Barry Saunders & Delaney Davidson
26th May 2021
Pukehou Church, Pukehou, New Zealand.
Review by Rob Harbers, photography by Olivia Robertson.
TLDR: there’s great music coming to Small Halls in small towns across Hawkes Bay, and you owe it to yourself to catch them if you can!
After 8 years of hosting the Sitting Room Sessions, featuring a cavalcade of musical stars, both domestic and international, local hero Jamie Macphail is scaling up, taking the experience to more places and more people. This is the dawn of the Small Hall Session, where halls the length of Hawkes Bay play host to some of New Zealand’s finest musical talents, in small-format shows with no more than a hundred seats available, giving the chance to get up close and personal with the performers. Each season consists of five nights in succession in halls spread across the Bay, with the aim being for every one of the 63 halls to have been visited at least once over the next 12 months.
The series kicked off tonight in the Pukehou church, featuring Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders – a very appropriate pairing given that they first met in a church while soundchecking for a tour with Tami Neilson and Marlon Williams.
This was not the only apposite pairing of the night, given that it’s been Delaney who’s been pushing Jamie to pursue this dream of his – so who better to perform the opening season? The venue also represents, for Jamie, his turangawaewae, given the long association that he and his whanau have with the area – so where better to start this new chapter? And on what some may view as an auspicious night (super blood moons and all that), so the season-opener showed that there is much to look forward to in both this series and in future ones.
Barry Saunders is one of the forgotten heroes of New Zealand music, with his band The Warratahs having blazed a trail followed since by numerous others, one in which the genre loosely known as country music took on a distinctly New Zealand feel, creating something new in the process. Delaney Davidson is one of the inheritors of the mantle, carrying the spirit to a new generation. In their pairing Barry’s depth of experience is complemented by Delaney’s darker, edgier feel, creating something new and hugely worth pursuing. It was this duo that commenced the inaugural season, playing songs from both their collaborative efforts and from their own songbooks.
Among the set highlights were “Mind Reader” with its boom-chicka-boom sound strongly reminiscent of Johnny Cash, and his melding of country and rock-‘n’-roll elements. A song given its first outing tonight, “Yeah Yeah Yeah” had a dark and brooding feel, worthy of Leonard Cohen or Nick Cave.
“Happiness Is Near” is the probable title track for the next album, and gives a tantalizing glimpse of the delights to be found therein. “19 Days”, the first song written together by the pair, demonstrated what they could achieve together and thus an alliance was born! Leading in to a short intermission was “A Long Goodbye”, another song given its first airing tonight.
The second set commenced with “These Are The Days”, signalling a turn to generally darker material for this part of the show, with “Tumbledown” showing that the spirit of Neil Young is alive and well. The darker feel continued through “One Red Morning” and “Mean Streak”, coming to rest on set-closer “All Fall Down”, before an encore performance of “This Wheel’s On Fire”, dedicated to its writer in honour of his recent birthday.
All through the show what was clearly visible is the great kinship and mutual respect that flows between these players, setting up a dynamic interplay that was never less than gripping, and bodes well for the remainder of this short tour of the province. An absolute boomer of an opening for this new venture, which deserves all the support you can give it – it’s through supporting these shows that the dream will flourish. With 30-odd artists having expressed an interest in playing Small Hall Sessions, there’s certainly no shortage of talent available – it now comes down to audiences showing that the demand is there! Details on the rest of this season, and the two next ones scheduled, can be found on the website: smallhallsessions.co.nz. Check it out!
Were you there at the Pukehou Church for this special gig? Or have you seen Barry Saunders or Delaney Davidson perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Set List:
- Long Way Home
- Mind-reader
- Yeah Yeah Yeah
- Little Dollar
- Happiness is Near
- Brave Face (Barry solo)
- 19 Days
- Long Goodbye
- These are the Days
- Man of Few Words
- Tumbledown
- Don’t Walk away from love (Delaney solo)
- Word Gets Around
- Mean Streak
- One Red Morning
- All Fall Down
- This Wheel’s On Fire [encore]
Note: The Small Hall Sessions provided passes to Ambient Light to review and photograph this concert. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product using an affiliate link, Ambient Light will automatically receive a small commission at no cost to you.
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