Latest review from the Petunia and Godfrey UK tour

PETUNIA WITH NATHAN M GODFREY
GLENBUCHAT HALL
06 DECEMBER 2014

A sparsely-equipped stage greeted the audience filtering into Glenbuchat Hall. A stool with an instrumental mic before it, a front-of-stage vocal mic and little else. Soundman and gear-addict Graham Legge assured me that all was well, that this was what was requested and that the omni-directional Ear Trumpet Labs vocal mic would do everything asked of it. It took only moments from Petunia and Nathan?s unannounced stage entry to confirm that all was well and that Glenbuchat?s epicurean musical tastes would be well-satisfied.

?Bicycle Song?, with an elongated, lung-defying opening vocal note set the tone. Deliberately backed off from the PA, Petunia used the room?s own ambience to enhance his unique voice of incredible range, his unamplified guitar and kazoo, and Nathan M Godfrey?s resonator and mandolin.

Promising Glenbuchat ?some old-time, some new time? the lo-fi approach added intimacy and period authenticity to an evening which must be the nearest most will get to get to hearing how Hank Williams, his contemporaries and antecedents would have sounded live. Just to add further proof, glorious versions of Jimmie Rodgers?s ?California Blues? and Billy Hughes?s ?Cocaine Blues? were key moments of a first set that saw intense audience concentration and not a few jaws in the dropped position.

Petunia?s own material, however, was not overshadowed by that of his influences. The startling yodelling introduction to ?The Cricket Song?, a gentler but no less energetic ?Primitive Love? than the Inside Of You track and the same album?s ?Forgotten Melody? were testimony to Petunia?s own astonishing writing abilities.

Nathan M Godfrey is a perfect accompanist to Petunia?s own percussive strumming, with the sympathetic bottleneck lines of ?Cocaine Blues? particularly inventive and empathetic. His own short feature illustrated beautifully his personal blues sensibilities as he expertly interpreted Blind Blake?s ?In The Jailhouse Now? and Jellyroll Morton?s ?A Man Like You?. Taking his farewell of the stage to allow Godfrey the spotlight, Petunia added memorable flourishes to ?I?m Ragged But I?m Right? with shuffling dancing and an impromptu horn solo on the Glenbuchat kitchen kettle.

Although both dress impeccably, like two 1940s Southern gentlemen, this is no historical pastiche. Whilst the music may come from the late 19th century and the early blues, swing and jazz era, the message is still relevant and the self-penned material?s emotions do not date.

Petunia?s peroration to ?Inside Of You? put it best, ?...believe in yourselves, it?s the hardest thing you?ll ever have to do?. He and Nathan M Godfrey are working hard on it.
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