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Portsmouth's premier venue for alt country, Americana, and Folk music

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Andrew Duhon at the Teatray – A Review

July 9, 2016 by admin

andrew duhon at the teatray cafe southsea

Artist: Andrew Duhon

Venue: The Teatray, Osborne Road, Southsea

Date: 4th July 2016

andrew duhon at the teatray cafe southseaHow fitting it was on Independence Day that New Orleans native and Square Roots favourite, Andrew Duhon drop in on the last night of his UK tour. An intimate and quirky new venue, bearing the hallmarks of the local street artists it is run by, had a capacity crowd privileged to witnessing the sublime talents of this lyrical wordsmith. Blessed with a steely edged deceptively fragile vocal timbre, honing his ever improving guitar skills, and with an easy accessible manner building a rapport with his audience, Andrew is the complete package.

‘Scared To Death Of Dying’ (“but not afraid to live”), set the bar with the incisive evocative lyric and empathetic guitar work. In contrast ‘Girls From Other Countries’ with its wry humour and self-deprecating punchline showed his lighter side, before the catchy ‘Gonna Take a Little Rain’. With Andrew’s back to the glass frontage facing in on the partisan crowd, it was amusing to see passers by taking a quizzical second look in to see what was going on, and surreally, not understanding the magnitude of the experience for those fortunate enough to be inside.

The yet to be recorded ‘Cecilia Champagne’, with a fabulously poignant lyric inspired by a picture of a beautiful waitress from the 1940s on a coffee shop wall, sparkled and enchanted to receive a rousing reception. A Ray Charles inspired ‘You Don’t Know Me’, recently nicely covered by Paul Carrack, preceded a lovely lyric detailing his preference for our small towns over the metropolis of London. Next up was the superbly acerbic and mordant lyric about bible belt hypocrisy and small town promiscuity ‘Just Another Beautiful Girl’, a favourite which showcases Andrews ability to tackle serious issues but create a wonderfully compelling piece of music at the same time.

andrew duhon at the teatray cafe southseaThe sublime ‘Evelyn’ closed a first set to see a dive for the merchandise table resulting in just one cd travelling with Andrew on his way home.

An autobiographical song inspired by a single class in geology embellished with some haunting harp got the second set underway before some more “Mississippi sax” on another favourite ‘Tandem Bike’ with that aching steely edged vocal in all its splendour. Another lovely story about his veteran guitar guru Sol and his time machine of a shop, ‘They Don’t Make ‘Em’ Like They Used To’ painted a lyrical word picture of times and crafts sadly now largely long forgotten. Love and passion of course too with ‘Let you Down’ about seeing the end of a relationship before your partner, and the superb title track of his Grammy nominated album ‘The Moorings’ with its Folk and Gaelic cadence.

andrew duhon at the teatray cafe southseaA singular request saw an “untasteful amount of reverb” applied to his guitar and vocal to perform a somewhat surreal and incongruous cover of ‘Staying Alive’, yes indeed the Bee Gees song complete with scat vocal and crowd refrain. Fascinating in a way to see an artist so much out of his chosen genre.

Another saucy crowd favourite, a drinking song never to be recorded out of respect for his mother, preceded the relaxed maestro regaling us with a joke about the dog shot by a bar tender returning “to look for the guy that shot my paw”!

A fiery and passionate end to a memorable evening with a superb ‘Sidestep Your Grave’ with compelling slide and vocal hook. A tasty preview for his next release came with the mesmeric ‘Street Fair’ to close out with a promise to return next year, hopefully with his band who are becoming more integral to his musical progress. A last minute filler in the Square Roots programme maybe but with a talent like this you can never lose.

Bob Chaffey

Photos © by Ken Brown & Dickie Spurgin 

What The Audience Said….

“That was just bangin’” (Fark)

“Absolutely blew us away, mega evening!” (Jeannie Whalley)

“Another fantastic show!” (Karen McClumpha)

“A great night in a great venue!” (Paul Wild)

“Another excellent night!” (Dickie Spurgin)

“High quality americana! A wonderful, intimate gig! (Dan Ogus, Express FM)

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In case you didn't realise folks, our show at the beautiful The Tea Tray with the awesome The Luck is now almost sold out!! There are a few tickets left that's all - and here's why! If you wanna grab those last tickets then they're here: www.wegottickets.com/event/459426 _ remember, they're NOT in the shops! :)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCxRw6Dv7qoSong 'Leave Your Light On' by The Luck. Live stream clips taken from weekly performances on our Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/theluckmusic Made by the wonderf...
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PlayThe Dead South

This from The Dead South folks - Portsmouth we salute you! If you’re new to Square Roots then check out our website and maybe sign up to our mailing list - cos when we have news you’ll be the first to have a chance of getting tickets....www.squarerootspromotions.co.uk

The Dead South
This is what happens when you believe in yourselves and push through all the garbage that comes your way. This is what happens when you find people you love and they find you. This is what happens when teams, families and bonds are created and work together. This is us. Thank you, everyone. So damn much. Huge shoutout to our main man Del Suelo and our amazingly talented friends The Hooten Hallers for opening every night and slaying it. You are all incredible people. Huge thanks to Six Shooter Records for kicking so much butt and making us feel alive. Also, big thank you to Midnight Mango Ltd for getting us into these amazing venues. To the people who came out to the shows, sweat, spilt, moved and just enjoyed themselves. Let's do it again! #BastardSonTour
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Some more great photos from our The Dead South show on Wednesday taken by Rob Hall - Enjoy!Image attachmentImage attachment

Some more great photos from our The Dead South show on Wednesday taken by Rob Hall - Enjoy! ... See MoreSee Less

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Was a great night 👌

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PlayThe Goat Roper Rodeo Band

If there are any of our page "likers" who have yet to see the awesome The Goat Roper Rodeo Band - then you REALLY need to come see them at their Square Tower show on 30th March, as part of their new album launch tour. They are all kinds of wonderful - one the most exciting live bands around that much is certain, with the chops to match! If you haven't got tickets yet....well there are just 10 left! They're at www.wegottickets.com/event/454399 or in store at Southsea's Pie and Vinyl, Southsea Gallery or Harbour Records Emsworth...but be quick!

The Goat Roper Rodeo Band
So you guys all know our 3rd record 'Tall Grass' is out March 18th right??? We got Vinyl on the way, CDs and digital download from all big stores!!! 🐐✌️ We thought a little taster was in order, so here's 'Unwrap My Bones' the title track of the record, this is footage we gathered from trips to The Netherlands + touring over here too We'd love to know what you think 🤠 here's the YouTube link if you fancy giving it a like over there 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30_TS89fekw Edited by Brandon Ridley
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LOVE these guys

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Some great photos here with the Hooten Hallers at our Dead South show last Wednesday 😀Image attachmentImage attachment+Image attachment

Some great photos here with the Hooten Hallers at our Dead South show last Wednesday 😀Show #10 The Hooten Hallers, supporting The Dead South 's The Bastard Son 2019 UK-tour, Portsmouth. Big Muddy Records 🤘 ... See MoreSee Less

6 days ago

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From The Blog

Square Blog Vol. 7 – Our AMA UK Nominations

So it’s that very exciting time of the year when us members of the AMA (UK) get to nominate those musicians and songwriters that have made our world a much better and more tolerable place to live in over the last year. It was John Miles (remember him kids?!) who actually wrote the immortal line,… Read More »

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