REVIEW: BETH ROWLEY. THE MARRS BAR.

BETH ROWLEY performed at the Marrs Bar on Thursday February 7 to promote her new album Gota Fria (a Spanish term in metrology for a flood on a catastrophic scale), and as part of her UK tour.

The venue was packed as the 32 year old took shelter from the storm to deliver her take on the Americana blues/folk sound, channelling performers such as Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams in the back room performance space.

She said: “It feels incredible to go back out performing. The Marrs Bar’s such a beautiful, intimate venue to perform at. The audience is right there, sitting so close.

“There’s nowhere to hide as a performer and that’s both frightening and exciting in equal measure.”

Josh Flowers performed a seven song set as support before Beth arrived on stage.

She sung the final song a capella to a hushed crowd.

Beth likes to work fast, with the first ideas being the best. She writes the lyrics first – heavily influenced by her Baptist roots (her father was a baptist reverend), and her faith plays a big part in her impetus to perform.

Beth finds some songs more difficult to write and perform that others, particularly songs about loss. She said: “When songs are written, they’re still very raw. They’re like an old scar, as you perform them more and more, it’s like the scar thickens and the emotions then become easier to deal with as I sing.

“I felt old hymns – gospel music – is written for high female voices or low male singers.

Nothing was in-between, so I wanted something in the middle I could sing.”

Steven Michael Collins.