All sewn up... :: Wessex Scene Online

All sewn up...

11th October 2002
Tim Houghton

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Sep 02 - MCLUSKY The Joiners Friday 13th September
Nov 02 - Soft in the Head
Nov 02 - CHRIS-TT
May 03 - Motorcycle Emptiness
Mar 02 - SPIRITUALIZED

More by Tim Houghton

Hem + Lincoln
Queen Elizabeth Hall
27th September

London based six-piece Lincoln are an unusual prospect.

Combining an apparent love for shambolic indie-rock (think The Pastels or the TV Personalities) with an equal interest in Americana, the most striking thing about the band is their unusual instrumentation. As well as the standardised guitar/bass/drums/vox line-up, the keyboardist also doubles as trombonist, while guitarist and bassist both have a trumpet playing alter-egos, recalling in many ways the expanded live set-up of Calexico.

At it’s best, Lincoln’s music is a soulful mariachi-inflected affair, complimented by the occasionally silken female vocals. Unfortunately, though, they too often feel the urge to veer off into a messier darker side, in which the lyrics get drowned out by the wash of distorted guitars - and not drowned out in a My Bloody Valentine way either, but more in a “I got my mate’s brother to work the mixing desk for us” way. Overall, though, it was pleasant enough.

When Hem’s debut album, Rabbit Songs emerged on the Setanta label in October last year, it somehow managed to escape the attention of all but the most ardent alt. country fan.

Guitarist Gary Maurer is a seasoned studio-wizard who has engineered the likes of Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion and Luna. During the spring of 1999, however, he teamed up with pianist Dan Messe and guitarist Steve Curtis to make an album that would reflect their love for traditional American music.

All that was needed was a singer, who they found in the form of Sally Ellyson, an inexperienced vocalist who nevertheless won herself the job by singing lullabies on to Messe’s answering-machine. One of them, ‘Lord blow out the moon please’ opens the album.

In the summer of 2001, as ‘Rabbit Songs’ was nearing completion, the studio where Hem had been recording caught fire. Refusing to accept that they might be about to lose everything, Maurer dashed into the blazing building to rescue the master tapes, escaping only moments before the roof collapsed.

Tonight, in the slightly calmer atmosphere of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the core Hem quartet is joined by drums, violin, upright bass and pedal-steel guitar. Their fan base also appears to have swelled over the past 12 months, as they are playing to a near packed auditorium. And while they appear rather awkward when first taking the stage, when it comes to the art of songwriting, Hem know exactly what they’re about.

For the most part, the set comprises tracks from the debut. Songs such as ‘When I was drinking’, a beautiful piano driven ballad of lost loves and loneliness, and ‘Betting on trains’(with the heart wrenching lines ‘I held a silver dollar tight inside my fist and let you go/I’ve counted all the things I’ve lost that point to this and let you go’) are the perfect vehicle for Ellyson’s gorgeous voice. Unlike Lincoln, where the vocals just seemed to dissolve into the surrounding haze, here they literally float around the room refusing to become muddied. And with ‘Stupid mouth shut’, perhaps the most straight-up countrified track in their armoury, Hem recall the likes of the Cowboy Junkies and even Emmylou Harris.

As well as treating us to almost all of Rabbit Songs (including the piano and violin instrumental duet ‘Half-acre’), Hem also perform tracks from their most recent release, ‘I’m Talking with my Mouth’, a covers EP featuring songs from the likes of Elvis Costello (‘Red Shoes’) and Bruce Springsteen (‘Valentine’s Day’). It also contains one of the highlights of this evenings performance, Johnny Cash’s ‘Jackson’, in which slide-guitar and vocals combine to spell-binding effect.

If there was any justice in the world then Hem would be giving Avril Lavigne a run for her money at the top end of the charts. As it is, they might just have earned themselves a few extra column inches in the national monthlies.