John Murry – Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, November 27, 2021.
Written by celtic music radio on December 4, 2021
John Murry is intense with a dogged edginess that makes his gigs so memorable.
On his latest visit to Glasgow he kept his Nice’n’Sleazy audience on their toes with hushed or full-cry vocals and searing guitar powered along with heft by bass player, Ellen O’Reilly and drummer, Johnny Boyle, a sparkling rhythm section that added sheen to all the man at the mic was doing.
Seven tracks from his latest and terrific album, The Stars Are God’s Bullet Holes, and a couple from the wonderful album that is The Graceless Age came our way, not forgetting a cover of Duran’s Duran’s Ordinary World and an Abba curtain raiser.
The contrasts are stark and add to the performance. You Don’t Miss Me, Oscar Wilde, Perfume and Decay, Kreutser Sonata, Ones + Zeroes, I Refuse to Believe (You Could Love Me) and the title track from his current gripping release are delivered with edge, a fiery, heavy-duty onslaught that pierces its way from the stage through the gloom into every corner of the room.
When The Graceless Age tracks, California and Southern Sky are added to the mix, it’s proof that Murry is a songwriter growing from a position of strength.
Whether growling or displaying his Nick Cave side his songs dig in with no word or note wasted.
Murry acknowledges that music has been his ‘salvation’ – and we are certainly glad of a lifeline to it.
MIKE RITCHIE
