So if my life begins on Monday, this must be the death throes of my old life. I have a baaaad cold. And before you all cry "man flu!", can I just point out that Louise had it first and she can testify to the sheer, snot-drenched awfulness of it. If I talk today, I sound like a cross between Tom Waits and Jabba The Hutt. None of this stopped me going out to see The Civil Wars last night, but it might stop me writing much of a review... other than to say they were breathtaking. Maybe I'll just let the music do the talking.
I first came across The Civil Wars about a year ago when I fell head-over-heels in love with the title track to their debut album, Barton Hollow. While I liked the rest of the album, there wasn't anything to quite match that song and I wondered whether I'd spend the whole of a live concert waiting for it. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Some bands just work better live than on record and last night's performance was a magical case of two performers (with just a single guitar, occasional piano and two amazing voices) holding a packed audience in the palm of their hand. And it closed with my favourite cover version in years. I've heard Michael Jackson's Billie Jean covered by everybody from Neil Finn to Ian Brown, but I never realised until last night the most obvious thing about it. It's a country record, pure and simple.
Wow.
