My photo gimp is still locked in the dungeon after the Mr Lif gig photo debacle, so yours truly took this. As you can see Keith is both clearly visible and prominent in the picture. Both key elements when taking a picture of the artist I feel.
KEITH CHRISTMAS: Litton Old Down Acoustic Club - 6 December
"Hey Monkeyboxing!..[you might exclaim].. This isn't soul, funk, hip-hop or even one of your occasional forays into the world of rock!" And my response would be "You're fuckin A! I like to get my 'folk'-blues on when Keith is playing goddamit!" Mind you, in this case, 'getting my folk-blues on' entailed an undercover night mission to a hidden pub in darkest Somerset. And how they must not like strangers (i.e. anyone from the next village or further away) there, as the signpost to Litton from the main road was one of those non-reflective 1950s efforts that requires good eyesight even to see, let alone read, in broad daylight. When I eventually made it to the club, I had to pull my hat well down and edge through more Gandalf look-alikes than you could shake a stick at, hiding nervously behind a pint of bitter. Tonight Keith was showcasing the blinding LP Light of the Dawn that I reviewed on this blog in July. First track up was title track of the LP followed by the haunting ghost story of She Came to Me. Keith is a hugely versatile guitar player (you'd expect nothing less from a man who played on Bowie's Space Oddity and who has toured with - among others - The Who and Frank Zappa). It is mind-boggling to see him retune both the guitars that he has on the go during this gig to a different key virtually every song. One guitar is used for acoustic picking on the slower numbers - the other to crack out fast slide guitar that even Ben Harper would be jealous of - like on next track Heart, Soul, Body and Mind. At one point a table is vacated near the front as if the occupants aren't into the music. Keith seems a little phased by this (as well he might - since his performance is blistering) although there is an even chance it is just the disgusting curtains providing a backdrop to the stage that made him feel somewhat queasy. And if you think I'm joking about the curtains you can kind of see them in the pic above - in fact, now I think about it - the combination of both curtains and the distinctly non-atmospheric glaring stage-lighting might have been the cause of the couple leaving in the first place. Contrary to many performances I've been audience to, Keith's voice live is more impressive than on recordings, displaying a depth and range that wasn't always apparent on his LP. Overall, the set is an hour long (it seems that special arrangements were made to allow Keith longer than your average acoustic guitar slinger) and he manages to squeeze in a couple of new numbers - which will appear on the next LP, one is another picked acoustic track, the other a furious speed-slide rant against people with more power than sense - step up leaders of the western world. I'd love to have stayed for Keith's encore but for this I would have had to sit through an hour of acoustic open-mic performers and - because I'm just not that hardcore - I decided at this juncture to beat a retreat.
Listen to Keith Christmas
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