An Evening with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis & Karine Polwart – Birmingham Town Hall – Monday 3rd March 2025
SLIM CHANCES, TAKEN
With the trio already having set high the stakes for the album of the year, with their January release, Looking For The Thread, it would have seemed both rude and remiss to opt out of seeing the set reproduced on stage, and catch whatever other genies they could cast out the lamp. After all, as Karine Polwart admitted early on, the chances of this happening again would be slim, given the hectic schedules the three singers each have away from this union.
Polwart and Fowlis are each doyennes of the Scottish folk community, leading practitioners in Scots and Gaelic song respectively, frequent collaborators, not least with each other, as happy sharing a stage as being in the solo spotlight. Carpenter has more recently taken to this sort of show, after a stellar solo career, describing herself as hooked on harmonising, a “harmony slut”, even, to use her own phrase. In the U.K. fresh out of a joint tour, sharing songs with Shawn Colvin, tonight, her deep alto croon tonight would surely provide a perfect match for the higher and purer tones of her stagemates.
IN REVERENCE…
With the stage simply set, dim lights and dark curtains behind, there was ample room for the four piece band to slot in behind the three microphones, Polwart, Carpenter, Fowlis, left to right across the front. As the houselights faded, so a hushed, almost reverent audience all drew breath collectively. A drum kit, basses, both stand up and electric, guitars and keyboards; principally an ornate and antique looking Hammond, were to provide the accompaniment, the musicians trooping in unobtrusively, followed, to applause, by their mistresses for the night.
First off was Fowlis, starting off with Gradh Geal Mo Chridhe, as does the album. My comment then was it seemed a little adrift and apart the rest of the set, but live there seemed no such sense. Possibly this was because all seven protagonists seemd so deeply involved in the presentation, even if it was, to begin, just the one voice. Both Carpenter and Polwart swayed to the cadence of the ancient melody, each with eyes closed, the band providing an air of Americana to the arrangement, with some lap steel, or dobro, from the guitarist, softening the stark iciness of the Gaelic song. The gentle boings of the upright bass resounded warmly and pleasingly; we were off.
A BAND ON TOP FORM
Taking turns, it was Carpenter up next to take focus, with an acoustic guitar supplied to her for that purpose, with track two from the record, suggesting a possible running order as for the record. A Heart That Never Closes is classic Carpenter, and the sublime vocal harmonies, initially a little muted, swiftly swelled into the splendour of the studio version, it clear also that the band here tonight were on top form. Reprising their roles on the album were Chris Vatalaro, with his precise yet incisive drumming, and Rob Burger, looking like an absent minded professor, on his array of keys. However, the other two spaces came from homegrown talent, drawn from the address books of the two Scots, with Stephen Polwart, yes, a relation, brother no less, on guitars and Euan Burton, that maestro of Scottish studio production, on basses.
JAW DROP (1)
Rebecca delivered the first jaw drop moment of the evening, a song so beautiful it hardly felt real to see it sung in this setting. Polwart accomapanied herself on her trusty four string tenor guitar, as exquisitely as her solo delivery of the same song at Sidmouth, the band and the vocal harmonies transcending the whole to something near spiritual in effect. Not bad for a song about, and “by” a tree, but, then again, maybe appropriately. so, as older Gods felt present in the room. Did I hold my breath throughout? I don’t know, but it seemed so.
The first song away from the record came with Fowlis’ Windward Away, from her 2017 release, Alterum. Given Carpenter herself had been on guest vocals for that particular track, this made perfect sense and sound, it added further by the addition of Polwart. This also saw Fowlis pick up her penny whistle for the first time, if annoyingly inaudibly. Traveler’s Prayer, one of the bonus vinyl only songs from Carpenter’s 2020 The Dirt And The Stars, grew a swelter of audible recognition from the audience, many of whom, I supect, were here more for her account than for the other two singers. Which, of course, made me shout all the louder as Polwart followed with Ophelia, with her brother well versed in repeating some of his licks from the studio version.
