Music > Live Reviews

SJ and the Flying Pigs

The Guildhall

12/01/17

Norwich's historic grade-II listed Guildhall building has stood overlooking Norwich market for over  600 years, yet has only hosted live music events since June last year, when Grapevine for Music and Café Britannia hosted their first acoustic collaboration. Tonight, just as the rest of us have finished stowing away our Christmas decorations for another year, Steve Howlett and the Grapevine gang have decked out the historic courtroom with fairy lights for their first soirée of 2017, and a lively audience have packed out most of the tables, as well as the upstairs gallery.

The Revelation Brothers, Jake and Jack (who are not actually brothers), open proceedings. If you haven't heard these boys before you may well be expecting a Norfolk incarnation of  The Proclaimers or Mumford and Sons. What you get, though, is something very different. Don't be fooled by either the banjo or the glasses. Beneath their clean-cut appearance, the authentic bluegrass sound and the tight vocal harmonies, lurks the spirit of youthful rebellion recalling the punk and grunge heroes of their past. Their songs tackle subjects relevant to their generation, and they are not afraid to reference smoking and heavy drinking, or throw in the occasional f-word where appropriate. Everybody Knows, Empire, and the reflective Uncouth Youth, show that this duo owe more to Gram Parsons and MacGowan than Mumford or Reid. And I owe them a debt of gratitude for introducing me to the work of Pat The Bunny Schneeweiss, whose Never Coming Home (Song for The Guilty) is the only cover in their set tonight.

The curiously and intriguingly named Howtocuredyslexia Band, turns out to be one man called Dave, dressed in jeans and blue padded jacket, unassuming in appearance and clutching an acoustic guitar. But from the very first lines of his opening song, a lazy blues-jazz number with laconically strummed chords, and which introduces the words 'fornicators', 'drug-takers' and 'masturbaters' into the very first verse, we know we are listening to something rather special. His songs possess a surreal imagery – I Never Thought She Would Be Missed concerns a lepidopterist entering a creepy-crawly hell, and there are strong melodies that suggest flashbacks to Donovan, Syd Barrett and Simon & Garfunkel. The voice is wistful, yet spellbinding enough to hold the rapt attention of the entire room. And yet Submarine, Sweet As Jam and We Meet When Something Happens To Jesus all  blend wry observation and clever lyrics with cutting social comment. He even throws a Chas and Dave cover into the mix and it emerges coated with poignancy. One of the most original talents that I have heard in a long time.

SJ & The Flying Pigs are Cambridge based country vocalist SJ (Sarah Jane) Mortimer and her band of fellow musicians named after Cambridge's Flying Pig pub in Cambridge's Hills Road. As all members of The Flying Pigs also play in other bands the lineup will vary in number, but tonight included Keiran Morgan (of Morganway) on banjo, Nicky Terry on violin and Ian Griffith on cajon.

One of the band's first appearances together was at Norwich Arts Centre last year, when SJ (appearing as SJ Mortimer) played alongside Liberty Popey, Morganway, and Addison's Uncle. She was impressive then, and did not disappoint tonight.

Tracks from SJ's Nashville Sessions album are mixed in with newer band tracks, including Play The Game and Heartbeat Faster (both co-written with Morgan), and the spirited (in more ways than one) Fireball, named after a popular Tennessee whiskey. She includes a cover of Ed Sheeran's I See Fire, from the soundtrack of The Hobbit, which is given a beguiling country treatment, and finishes the set with a stirring rendition of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.

It may appear lazy for me to draw comparisons with Fleetwood Mac, but the West-Coast influences are definitely there to hear, and if I do, I do so in the most complementary way possible. SJ has a fine voice, is a great songwriter, and has assembled a talented band around her. By sticking to the country path, and by using banjo and violin to maximum effect, SJ & The Flying Pigs still manage to sound both fresh and authentic, and will gain fans and friends amongst lovers of both folk and country genres, and of original home-grown music.