Becky the Bullet opened with her fast, nay frantic, set of originals and a few covers.
She’s come over from Cardigan before and her final song about her local pub and local people sounds a bit like ours. Often Blues but not my-woman-done-me-wrong blues. Good to hear Dusty Springfield’s ‘Spooky’ covered and who doesn’t like a bit of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’. https://linktr.ee/beckythebullet
Arthur Buezo appears pretty much as his posters and merch might suggest: hat, drum and banjo/guitar are what you see. He is a one-man band with the right leg on bass drum, the left on tambourine and both hands gripping the stringed instruments. All of which is enhanced by use of looper and even bespoke effects pedals to his acoustic instruments.
He played through 17 numbers without break. This is what he calls ‘Savage Folk’, born of his migration from the Appalachians to Oregon where he has some land and a solar powered studio in an old shipping container. On his travels he’s picked up many styles, meaning he bends and blurs genres from classical to Mexican into the blues making for an eclectic Americana.
Check out his website https://arthurbuezo.com and social media for these and others from his set list.
The first half of guitar-based songs:
Cold River
Tried and True
Way out West
Through the Night
Down in the Cut – an instrumental
Let’s get it on – not Marvin Gaye but very Appalachia
A Metal pedal improv
Valhalla Corruption at Cabaret (Segovia name checked as an influence)
Then switching to banjo for the second half:
Mazunte (written in that Mexican town, another instrumental)
Horseshoe Lead
Let me learn to hate you (A true story he says, a love-song!)
A Whim and wave (He’d never played this one live before)
Silent Eye
Let it go
Rip Open the Earth (I got a steel band vibe here)
He closed with an encore, his only cover I believe, of Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life. This triggered some audience participation. Space allowed for little dancing, but his percussive rhythms ensured it happened a lot.
This was Arthur’s first gig in Britain, and we hope he comes back. Check out the rest of his tour dates while he’s here.
Photos by Barry Hill
Review by Nic Groombridge
