REVIEW: Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire
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Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire
The Ironworks
Inverness
RODDY Hart is more familiar to Inverness audiences as, well, just Roddy Hart.
Recently, however, Hart has undergone something of a transformation. Not just a singer-songwriter any more, Hart has emerged as the frontman of a band, Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire.
As in …& The Heartbreakers or …& The E Street Band.
Hart’s gaze is certainly headed west across the Atlantic and that tradition of strong writers (and who stronger than Petty and Springsteen?) and muscular backing bands beefing up his words and music.
So farewell acoustic inspiration, aside from a couple of solo numbers where Hart sent his bandmates off-stage to attend to their hair gel, or at least so Hart claimed.
Instead, welcome a bold widescreen sound just waiting for a movie to soundtrack. Which is perhaps only fitting given Hart’s recent cameo appearance in Sunshine on Leith.
Given the new approach, much of the material for Hart’s mainstage debut at The Ironworks was also new. Other than a few dips into his back catalogue, Hart and The Lonesome Fire drew the evening’s entertainment from their self-titled album, which is released on Highland-based Middle of Nowhere Records.
After an opening set from local heroes Galipaygos, who evidently met with Hart’s approval – "Like a country Teenage Fanclub, and nothing wrong with that," he said — the band got off to a strong start with the strongly atmospheric Cold City Avalanche, ushering in an avalanche of hook laden smart pop tunes.
Mercifully Hart did not bow to requests to play Flower of Scotland, requests repeated far too often than was funny, and stuck close to his own songbook, ably abetted by guitarist Gordon Turner, the two Scotts — Scott Clark on bass and Scott MacKay on drums — and a brace of Martins — John Martin on guitar and Geoff Martyn on keyboards.
Scottish spin on Americana has moved on a long way from the days of Sydney Devine, fortunately. In the hands of Hart and Co, it certainly seems to be moving in the right direction.
CM
