St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Tue 15 Mar
The stage was set with a grand piano and a microphone. Tonight was entertainment from the first to the last dying note. The music interspersed with waspish anecdotes about ex-husbands, alcohol, drugs, and life in all its darkest glories. Once again, Roots Unearthed delivered an evening of music and entertainment.
Ireland’s Mary Coughlan sings with a husky voice that pulls every ounce of emotion from the lyrics from songs that are an ethereal mix of blues, folk and jazz. Her conversation flowed through the night, giving context to the sadness and heartbreak of the songs chosen tonight. We heard about her five children, ex-husbands and alcohol abuse as she sips water and says her last drink was in 1993. The combination of blues fuelled jazz is delivered with a mix of ironic amusement and, at times, a feeling that everything that happened was just ordinary. The result was an evening of devastatingly engaging musical journey as Coughlan sung about betrayal, love lost and taboo subjects – child abuse, sex trafficking and the dark underbelly of life that breaths emotion and gritty realism into the blues.
Mary is back with new projects, including a musical based on her album The House Of Ill Repute, and sang the title track and a couple of numbers from the album. An exploration of life in a brothel, there is no glitz, glamour or plush red velvet; this is hard, gritty and the reality of what women’s lives in a house of ill repute is like. The highlight was the emotional acappella delivery of Antarctic, combining vocal purity with the tale of a “rotten, stinking cheat” – her ex-husband.
The encore was her slap at the world as she sings Ain’t Nobody’s Business What I Do. Having conquered many demons through her life, her delivery and choice of songs are of a woman with powerful views on the role of women throughout society. Roots Unearthed once again delivered an evening of musical delights as Mary Coughlan, songstress, held St David’s Hall enthralled.
words and photos LIZ AIKEN