A perfect blue sky day gently melts away as the crowd moves into Sydney's The Vanguard for UK folk sensation Blair Dunlop.
The Vanguard is one of Newtown's treasures, theatrical red curtains adorning the blue-lit stage that lies waiting for another supernova, Canada's Mia Kelly (11 March). Kelly enters soulful and wise, dressed in black, a deep brown guitar slung over her shoulder.
"How was dinner?" she asks. "I'm new to meat and I just discovered lamb. It's great," she sighs, tuning up before her guitar strums deliciously out to the crowd. "He doesn't ask before touching when he's itching for a fix," Kelly sings from first song 'Lone Dog', her voice strong and piercing.
She is instantly hypnotic, and you get the sense she has more than one story in her. The song is sultry and dark as Kelly pumps on the stompbox, the track trailing off unfinished. It's an engaging start.
"I was bragging that I hadn't seen a single snake or spider," Kelly tells the keen crowd, "and then I had a huntsman in my bed. I thought I had an even temperament, but it's not so," she confides.
"This is about my friend's dad who was challenging to be around," she says for 'Garden In The War'. "It's not flattering. Is Greg in the room?" she checks. "You never know." Kelly plucks the strings, begging with feeling, "is there a monster inside? Please don't be that man," her emotion ripping through you.
"It's quite awkward to write about your best friend's dad," Kelly confirms. "He came to a show once, and he came up to me after and said, 'so do I get a CD?'.
"I get to travel and meet so many amazing people," she moves on sentimentally. "It is such a privilege to call this my job and my life."
"Lucky are the ones for whom the shoe fits right," Kelly sings in her next song, destroying and healing you simultaneously with her pain-stricken belt. Her voice is superb, a once in a lifetime experience.
"This next one was inspired by my neighbour in South America who looked like he walked off the set of 'Pirates Of The Caribbean," she says before 'Bonefish Boys', a salty, sea-born tune that smacks with intrigue.
'Big Time Roller Coaster Feeling' is warm and sweet, Kelly singing: "Meeting you I recall well," as the chorus bursts with joy, before she assumes a "song by a small Canadian artist by the name of Leonard Cohen", 'Tower Of Sun'. Cohen has never sounded so good as Kelly belts in choice moments.
She then recounts the tradition of 'Coin In The Cake' and you suddenly feel like baking. It's a heartwarming finish to a life-changing set, Kelly's melodic runs singing in your mind long after she is gone. She is one artist to watch.
"Good evening Sydney," Blair Dunlop says, taking to the stage with gentle authority. He bursts right into first song 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go', and the sound is so perfect and full you're momentarily stunned, thinking there must be a looper or backing track behind him.
"Lord knows I was sweet on you," Dunlop sings with perfect pitch and vocal clarity, his guitar strums stroking the edge of your heart. "I just finished recording an album, so is it ok if I play a few new ones?" he asks the endeared crowd. "Cheers, I would have anyway," he jokes.
"I think I might be over being me," he sings touchingly, and time suspends. The song is a release for crowd and singer alike. Dunlop comments on staying in Darlinghurst and the good-looking Sydney residents. "I'm a new man," he jokes, before sharing the story of getting a job in a vintage clothes shop during COVID and spending time with his mum.
For 'Midday Mass', Holly Brandon joins on violin and it is sweet serenity, continuing in 'Spices From The East', warm as spring sunshine. He sings a goofy science song about trilobites and the atmosphere is charming, before Kelly rejoins the stage, as Dunlop jokes that her ex-boyfriend might be in attendance.
The pair unite for 'Meaning Well' and it's an explosion of sonic euphoria, their voices blending like they were made for each other. 'Sea To The Moon' ignites a hilarious tale of dog-related mishaps culminating in the aforesaid gig-attending canine being rushed to emergency.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, as a life well lived oozes from the stage. 'I need you like water / You need me like wine,' is a lyric not easily forgot.
The trio of Dunlop, Kelly and Brandon unite among the crowd to sing off mic for the encore, and it's a sweet, delicate way to end. With heartfelt talent such as Kelly and Dunlop, folk is surely alive and well across all corners of the globe.
