Live Review: Comes A Time

Every Western Australian Americana fan worth their salt was either at Rosemount Hotel on Saturday or wishing they could be there. Comes A Time 2016 promised a stellar line-up of local, national and international acts for the inaugural alt-country festival and it didn’t disappoint.

Local favourites, Galloping Foxleys kicked off the festival with some classic electric country-style guitar playing on Mothman, and old time country-gospel flavour with Chained. Hana’s Song saw the lads take a folky turn only to get their Boz Scaggs on with the darkly hilarious Romancing The Bone. The six-piece band rounded off their engaging set with a side-splitting number.

Next local act, the justifiably popular eight-piece The Justin Walshe Folk Machine took to the stage. The songs were wonderfully stitched together with Walshe’s inimitable, often humorous storytelling – his speaking voice as compelling as his singing. Standout tunes were Drunk ("Now that we’re drunk we can say what we mean") and, with instructions to “dark down the walls and get some red light”, the bluegrass murder ballad Willshire. Finishing off the set solo, Walshe wittily dedicated Mistake to the organisers of the festival.

Hailing from Melbourne and a self-confessed traveller, Abbie Cardwell delighted with her honest lyrics and storytelling. Playing solo at the festival, Cardwell’s songs painted fascinating pictures of her journeying through countries and relationships, a Mexicana/bolero flavour weaving subtly through some songs, bursting out in Oh Mexico. Not daunted in the slightest by the increasing volume of crowd chatter, Cardwell’s huge voice, nice guitar picking and sweet harmonica playing had us eating out of her hands – particular highlights Flowers For My Exes Ex (“Sent her pink roses/A petal for each tear”) and Desert Flower.

Before and during the festival, there was plenty of discussion about Comes A Time being described as ‘an alt-country festival". Whatever alternative country is, there was nothing alternative about Josh Hedley (hailing from Nashville) – he was unequivocally nail-your-head-to-the-floor country! Ably accompanied by the phenomenally talented Will Van Horn (pedal steel). Hedley’s powerful, rich, honeyed tones and guitar playing transported us to what’s been described as a past era of country music. Between songs he bantered with the crowd, hilariously recalling a previous visit to WA: touring with Justin Townes Earle, getting drunk with Earle and visiting Bon Scott’s grave in the dead of night. Now 72 days sober, he segued into an ode to his zero-alcohol beer. A few songs later, he had the crowd crying into their real beers with an incredible cover of Merle Haggard’s (a musical hero of Hedley’s) Sing A Sad Song.

Next up was Joe Pug (Austin, Texas). From the start he captivated the crowd with his powerful lyrics and engaging storytelling. Whether singing or talking, Pug had the gift for making each person feel as if he was singing and talking directly to them. Likened to Dylan and Prine due to his insights into people and life, Pug also drew comparisons (on the night) to Chris Stapleton and even Woody Guthrie. Intense, passionate and soulful, there was also humour when Pug prefaced the achingly beautiful Pair Of Shadows – a love song he’d written for his wife-to-be – by relating how she’d described it as being the darkest song she’d ever heard, comparing it to Townes Van Zandt’s Waitin' Around To Die. Other standouts were Nation Of Heat and his final song Hymn #101.

Lindi Ortega, also a visitor to Perth in the past when she provided support for Earle on his last tour, was next to grace the Comes A Time stage. Originally Canadian, now residing in Nashville, Ortega is a singer-songwriter whose voice has seen her likened to Dolly Parton and her distinctive vibrato was at the fore on Saturday night. Supported by her guitarist and drummer, the dynamic two-piece (with Ortega on acoustic guitar for some songs) occasionally threatened to overwhelm Ortega’s voice, which seemed to struggle towards the end. Standout songs, her own compositions, the hauntingly beautiful High, Ashes and Faded Gloryville along with two covers, The Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody and the song she finished on: Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire.

Sadly, the 400-strong crowd had dwindled right down by the time the headliners took to the stage. Even for a Saturday night, after 11pm obviously seemed too late for this crowd predominantly ranging in age from 30 to 60. They missed one of the outstanding sets of the Perth live music year! Not daunted in the least by the diminished crowd, Robert Ellis and his crack four-piece band (Van Horn returning on pedal steel) totally enthralled with their great country-jazz fusion, big hats and Nudie-type suits. Standouts were Perfect Strangers, the stunning, intensely melodic Couples Skate and the intense break-up song that fittingly closed out the festival: California.

Hopefully, Perth will come out in far greater numbers for next year’s promised return of Comes A Time – it would be a shame if this was our last Americana festival.