It’s always a pleasure to welcome new acts to the Club, and tonight saw the first visit to Brecon by the Terraplanes Blues Band – ably supported by our old friend Aled Clifford.
Aled Clifford kicked off proceedings with an excellent and eclectic set showcasing his many influences, including the Kinks, Duane Allman, Tom Waits, Rory Gallagher, Little Feat, plus of course his own compositions as one half of his amazing band Henry’s Funeral Shoe.
We were reminded what an excellent soulful voice Aled has, as he treated us to some blues classics by Big Bill Broonzy and Taj Mahal, to the accompaniment of his delicate guitar finger-picking.
Moving on to the resonator slide guitar, he turned up the fuzz for a couple of Henry’s Funeral Shoe numbers – but perhaps the highlight of his set was a superb version of Blind Willy Johnson’s ‘Nobody’s fault but mine’, in which Aled’s delicate slide guitar rang out mournfully and mysteriously to cast a hypnotic spell.
Freshly arrived from the Bristol Delta, the Terraplanes Blues Band then took to the stage with an irrepressible burst of energy.
How on earth does this band keep up the pace? They delivered an unstoppable performance, with a seemingly endless number of brilliantly executed numbers spanning a wide range of styles… but always deeply rooted in the blues.
It was immediately obvious that they are an exceptionally tight and cohesive outfit, with the sophisticated bass playing of Craig Shaw and versatile drumming of Andy Hutt never dominating, but always providing just the right backdrop to support the excellent singing and guitar of Nick Scrase and the flamboyantly accomplished harmonica of Eduardo Allen, resplendent in his sharp white suit.
You can’t really pin the Terraplenes Blues Band down to any one style, but everything they performed was delivered with such infectious energy and drive, the audience was up and dancing in no time. The songs ranged from the authentic classic blues on Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Smokestack lightning’, via the skiffle-influenced ‘The Rambler’ (with Andy’s drums driving the pace brilliantly) – through to some wonderful swinging blues/shuffle numbers such as ‘Nightbus’ and ‘Spider and the fly’.
Just when you thought you had them figured out, they amped up the energy some more, as Nick swapped back to his lovely Torino Green Gretsch Streamliner guitar for the funky ‘Don’t do me wrong’, which was impossible to resist dancing to.
After a short break, they were effortlessly back to the classic blues again, with a memorable swinging version of Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Help Me’.
If you were forced to make a comparison, you’d have to say that they conjured up the deep R&B influences of the very early Rolling Stones, as they shuffled through raunchy versions of ‘King bee’ and ‘Little red rooster’… but by the end of their set (and a much deserved encore) the audience was left happily transported, somewhere between 1964 and 2024, with a warm glow to sustain them homeward through the dark drizzly November night.
Many thanks as always to the audience who turned out on a damp chilly Sunday to support these excellent musicians… and of course to the Muse for their wonderful hospitality, and to everyone involved in organising this gig. See you soon for the Christmas bash!
https://www.theterraplanesbluesband.com
https://www.facebook.com/henrysfuneralshoe
Photos by Barry Hill
Review by Jim Kerslake
