Barnoldswick Arts Centre is a small venue, and that’s the whole point tonight. There’s nowhere for a band to hide in here, and nowhere for the crowd to hide either. Everything’s close, everything’s heard, and Connor Selby looks completely at home in it.
From the first song his singing and guitar playing are spot on. It’s the phrasing and timing that grab me straight away, the sense of exactly when to hold back and when to push. Control like that doesn’t come from showmanship. It comes from years of doing this properly, which is exactly why he’s been named Traditional Blues Guitarist two years running. Around the room people are closing their eyes, completely lost in it.
Hugh Birkenhead is on fire behind the Nord Organ 3. I catch up with him after the set and he tells me the Nord is brand new to him, and the way it’s been set up makes it far superior to the model he was playing before. As a keyboard player myself, I get exactly what he means the second he says it, because the sound is very good all night, filling everything out without ever getting in the way.
Oscar Reynolds is clearly loving it behind the kit, and his drumming is very good all night. He never overpowers Connor, and he always knows exactly when to go big and when to hold back. There’s an immense amount of feel in what he does, and it marks him out as a very good drummer.
Alongside him, Sonny Winslow on bass is locked in, holding the whole thing together with an understated confidence you only get from a band who know each other inside out. This is a group playing like consummate professionals, tight and switched on to one another from start to finish.
In a room this small, that level of musicianship counts for even more. There’s nothing here to hide behind, and nothing that needs hiding. It’s a set built on real playing rather than production, and that’s exactly what a venue like this demands.
Afterwards I grab a word with Connor, who says he’s had a great night. His next show, in Birkenhead, has been cancelled through no fault of his own, so the tour rolls on instead to Barnard Castle.
Read more about Connor Selby on RAMzine.
