Gruff Rhys @ Birmingham Glee Club – 15th September 2014
Tonight’s performance is just that, a performance. It isn’t a gig, but more of a spoken word/musical combination in support of Gruff Rhys’ latest album, American Interior.
Rhys takes to the stage wearing a wolf head hat and brandishing a placard that simply states American Interior. Rather than pick up a guitar, Rhys plays an old documentary for us all to watch, to enhance our understanding and enjoyment of the show. The 10-15 minute clip explains the myth of Prince Madoc, a Welsh prince who it was believed fled his homeland and landed in the Gulf of Mexico, later having an influence on a variety of native American tribes who adopted the welsh language. After this informative video, Gruff returns to the stage and dons an acoustic guitar; he begins playing over a backing track starting our journey with Year Of The Dog. Rhys briefly stops the track a couple of times to let our photographer get a shot so that he doesn’t need to block anyone’s view unnecessarily!
Gruff’s vocals are overwhelmingly mellow and smooth, filling the room with a warmth that reduces the space into a lounge rather than a club. The concept behind this album is the life of John Evans, a young Welshman who went in search of the truth surrounding Prince Madoc in 1792, and Rhys plans to retell Evans’ biography using songs and images to illustrate the expedition. The narration seems to come easily to Gruff Rhys, making jokes with his comedic timing and slight awkwardness that present him as an incredibly amiable character. He equips himself with a harmonica for his acoustic rendition of The Court Of King Arthur, an older track that is popular with much of the audience before returning to the title track of the album.
As the combination of spoken word and music continue, Rhys treats us to Iolo, a song about the revolutionary poet, Iolo Morgantwg, who inspired John Evans to embark upon the epic journey. Not only does the song embrace repetition of the name Iolo, but at points, Rhys uses the microphone effectively by leaning back to ensure his howls to overpower the track. As there isn’t any pictoral evidence of John Evans, Gruff had a friend of his make a material doll of what he thought Evans may have looked like and when this doll makes an entrance, the audience are prompted (via placards) to applaud; only to result in Evans making a swift exit off stage at the hands of a rough Gruff.
Laid out on a table to the side of him, Rhys has a number of items including a record player through which he selects instrumental vinyl to use as backing tracks, including sea sounds to which he plays Shark Ridden Waters. Another gadget used to enhance the track is a digital sruti box that produces a fuzzed up distortion at key points. Rhys embraces vocal effects throughout Walk Into The Wilderness, which he describes as taking inspiration from the genre of the ‘80s power ballad. He then segues into Liberty, a catchy number that contains lyrics taken from Evans letters.
During the next episode of the story, Evans is arrested, at which point loud sirens and lights go off whilst Rhys plays with the photographs being displayed on the screen, received with much laughter by the audience. Innovatively, Gruff uses a metronome instead of a drumbeat for the quaint If We Were Words We Would Rhyme. For the mesmeric Lost Tribes, there is a return to the vinyl as a backing track, producing the most beautiful song of the evening with its uncomplicated lyrical content and melody. The Last Conquistador and Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru see the fascinating tale of John Evans draw to a close, completed with upbeat a slightly Chas and Dave-esque 100 Unread Messages.
Gruff Rhys leaves the stage to heartfelt applause and as the houselights don’t come up, everyone remains seated awaiting his return. He jokingly holds John Evans and a placard out from behind the curtain “to test the waters” which are unsurprisingly in favour of more. We are treated to Just War, which was a collaboration of Rhys, Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse and relates beautifully to this environment. Sensations In The Dark sees Gruff return to the harmonica to develop this predominantly three-chord track. The final song of the evening is Honey All Over which sees Rhys cleverly loop the chorus and as the track gets closer to the end he adds a backing track of birdsong. Whilst he leaves these various sounds continuing, various placards are displayed encouraging applause whilst Evans makes a return to the stage and as Rhys dons his wolf hat, he places a final placard on his seat, simply stating The End.
This is my first experience of Gruff Rhys’ deadpan Welsh humour. He truly has mastered the art of creating a performance that is utterly engrossing from start to finish, which demonstrates his ability to write quirky and unusual pieces of music surrounded by laid back, affable banter.
Review – Toni Woodward
Photos – John Bentley