DELIGHTFUL TEXTURES
Keeping strictly to rote, Fowlis followed with A’ Phiuthrag Sa Phiuthar, from the same album as Windward Away, her whistle now fully audible, the additional texture a delight amongst the other instrumentation. Whistle and hammond: who knew? Carpenter then delivered her Things That We Are Made Of, the male Polwart coaxing out some, for him, unfamiliar country-rock motifs out of an electric guitar, showing that style comfortably within his grasp. Final song of the first half came from Polwart, she taking the opportunity to play nearly the oldest original song of the evening, Daisy, dating back to her second solo release, back in 2009.
The interval gave some early pause for reflection, and the hushed awe permeated down into the basement bar as the Americana faction compared notes with the folkies, each enjoying the conviviality of common ground. Certainly the mood was that we were all witness to something special, with anyone not grabbing a quick wet of the whistle, eagerly queuing at the merch table. With a largely mature audience, let’s say, product seemed to be moving faster than apparel, the T shirt wearing days of many likely over.
JOURNEY SONGS
Back in and it was back to the record, as Polwart and Fowlis took lead vocal turns through the wondrous Hold Everything, an achingly plangent song that speaks to everyone. Silver In The Blue came next, it apparent that the introduction to each song were getting noticeably longer, as the singers relaxed into their audience. This Fowlis song relates to the mysterious journey cycle made by salmon, between the fresh water of their Scottish river spawn, via the sojourn to and back into the Atlantic, changing colour along the way.
That journey song was followed by another, Satellite, with Carpenter describing the solitary journey being made, forever, as the discarded space hardware remains in lonely orbit. I wondered if the polite audience were prepared for the f-bomb in one of the verses; I was and appreciated her robust delivery of it, when it came.
SETTING THE CHALLENGE
You Know Where You Are was a rare mis-step by Polwart, the jaunty re-arrangement at odds with the seriousness of the song, her jazzy clicks of finger and thumbs looking a little forced. This soon forgotten, mind, as Carpenter dipped deep in her catalogue for The Hard Way, all the way back from 1992, from Come on, Come On, an album I remember buying and devouring at the time. Her vocals were defiantly robust, were anyone doing the math, and the voice control, as she sang in near whisper, was astonishing.
Thereby the challenge was set to her companions, challenge duly accepted, as Fowlis demonstrated exactly why she is the foremost practioner of Gaelic song, for Buidheann Mo Chridhe Clann Ualrig, the second Gaelic song from the record. Never an easy tongue, to see Carpenter and Polwart twist their tonsils into the harmonies was quite something, even my late teuchter mother likely unable to see the join. Sorry finally closed the set, a song Polwart said could apply to just about anything these days, she not far wrong. It was a glorious rendition.
MORE…ENCORE…!
The audience rose as one, so as to make sure they were going to get more. Myself, I was mindful there were still a couple of songs we hadn’t heard. Eventually we were heard, and back on they came, Polwart promising, with a twinkle, that there were still a couple left in them. But it was with a different song they began, Fowlis and Polwart reprising their partnership rendition of The Lost Words Blessing, from the first Spell Songs set, another once in a lifetime project, that, by chance, is getting another airing, later this year.
Which left only time for Send Love, one of the highlights of the disc, and, tonight, of this show, a masterclass in, should you wonder whether it can be done, three part harmony humming. No time, sadly, for the title track, my favourite, but, in the griefwaves of the song sung instead, I barely noticed.
This was a very special evening and attendance felt a privilege. Thank you, ladies, and thank you the four gentlemen, for sharing their sound and their stage.
Here’s that one song they didn’t play:
Mary Chapin Carpenter online: Website / Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram
Julie Fowlis online: Website / Facebook / Bluesky / Instagram
Karine Polwart online: Website / Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram
A special evening and a privilege to be in the same room as Fowlis, Carpenter and Polwart.