Live Review: Sounds Of The South

4 June 2013 | 2:29 pm | Adam Wilding

Most in the crowd showed their gratitude by giving a standing ovation before the band returned to the stage for a slightly disjointed and unnecessary encore but overall, it was a very solid performance on the night with some amazing, amazing musicianship.

It was pleasing to see so many people braving the conditions to check the lights and other happenings of this year's annual Vivid festival and it was also nice to be reminded that some of the things in your own backyard are the things that those from other shores are still awed by and hold in high regard, as was the case when Phil Cook, one part of folk collective Sounds Of The South, declared halfway through the night words along the lines of 'holy shit, we're playing at the Opera House!' On a wet and blistery first night of two for the ensemble (made up of members of Megafaun, Bon Iver, The Be Good Tanyas and Fight The Big Bull), a packed crowd made their way into the concert hall for a set that featured the headliners only, along with every type of folk and blues instrument you could name, although they won the crowd over with the unplugged first song, which relied solely on an upright bass, banjo, four-part harmony and a couple of room mics. What then followed were many reinterpreted tunes from academic and folk music historian Alan Lomax's 1961 Sounds Of The South, an historical roadmap of traditional American folk and blues music, including some songs that were simply passed down through the generations which Lomax was able to orally archive.

The songs played on the night were treated by each of the 14 musicians (taking up the stage at any one time) with a reverence and respect normally reserved for hymns and other songs of praise, which was no surprise given that much of the music has its roots etched in Baptist or African American Gospel. However there was the occasional free-jazz, calypso, a cappella and sample music moment, the latter maybe alienating those there for the more traditional stuff. Among the highlights was Frazey Ford and Justin Vernon's versions of John Dudley's Cool Water Blues.

Most in the crowd showed their gratitude by giving a standing ovation before the band returned to the stage for a slightly disjointed and unnecessary encore but overall, it was a very solid performance on the night with some amazing, amazing musicianship.