Y’all come down to the Academy for a redneck party with a pounding rock
beat. Gretchen certainly rocked our world from the opening number, Homewrecker . Its bombastic rock sound buried Gretchen’s vocals beneath crashing guitar chords. Thankfully When It Rains, I Pour changed the pace with the sound man’s arrival enabling
us to hear the seven piece band including expert pedal steel from Gaylon Matthews.
Nineteen songs in seventy five minutes included all her four million Grammy
winning debut album, HERE FOR THE PARTY, released last year, its songs Redneck Woman
and Here for the Party played regularly by
Radio 2’s Nick Barraclough and Bob Harris. “Are you guys ready
to party?” Gretchen asked – “we certainly were. “We wanna go home and say London kicked ass”.
The band all wore metal security tags labelled “27” – if this was
a Prince gig there would no doubt be a cryptic reason why!
When I think about you cheatin, one of Gretchen’ s gorgeous ballads features heartfelt vocals from a lady who has clearly experienced
heartbreak. Holdin’ you and The Bed are two more, the latter we
are told is “the most well written country song ever”. It’s certainly in the tradition of the great Tammy/
George duets.
Several songs from the as yet unreleased new album (ALL JACKED UP) included
Politically
Uncorrect. The album version features
Merle Haggard on this song that was written about him. This anthem of the working
man is about a sinner who finally believes in blood and sweat above fools' gold.
Pocahontas Proud is a very personal
song. "At 15 I was tending Big O's bar. I'd sing till two AM for a half full tip jar."
Gretchen was raised in rural Pocahontas, Illinois, due east of St. Louis, an area of numerous trailer parks parked
among the cornfields and pig farms. She helpfully wiped sweat off guitarist Dean
Hall’s bald pate during his lead run.
Gretchen asked us "You know the Beach Boys song, California
Girls? – her band playing a few bars to our horror. “Well, this
isn't that song. The name of the song is California Girls, however” she explained.
Wilson's satirical song poked fun at west coast beauties with boob jobs name checking the likes of Paris Hilton.
Gretchen took a break to let guitarist and fellow Muzik Mafia member Dean Hall perform
Kick like a mule, a ferocious assault being the only way to describe his approach
to music. Muzik Mafia, a varied group of singers, songwriters and musicians originally
got together to jam (and party) every Tuesday in Nashville. T- shirts labelled
“Redneck woman in London” were thrown to the enthusiastic crowd, Gretchen seeking out the many females present.
Early influences included Dolly, Waylon and Loretta – a result of which was
the ideal cover version of “You ain’t woman enough”. Gretchen
may be a breath of fresh air on the Nashville scene but she can perform a classic song superbly. The lyrics go perfectly
well with Gretchen’s tough girl image.
A short heavy metal segment showed us the band’s bar room experience. Led Zeppelin’s
Rock & roll was trundled out for no apparent reason, as it was at LeAnn Rimes London gig last
year. “Who said rednecks can’t rock n roll?” said Gretchen,
her voice being much more suited to the powerful rock classic than her younger rival.
At last , we came to one of the two numbers we were all waiting for – the debut
single, "Redneck Woman. The crowd eagerly sang along to every word to
Gretchen’s obvious delight.
A two song encore included a superb interpretation of Good morning heartache, the Billie Holiday song from the new
album. Predictably, Here for the party
brought the two gig tour of Europe – the band had played in Dublin the previous night – to a close - hell yeah!
David Ogden
portrise@hotmail.com
