Lisbee Stainton, Roger Morgan’s Patio, Howle Hill, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, 13/11/2011.

A few weeks ago I reviewed a concert at Worcester Cathedral featuring a triple bill of singer songwriters with folk veteran Judy Collins being supported by young up and comers Deborah Hodgson and Lisbee Stainton. It was the first time I’d heard Lisbee’s music and I was very impressed. My review was picked up on by Clive Stainton, Lisbee’s father and manager and like myself a Herefordshire resident. Clive and his wife Marion called at my house and very kindly dropped off all three of Lisbee’s CDs (“Firefly” 2006, “Girl On An Unmade Bed” 2010 and “Go” 2011). They also invited my wife and I to this hugely enjoyable event, part of Lisbee’s “Living Room Tour”.

With the summer festival circuit finished for another year Lisbee has decided to keep her hand in by playing a series of gigs at the houses of members of her fanbase. Attendance is by invitation only and at the end of the gig a hat is passed round with the aim of at least covering the performer’s expenses. On long haul gigs it’s a stipulation that that the host also provides Lisbee’s accommodation. So far Lisbee has performed in locations as far flung as Berwick Upon Tweed and Tunbridge Wells, she’s even due to play in the mess of a submarine stationed in Plymouth!

Today’s “living room gig” represented something of a return to roots. The Stainton family moved to Herefordshire from the Home Counties some six years ago and this event was hosted by family friend Roger Morgan and his wife Sue. We met up with Roger and several of his friends including Lisbee and her parents for a pleasant lunch at a local hostelry before adjourning to Roger’s house for the performance. On an unusually bright and sunny November day it was considered warm enough to hold the concert on the patio which proved to be an inspired decision. Lisbee performed in front of the stunning backdrop of the Wye Valley, the river snaking it’s way through deeply wooded hillsides, the trees burnished with the magnificent reds and golds of Autumn. This was a truly unplugged performance, no amps, no mics, just a girl, her songs, her voice and her custom made eight string guitar. With the sixteen audience members clustered close around the singer you could hear every note of the guitar, every nuance of the voice and any extraneous noises such as the mewing of a buzzard or the sound of distant gunfire (of a rather different sort than you’d expect to hear on the streets of Hackney) only served to enhance the performance.

The “Living Room Tour” encapsulates what Lisbee Stainton is all about. No X Factor wannabe she’s in the music business for the long haul, a serious (but not pretentious or “difficult”) singer songwriter with a pure voice, an increasingly mature collection of self penned songs and a highly accomplished guitar technique. There’s also a strong work ethic, the Living Room Tour is essentially paid practice, an opportunity for Stainton to hone her performance skills in front of an invited audience. I’d surmise that it’s probably nearly as daunting to perform in front of an audience twenty close friends and family as it is to appear in front of 30,000 at the O2 Arena as Stainton famously did as an unsigned artist in 2006.

For today’s delightfully intimate performance she drew on all three albums, punctuating her performances by telling the audience something about herself. Not everybody whom Roger had invited had seen her before and hence the “Living Room Tour” is also a method of organically growing her gradually expanding fanbase. We learned that Lisbee has been playing guitar from the age of eight, writing songs from nine and performing in public since fourteen. A graduate of the Popular Music course at London’s Goldsmith’s College she has supported Joan Armatrading on tour and has been awarded the support slot for Nashville singer Gretchen Peters’ UK tour in Spring 2012.

Today’s set began with the catchy “Just Like Me” followed by “Red” which appears on both her first two albums. Something of a minor hit the song’s gardening metaphors have their roots in Marion Stainton’s work as a horticulturist. Written when Lisbee was just sixteen this is an astonishingly mature piece of song-writing. This was followed by “Wrench”, the first single from the new album “Go”.

“Go” itself was an audience sing along with Lisbee somehow dividing the tiny audience into three to sing the different vocal parts of the chorus. She warned us that she was going to mark us out of thirty for volume, enthusiasm and accuracy but we never did get to hear just how many we’d scored! A look at Lisbee’s Facebook page reveals that it was twenty 7/6/7-not bad but not the best I fear. At one point she also had us snapping and clicking our fingers along to the music, not easy on a chilly November afternoon and with some of the audience members wearing gloves. You had to admire Lisbee’s resourcefulness playing the guitar in such conditions, it couldn’t have been easy.

Whilst at college Lisbee supported herself by working as a London tour guide and developed something of a fascination with the city’s wartime history. This expressed itself in songs like “The Archives”, inspired by Max Arthur’s book “Witness Statements Of The Second World War” and the later “Underground” inspired by the Blitz. Almost on cue a light aircraft could be heard droning overhead. Audience interaction is encouraged at these events and one audience member, Bob, told us of his father’s experiences in war time London, sheltering in a tube station and emerging to find his whole street blown away. “Girl On An Unmade Bed” and “Practice Room” documented more personal music college experiences and concluded a beautiful and memorable first set.

After a break for much needed hot drinks the second set commenced with “Is Whispering” before continuing with “The Author”, one of Lisbee’s most mature “relationship” songs to date and the lovely “Follow”, one of the bonus tracks from “Go” and the tune that she performed at the O2 Arena.

Lisbee put down the eight string and picked up the ukelele to perform her new single, a take on Labi Siffre’s “It Must Be Love”, a song perhaps more familiarly associated with the version by Madness. Another audience sing-along was, of course, inevitable. This track is available as a single only and doesn’t appear on any of Lisbee’s albums.

Lisbee’s songs have strong melodies and memorable choruses, none more so than the anthemic “Millions Of Flowers” (yet more gardening metaphors). These are qualities shared by “We Don’t Believe In Monsters” and the closing “Never Quite An Angel”.

Lisbee’s music is a little outside my normal current listening zone but I’m impressed with her voice, her songs and her instrumental ability. Each album to date is a clear progression and one feels that at twenty three her best work is yet to come. “Firefly”, an astonishingly mature début, and “Girl On An Unmade Bed” were both made under the guidance of artist/producer Rain with Rupert Christie also involved with the latter. For jazz listeners the presence of saxophonist Iain Ballamy (an old associate of Clive Stainton’s) on the first two records is something of a bonus, his soprano sound is particularly lustrous.

On occasions the first two albums can sound a little over produced. Lisbee has gone for a more pared down sound on “Go” (produced by Mikko Gordon) with most tracks featuring her regular working band of Pete Randall (bass guitar) and Andy Chapman (drums). Chapman is also an excellent jazz drummer with a particular affinity for working with singers- he has recently cropped up on albums by Zara McFarlane and the vocal group Sector 7, both of which are reviewed elsewhere on this site. The stripped back approach applied on “Go” has resulted in Lisbee’s most mature and accomplished release to date.

This “less is more” mentality also applied to today’s performance. The songs lost nothing by being performed by just guitar and voice and stood up remarkably well. Not quite folk, not quite pop and close enough to jazz to appeal to me Lisbee Stainton’s music has considerable cross genre potential.  For all that her songs are fresh, personal and refreshingly free of compromise. Mainstream success is a distinct possibility but it will be on this level headed artist’s own terms.

As for today I can safely say that today was a unique experience. By chance it was also my wife’s birthday and it’s not every year that you get to attend a private gig, especially in such a beautiful setting. And yes, “Happy Birthday” was added to the set list. The only other artist I know of who regularly does this “living room” thing is that grizzled old left wing rocker Edgar Broughton but I’d guess that an audience with him would be very different! 

Our thanks to Roger and Sue Morgan (and Clive Stainton) for the invitation and the marvellous hospitality and to Lisbee for the music. A wonderful day all round.   

 

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