Tales of an Amorphic Destiny

Jeff Martin – Swell, Kinsale

March 4th, 2007 at 08:01pm James

After having such a fantastic time in Bandon the night before, we knew we were in for another evening of great music as we drove north to Kinsale. This beautiful seaside town isn’t normally too busy outside of the tourist season, but there were plenty of music lovers out on this particular night to see Jeff Martin play at Swell, a local bar with a growing reputation for quality live music.

We saw a few familiar faces from the Bandon gig while we were waiting for the music to begin. We said hi to Mike and Julia, Jeff’s managers and Sarah, Mike’s sister – we’d last seen those guys in the early hours of the morning while we were drinking wine by the fire back in Bandon…

When Jeff finally came onstage is was to a big cheer from the audience. Being a music bar, quite a few of Swell’s patrons seemed to be familiar with his tunes and there was even a small contingent from Jeff’s homeland of Canada present.

With a crowd that was slightly more music-savvy, the set list at Swell included a few more songs from The Tea Party and solo album "Exile and the Kingdom". Even after the previous night’s performance it was still amazing to hear just how well songs like "White Water Siren" came together with just percussion, acoustic guitar and Jeff’s distinctive voice – a testament to his ability as a songwriter.

There were still a few choice covers squeezed in to the set though. We were once again treated to a stirring rendition of "Halleluja" dedicated to Jeff Buckley and judging from the huge applause afterward, tonight’s crowd were even more impressed than the folks in Bandon.

Later in the gig Jeff introduced the crowd to Sonny Greenwich Jr, whom he dubbed "The Mayor of Kinsale". Sonny is another Canadian ex-patriot, formerly of rock band Bootsauce and now a Kinsale resident. It was Sonny that organised tonight’s gig and so Jeff invited him onstage to jam, Sonny’s mandolin providing the perfect ingredient for an awesome rendition of Zeppelin’s "Going to California".

Black Snake Blues was once again a huge crowd pleaser, enriched this time by the Mandolin stylings of Sonny.  Those of you who were lucky enough to see the Tea Party live may remember Jeff sneaking "Paint it Black" into their live rendition of "Sister Awake". He seems to have a habit of doing this now and during Black Snake Blues he managed to segue into both "Man of Constant Sorrow" and "When the Levee Breaks". Those of you that aren’t bandwidth-challenged can enjoy this video I took from the bar in all it’s lo-fi goodness.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

A special mention must also go to Dave who was filling on percussion. Wayne Sheehy who we’d seen the previous night had commitments with his other band and so tonight Dave was, in his own words, "busking". Apparently he’d only gotten hold of a CD of Jeff’s tunes the weekend before, but he didn’t miss a beat.

After the show we stuck around and were lucky enough to see Jeff and Sunny do a couple more numbers "unplugged". It seems that Irish life is rubbing off on Jeff as he went for another U2 song, this time "One Love" and after that, believe it or not – "Stairway to Heaven"!

Everyone was having a great time, but alas all good things must come to an end and sadly it came time for last drinks at Swell. We’d been chatting with Sonny  while he wasn’t onstage and we ended up joining him, Jeff and a few other locals at the nearby flat of Darren, his friend and bandmate in Grimley Greenwich.

With so many musicians and a crate of cider in the one place, the night continued in the only way that could be expected. The jamming, singing and laughter went on well into the wee hours, a fitting end to what had been a very memorable weekend of music.

Entry Filed under: Europe, Gigs