Mouth of the Tyne Festival 6th July 2017

A pleasant surprise for a Friday night as unfortunately my daughter  Lani Hall was so full of cold she couldn't make use of her ticket for Laura Marling at The Mouth of the Tyne Festival. I'm not really aware of any of Laura's albums but you can never miss an opportunity for a live performance. So meeting up with Peter Hall we headed in to a less than full Tynemouth Priory. Definitely the most middle class audience I've been part of... think picnic hampers, prosecco and seats!

Three bands on the line-up, already on stage was Karen Elson apparently born in this country but now working out of Nashville, a pleasant enough voice but the country leanings didn't do it for me. Next up - King Creosote - who would have known the leader, one Kenny Anderson has some 40 plus releases to his name. With a distinctive gravelly voice this was an enjoyable performance although none of the songs played have stayed with me.

Having sampled some of the food on-site... if only I could remember what it was, we made our way forward for the Laura Marling set. Although I'd only briefly listened to a few tracks from current album Semper Femina there was a real buzz of anticipation as she came on stage. Her performance was pretty restrained but the quality of her song writing really shone through and even though I didn't particularly recognise any of the tracks she performed, it was a pretty good gig and drew appreciative applause from the crowd. All in all an enjoyable Friday evening Laura Marling has a lovely voice I could hear shades of Bonnie Raitt and even a bit Sheryl Crow. Will have to do a search on Spotify for some tunes!