country star, in fact her outfit of denim jacket and a bandana worn as a head scarf looked like Dolly Parton's cool ensemble on the cover of her classic1977 album New Harvest... First Gathering. Still when she arrived on stage with a huge smile on her face she got an enthusiastic reception. 

First I just want to say, Rae is so, so pretty and she just seemed to glow the whole night, but even better than that, her voice is a thing of sheer beauty and it's something else to experience it in person, especially in such a lovely, intimate venue as this.

More soon about Rae's wonderful show.