.theguardian - 2 days ago

02 Apollo, Manchester
The guitar duo cast a spell over a rapt audience with wistful songs evoking open skies and yearning that even the final house lights can’t dispelThe Apollo’s huge stage contains nothing more than a stool and a table, upon which are placed two drinks and a very tiny amplifier, but Gillian Welch and David Rawlings don’t need showbiz trimmings. Later, when Rawlings straps on a harmonica, his musical partner quips: “That’s all you get by way of costume changes from us.” The “show” comes in the playing, the performance and 23 songs which cast a magical spell for (including interval and encores) just short of three hours.After playing on each other’s albums for years, last year’s stellar Woodland album cemented the pair’s more recent emergence as a classic American acoustic singing duo. They complement each other perfectly. Stetson-topped Rawlings fingerpicks and grapples with his vintage guitar as if it is a wriggling animal, while Welch strums purposely in a flowing dress that could be straight from a spaghetti western. Rawlings’s voice is beautifully plaintive with shades of Cat Stevens while Welch’s stirring vocals evoke mountain ranges, open skies, railroads. Continue reading...

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