Live Review: Timothy Carroll w/ McKisko + Kate Jacobsen @ The Troubadour 19 July 2009

Artists: Timothy Carroll, McKisko, Kate Jacobsen @ The Troubadour, Brisbane
Author: Stephen Goodwin

[Click image to view photo gallery]
Timothy Carroll
[Photo: Stephen Goodwin]
  About three songs into a typically inveigling set of back-porch country tunes, a perfect cocktail of illness, alcohol and painkillers prompts Kate Jacobsen to artlessly observe that her strum patterns all seem to be the same.

There’s an underlying hint of truth, yet it matters not a whit as an appreciative audience laps up Cane Farmer’s Daughter, Kiss Me Gently, Don’t Believe In Jesus and couple of new tunes as well.

Some things are greater than the sum of their individual parts — and Jacobsen’s plain-speaking fretwork, achingly sweet voice and poignant lyrics illustrate that in spades.

Folk-minimalist McKisko (aka Helen Franzmann) performs only eight songs. But what breathtaking advertisements for her talent.

Eight times she fashions delicate sculptures of sound that resonate in the mind long after she’s departed the stage. Eight times she faultlessly balances mere ounces of percussion against gossamer-thin cascades of piano or guitar with adroit use of the loops pedal and an intuitive sense for delay, sustain and the musicality of silence. And eight times she fills that sparse, sonic framework with her stark, ever-so-slightly-fractured voice — raw, emotive and glorious.

Who said eight was enough? Totally wrong on this occasion.

Guitar lead problems as Timothy Carroll opens with Something Else prove the perfect ice-breaker for the local troubadour. The capacity crowd is amused when he initially neglects to plug in the replacement, but they’re equally impressed by the faultless re-run of the wryly sweet break-up duet he performs with Jacobsen.

The warm, generous applause at the conclusion is like an omen, and the wave of goodwill from the partisan crowd buoys Carroll as he profiles some prime cuts from debut album For Bread & Circuses.

A striking acoustic rendition of Low classic When I Go Deaf full of chiming 12-string segues into keyboard-and-accordian love-ballad To Frozen Lakes, before Carroll invites long-standing collaborator Corinna Scanlon to showcase one of her own tunes.

The moment prompts renewed appreciation that, as well as possessing a deft touch for confessional lyrics and a beguiling, world-weary voice to match, Carroll has drawn together some of Brisbane’s finest talents.

Thus songs such as Under The Blackwoods, Forgotten Tongues and Song For The Darling shine even brighter for the warbling clarinet of Doch’s Bec Craner and Andy Donald’s gentle keys. And when Scanlon returns to share vocal duties for ukelele gambling-blues-ballad Sad Man the night it’s like we’ve come full circle.


Related:
Photo Gallery: Timothy Carroll w/ McKisko + Kate Jacobsen @ The Troubadour 19 July 2009
Sunday Selection: Texas Tea : 14 June 2009
Photo Gallery: Timothy Carroll + Jacob S Harris @ The Powerhouse, Brisbane 24 May 2009
Photo Gallery: McKisko + Scott Spark @ The Powerhouse, Brisbane 10 May 2009
Mélanie Pain @ The Zoo, Brisbane with McKisko : 17 March 2009 : Photo Galleries