Loud Women Unplugged

The past ten days has been a whirlwind (it might even be more than ten days, but the whirlwind has swirled them around like autumn leaves so it's impossible to pin them down).
I realised that I hadn't written about the Loud Women Unplugged night, so here goes. It's going to be brief, but what a group of songwriters!
Starting from the first act: Born Again Virgin was actually a solo artist, Anna Roenigk, who hails from Austin, Texas. I would describe her songs as solo swamp rock; her voice has a little country grit in it, and her songs have a little weariness too. She played one of the best songs of the night- I was sitting next to Samantha Whates, and we just looked at each other with that songwriters awe and nodded. I tried to video a bit of it but failed miserably (my phone storage is full). It just did all the things that a song is supposed to do, in all the right places. Wow.
Next up were Naz and Ella, a duo who have beautiful voices and a clarity of delivery that showcases their (often) political lyrics. Their harmonies actually reminded me of Simon and Garfunkel more than any female duos before or since, which I hope they would take as a compliment. They are very much of the moment and I can imagine them becoming extremely successful: keep your nerve! Don't divert! Songs with meaning matter.
Beth Munroe sang through a wall of heartbreak and delivered a fantastic set of powerful songs. A fog of despair threatened to suffocate her message, but she had the strength to blast through it and her set was mesmerising. She is  a producer and electronica artist too and well worth watching out for.
I was trying to find a way to describe Jelly Cleaver's music. She definitely has the key to the magic chord cupboard, and her songs drift through ideas: lovely ones. The song about Yarl's Wood, Freedom Will Come, had the line 'You can't stop our love from breaking in'. What a fantastic inversion of ideas. She is an abstract artist: she is a poet whose words land like flocks of birds on branches of music. I thought her set was beautiful.
Samantha Whates was the final act, last but definitely not least. We first met more than ten years ago when we both started out (her at the beginning, me first time as a solo artist), in a venue in Camden run by a mutual friend. I remember that night very clearly, because she sang a song that I really liked- and I recognised it again second time around. Samantha is just finishing an album recorded in waiting rooms (including a prison cell and a ferry terminal). The stand out song was Guilty, which looked at things from different perspectives, and was totally absorbing.
Three cheers for Cassie Fox for setting up and running Loud Women, and for putting this night on, and having faith in female musicianship of all stripes!
That's it for now- here are some of my photos of Cassie, Anna, Nat and Ella, Beth, Jelly and Samantha. Photo of H McC by James Hammick.