Seth Lakeman / Baskery

Tonight is another return to Exeter's biggest venue for local hero Seth Lakeman, and he turns in an impassioned performance that ends with an incredible show of appreciation from the crowd.

Dartmoor's most popular son is the second of the two acts on in this damp dark Sunday night. Before his appearance on the high main stage, regaled with more wedges of speakers than surely is necessary, three Swedish sisters entertain us.

Stockholm's Baskery deliver country harmonies, starting with gentle rhythms and slowly build to a frenetic high voltage climax. The trio of pretty girls play banjo, double bass and acoustic guitar. Their songs include a song about working in a music store back home in Stockholm, 'Here To Pay My Dues' with the banjo player playing a drum kit barefoot, the songs develop from gentle country into something more spiky and punky.



I'm less keen on the Valkyrie hollering, but the breathy bluegrass is pleasant and it makes a change to have three attractive ladies singing rather than old bearded country folk. They're engaging taking it in turns to tell us about themselves, they love English pubs, they've been over here almost four weeks, there's talk of ponies. Each time they mention Seth the crowd cheers, there's a lot of fans in the crowd.

The half dozen or so songs are completed with 'One Horse Down' and 'Haunt You' which is coincidentally the same title as one of Seth's songs (cheer) but not the same song, they wrote it four year's ago. The slap bass and driving rhythm get the crowd clapping along. On this first occasion, my assessment is that they are accomplished enough, but there was nothing there that truly shone, or memorable . Whilst clearly being capable of multi-instrumentation, with banjo, harmonica, and drums all being played at once, there were no melodic hooks, catchy lyrics, or hooks left embedded after they left the stage.

Violinist, guitarist, and songwriter Seth Lakeman on the other hand has all this and more. The stage is black for his arrival, a storm blows through the speakers, strobe lightning flashes and purple light waves crash as he steps onto the stage. A surge of applause greets 'The Storm'.



The troubadour has three albums under his belt, and a well assembled band of musicians, including brother Sean on guitar and various bizarre looking stringed instruments, big Ben Nichols sitting on a glowing vase and playing double bass, and a stand in drummer Simon Lee, who actually does a great job in Andy Tween's shoes.

It's when Seth reaches for his fiddle, that a cheer rips from the crowd, and suddenly the gig becomes something more, he drives through his set delivering an hour of material before the encore, and every song is well constructed, the tempo rises and falls, songs when introduced whether by word or note garnish huge cheers.

Tonight Seth is raising money for the RNLI, they arrived with their buckets out of the mist while we waited in the queue, and the local psyche comes together for 'Solomon Browne' the tale of the nearby Penlee Lifeboat Disaster, that dominated the local television in 1981 and from then on the 31 year old ups the tempo and the crowd are fully behind him.

The band leave and Seth delivers 'Lady Of The Sea (Hear Her Calling)' solo, with just his plank (to stomp on) and fiddle, and adoring audience, for company. Despite the stripped back delivery there's a rocked up feel and the vibe is channelled energy.

The song draws huge applause, and the upbeat intensity has both young and old (and there's a huge mix from young kids to rather frail looking old ladies) are appreciative of this power deftly delivered by Seth's voice and the band, who are back in full swing.

The traditional styled folk tales are woven with a more indie rock format to deliver songs that could, and should sit in the charts. They drip history, a personal history of this land, local lad Steve Knightly's name is dropped by Seth before 'I Haunt You' and the resultant exaltation for the crowd makes it clear this is not so much a university crowd, but a gathering of Seth's local fans, either that or the current crop of learned students are well versed in folk.



From 'Take No Rogues' the whole of the front third of the crowd are swaying and the rest are captivated, even those in the tiered seating upstairs look animated in the light projections spilling from the stage. 'Blood Upon The Copper' turns into a Westcountry hoedown and Seth has created a folk mosh pit!

Final number, the title track from the Mercury Prize-nominated album 'Kitty Jay', has the stage in blackout, there's just a beat and a clap along as on to the fiddle, by the end the crowd above are on their feet, and it's fully minutes before the applause dies away.

Seth returns for the encore with just his guitar, to deliver three more songs, and by the last 'Race To Be King' he has the whole crowd, all of them, clapping along.

Homecoming gigs are bound to be more highly charged, and I do wonder if Seth's shows on this tour will all have the same impact. The Dartmoor musician has something special, he's added more depth, the band are less hurried, the set close on an hour and a half, and the overall effect is quite simply stunning.

Setlist:
The Storm
The Hurlers
King & Country
Blood Red Sky
Solomon Browne
The Riflemen Of War
Lady Of The Sea (Hear Her Calling)
Greed And Gold
Crimson Dawn
Haunt You
How Much
Take No Rogues
The Colliers
Blood Upon The Copper
Poor Man's Heaven
Kitty Jay
Ye Mariners

Encore:
Send Yourself Away
Setting Of The Sun
Race To Be King

FUTURE GIGS