The band's all here
The Delines, lots of Steves, a Phil and a Freddie
Loving music is all about discovery. And discovering music is all about who you discover it with – or who you discover it from. This is what Ziggy’s Lament is all about. In the first post in this publication (Crate digging, music and missing out), I wrote about Ziggy (Steve, not David) and Stitch (another Steve), both of whom I played football with back in the day, and who were part of my musical life back then.
I also wrote about my oldest friend Phil (in He was the Nazz), who I still go to gigs with 50-odd years on since we met. This post has all of them in it: Phil and the Steves (me included), meeting at a gig in Oxford by a band that Ziggy introduced to me a few years back – The Delines.
The Delines are one of those bands who are not that well known outside of Americana aficionados but have a small but fanatical world-wide fanbase. In the late 90s/early 2000s, Ziggy, Stitch and I were into a lot of Americana/Alt Country, often influenced by Uncut Magazine (the monthly with a free CD on the cover). I was into Lambchop, Ryan Adams, Low, Bon Iver and a bunch of others. Ziggy also loved Richmond Fontaine, a Portland band fronted by songwriter, novelist and all-round creative, Willy Vlautin and somewhere down the line – four years ago or so – he recommended them to me.
I wasn’t taken with them at first, but Steve also mentioned that Vlautin also played in another outfit, The Delines. This included previous members of Richmond Fontaine, and was fronted by singer, Amy Boone. Whereas Richmond Fontaine’s songs were great, the band – with Willy Vlautin’s gravelly vocals –sounded to me a bit like other alt-country bands around at the time. Amy Boone, though, gave the music a different dimension. I loved the combination of Vlautin’s world-weary, often grimly funny lyrics, Boone’s soulful voice and the band’s tight arrangements and playing. Their albums have become favourites of mine, particularly their 2022 record, The Sea Drift.
Phil and I go to a few gigs each year. We live a long way apart; me in Pembrokeshire, him in Whitley Bay (where we both grew up). This time we decided to meet halfway in Oxford. I’d seen The Delines once before in 2022 at the tiny and wonderful Cwych Festival 1 (now renamed the Boia Festival), organised by yet another Steve - Steve Prior - and they’d been the highlight of the whole event for me. So, when I saw that the band were touring the UK playing at the Oxford O2 Academy, it was a no-brainer.
When we walked into the venue I realised that this was a band that had a VERY loyal fanbase. Early on, we spoke to an extremely excited couple who followed The Delines all over the UK and Europe – the kind of people who know every word to every song, and the detailed pieces of minutia and history surrounding Willy Vlautin’s music and writing. They have planned their next holiday to Europe around seeing the band too!
There was a palpable sense of expectation and excitement in that room. Imagine 12 year-old Swifties in 60 year old bodies - with the same level of enthusiasm and obsessiveness. The difference here, however, was there wasn’t 75000 people in a stadium, just a couple of hundred middle-aged people in a dingy upstairs room, many of whom knew each other – and many of whom seemed to be known to the band. The band members themselves walked around the audience, greeting acquaintances they recognised from previous UK tours. I don’t think Taylor will be doing that anytime soon at Anfield or Wembley Stadium!
The audience were nearly all in a kind of optimal age sweet spot, which is my age (66) plus or minus a decade, and none of us were out for a wild night out in Oxford. The students striding up and down the Cowley Road were definitely not heading for the O2 on Tuesday evening! These days, their idea of going out-out is probably very different from ours!
We got a beer, and settled in to watch long-time Delines bassist, Freddy Trujillo do an excellent short acoustic solo set2, and the room gradually filled up. Steve (Ziggy) and Steve (Stitch) walked in just as the second support were tuning up and the band was all there! The original line-up of Ziggy’s Lament all in the same room at the same time – though this lineup will undoubtedly change over the coming months and years.
It felt good. I hadn’t seen Steve (Stitch) for well over a decade, maybe two, but he hadn’t changed much. Sometimes age doesn't really register. He didn’t, however, remember that we had gone to see Lambchop at Warwick Arts Centre together in 2002. I’m sure that this happened! I also admit that it could be my memory going – as much as his. We are both, after all, 66 years old, plus or minus a couple.
Our Man in the Field were the second support. A well regarded UK-based Americana act fronted by North-East singer songwriter Alex Ellis, their set felt a bit cramped. This was a big band on a small stage, and the sound didn’t quite do justice to the songs, I don’t think. Listening afterwards to some of Our Man in the Field’s recorded music reveals a laid back, rich and melodic sound that is deeply textured and lyrically complex; definitly worth more of a listen, though I’m not sure they’ll become a favourite of mine…
That’s the thing about gigs though - sometimes you love the support and sometimes they don’t catch and pass you by. Phil was so taken with Freddie Trujillo’s voice that he caught up with him between sets to congratulate him before Freddie went on for his bass stint with the Delines. I’ve also been checking out some of his past and current work over the last couple of days. Discoveries…
The Delines are one of the best and tightest live bands around – everything is just so accomplished – the songwriting, the playing, the excellent rhythm section, Amy Boone’s voice, the one-man brass section that is keyboardist and trumpet player, Cory Gray. This isn’t a review piece, exactly, but I will say that my favourite songs they played on Tuesday were the beautiful All Along the Ride (from The Sea Drift) and the the deep dark, funny and frankly disturbing duet, My Blood Bleeds the Darkest Blue (from The Lost Duets, see video below).
Anyway, for an evening, I was reminded of the power and friendship that music brings. Everyone there was there because they loved the band and the band was there because they love making music. There were those like Phil discovering a new band, and those like the couple at the beginning who were superfans, and whose enthusiasm was infectious. There were networks of relationships in that slightly grimy upstairs room at the O2, that spanned from Portland to Oxford to St Davids and beyond, and the music was excellent. Phil, me, Steve and Steve went home happy – though the other Steves did nearly lose their car in the car park at the end of the night.
Soooo Rock and Roll guys…!
Notes
The Cwtch Festival - now the Boia Festival - takes place at the end of October each year in St Davids, the UK’s smallest city. It takes place in and around the small number of streets in the city, and attracts acts you probably wouldn’t expect to find at a tiny festival this far out west. The 2022 Festival (at which the Delines played was reviewed in Americana UK here: https://americana-uk.com/live-review-cwtch-festival-st-davids-wales-28th-30th-october-2022
Freddie Trujillo is The Delines’ long-time bassist and his solo work reflects his bass-driven songwriting. His songwriting is really strong and he’s got a great voice too. His solo albums sound really different from his work with The Delines and Richmond Fontaine. He’s got a new album just out - I Never Threw A Shadow At It - I am going to check that out, but my favourite track when I was trawling around for this article was this one from his 2015 album Amexica.