14 Dec 2015

Richard Townend - Hebden Bridge Blues Festival 2013

Richard Townend - Hebden Bridge Blues Festival 2013

Opening the door to the Acoustic stage found The Hat in the company of Richard Townend - and what great company he is. Affable and cheerful, Richard seems to chat away to himself whilst cleverly including the attentive audience in his sometime dry assessment of what he is up to....but he is actually up to a totally absorbing set. Using a mix of guitars and some beautifully executed loops, double loops, backing lines and over-lays, he conjures a magical kaleidoscopic mix of rhythms, riffs and top lines which moved smoothly from self-penned blues numbers to complex jazz influenced instrumentals – or as he put it on one occasion “I have to put some chords in this bit”...and on another as he changed guitars mid track “and now I need a bass to play with”. Neither these delightful throw-aways or the technical gizmos do anything to disguise his undoubted musical skill and dexterity or his relaxed mellow singing which flowed through the room and warmly embraced an appreciative audience in a packed house.

Although with his band The Mighty Boss Cats, as a soloist Richard was off the scene for a while and is now coming back with a vengeance. A Blues Award nomination and this set shows that there is clearly a lot more good stuff waiting for us...