Richmond Fontaine (duo), Richard Buckner & Peter Bruntnell - Cecil Sharp House, London

My buddy Johnny and I headed to Cecil Sharp House, the home of “English Folk Dance and Song Society” for a fantastic night of Americana.

We only caught the tail-end of Welsh singer-songwriter Peter Bruntnell’s opening set, but it reminded me what a fantastic voice he has – far more pop-orientated than I remembered (which prompted me to dig out his fantastic ‘Normal For Bridgewater’ album which has been on high-rotation ever since).

Next up was Richard Buckner who was mesmerising. A massive booming voice with a lone acoustic guitar – although he did make considerable use of looping live samples to accompany himself on several songs and create an even bigger sound. My only disappointment was opener “Blue and Wonder” was the sole inclusion from his debut ‘Bloomed’, but we did also get ‘Loaded at The Wrong Door’ and a healthy dose of new album ‘Our Blood’.

Headliners for the night was the duo from Richmond Fointaine Willy Vlautin on  vocals, guitar and Dan Eccles on electric guitar, lapsteel, and harmonica. Not a band I’m hugely familiar with, their large back catalogue is extremely daunting – but from the great material presented tonight: particularly “Westwood Ho” and “Exit 194B” I’ll certainly be checking out more of them.