Lady Nade Sings Nina Simone @ Gosforth Civic Theatre - October 3

Lady Nade (vocals); Ruth Hammond (piano), Holly Carter (guitar); Chris Jones (bass); Matt Stockham-Brown (drums); Shirley Stockham (tenor sax)

At a loose end one evening a digital flick through what was on in Newcastle led me down to the Globe to see Lady Nade and I’ve been following her career ever since. She occasionally sends me e-mails with concert dates, recipes for food and cocktails (most notably a daiquiri - also available on her tea towels) as well as links to her videos. Despite the fact that she usually seems to operate in the fields of folk and Americana there is a logic to a singer with her voice stepping up to the mic with a ‘Sings Nina Simone’ show.

A friend of mine once saw Nina Simone and she spent half the time swearing about the piano and the sound which left the audience terrified. That’s the bit of Nina Simone that Lady Nade left on the bus. Instead she is warm and welcoming, despite the seven hour schlep up from 'Bristle' and backed by a strong band blessed with excellent sound from the man on the desk.

Simone’s repertoire was well represented with love songs, political songs (and comments) humour and wistful philosophy with too many highlights. The Lady’s voice is Simone-esque but she has a higher edge and it often sounded a bit thinner, more ethereal than her idol’s. Where Nina’s voice goes low, hers sometimes goes higher, using that edge well. She doesn’t have the widest of ranges (but then again, neither did Nina) but she sings with plenty of energy and emotion that carries the songs wherever they go, and the voice delivers the soul, the blues and the gutbucket gospel, the passion and the dramatic despair that we came for. She physically puts herself into the songs and brings out the drama and the characters in there.

There is humour a plenty with references to her Bristle accent, (which only very rarely comes through in her singing) and she says she’ll get the audience to buy her merchandise at the interval by putting a spell on us – cue for a song.

Lots of highlights where the familiarity of the songs were like a comfort blanket but the joyous delivery raised them a little bit higher. I Got Life was a wailing celebration for voice and sax; Mr Bojangles was gentle and wistful; Feeling Good showed voice and band working tightly together really well with the sax picking up the end of a vocal line and spinning away on a trip of Stockham’s own. As she had done with I Wish I Knew… and My Baby Just Cares For Me Hammond rolls some lovely rhythm and blues piano through the tunes. Break Down … and Lilac Wine get full dramatic readings, almost bordering on histrionic, and the tension building, adrenaline rush of Sinnerman has the Lady dancing in the aisles as it builds with no release until the band drop out for a rhythm battle with heavy grooves and charging drums before they all come back in and the sax lifts it up another notch.

The single encore song, Rainbow, is a Lady Nade original, a gentle lilting ballad, in which she sings of internal character contradictions and the need to give ourselves compassion. Even dressed completely in black, she’s a rainbow.

I was expecting a good time but, having battle my way through Storm Amy to get here, it was a lot better than that. The familiarity of the songs (many of which were long time favourites in this house) and the warmth and charisma of Lady Nade as well as the excellence of her band made for a great night out. No trees down on the way home. Easy for me; the Lady and the Band were heading to Edinburgh. Dave Sayer

Housekeeping

Lady Nade’s further tour dates for ‘Sings Nina Simone’ are on her website at ladynade.co.uk along with all the usual stuff (including tea towels).

Guitarist Holly Carter is back in Newcastle, at The Cumberland Arms, on October 31, though her own music is more Americana/folk than she’s been playing on the ‘Sings Nina’ tour. Her new album, Leave Your Mark, is pretty good.