On their 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut The Tam White Band played to a packed house in the Spiegel Garden in George Square. As always, they gave a worthy performance.
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Fraser Speirs and Tam White
© Marc Marnie |
The show, themed 'thinking man's blues', comprised a mixture of tender blues, beautifully interpreted, harder blues, classics such as Albert King's Born under a bad sign and some of Tam's own numbers such as Stonemason's blues.Towards the end of the concert, as a tribute to Elvis on the 30th anniversary of his death, the band played their own clever, slow and gently bluesy, version of Heartbreak Hotel and had a delighted audience join in.
Between numbers, and often leading into them, Tam recounted little anecdotes which were peppered with his couthy wit. At 65, his voice is still good and, though not quite so much in evidence over the chosen material, still has that gravely lower register which gives such an edge to his singing.
The band comprises Tam White on vocals and guitar, Neil Warden on guitar, and Fraser Spiers on the mouth organ. The time spent on instrumental solos during the songs was well invested. It is a long time since I have heard anyone as good on the 'moothie' as Fraser Spiers; every bit as talented was Neil Warden on electric guitar. Each of the three could easily stand alone but, because they gelled so well together, the sum of their parts was greater.
The whole evening went well; the sound was right, the audience was keen and participatory, there was good music, well played and Tam White, the old silverback of Scottish blues had the audience eating out of his hand from the start. Five stars for this performance.
© Ruby Soxer. 21 August 2007. First published on www.edinburghguide.com See also http://www.tamwhite.co.uk/