Music for the soul: Blue Rose Code sprinkle some musical magic in Aberdeen.

A modern-day troubadour

Ross Wilson and Blue Rose Code never stand still artistically, always embracing a diversity of musical and wider societal influences and articulating this in songs that never stop evolving. It is a journey that Blue Rose Code audiences readily connect to and feel a great affinity with. Ross is in many ways a modern-day troubadour. 

Playing at Aberdeen’s The Blue Lamp venue, Blue Rose Code comprise for this evening, Ross and longtime collaborator Lyle Watt on guitar and mandolin. It forms part of a series of duo and trio shows to road test new songs in more intimate venues, as well as offering audiences new interpretations of older songs

The Blue Lamp is a great venue, with good sound and lighting, hardworking staff, and a warm and inviting vibe. It’s clearly a venue that audiences and artists alike really appreciate, and something that Ross refers to during the gig. Tonight, there is a very strong audience attendance, and this is an audience prepared to be involved in the show, which Blue Rose Code thrive on. It is thus a great environment to feel the response to new songs, and to different arrangements, sometimes radically so, of well-loved songs from the Blue Rose Code catalogue.

We generously get two sets over the evening, with Ross wryly announcing that the second set is always better than the first. Ross and Lyle are sat on chairs, facing each other, and throughout the set smiles and banter are exchanged, signifying two musicians very much in sync and sympathy with each other. There are of course many musical highlights across the two sets, and in this review, we will reflect on moments that seem to speak to the essence of what Blue Rose Code are all about.

Set One

The set begins with Love A Little from the With Healings Of The Deepest Kind album. It is a great choice for an opening song, with its redemptive theme delivered in an impassioned vocal, underpinned with an irresistible percussive drive, that readily draws you into the song. 

Easy As We Go, from the most recent album, Bright Circumstance, is an early highlight. It has a floating feel, with Ross’s lyrics of changing seasons, hope and faith, cascading out from the stage.  Lyle adds a lovely jazz-tinged guitar part with the notes ringing out across the venue space.

Over The Fields (For John), from The Water Of Leith album, has a real poignancy tonight, as Ross refers to the recent sad passing of his friend James Prime, founding member and keyboards player with Deacon Blue. Ross goes on to describe his final visit with his friend John Wetton, who played with King Crimson, Family, Asia and many other bands, and his words to Ross that it had been a privilege to walk with him, and that we are all called home again. Over The Fields, written for John Wetton, is tonight dedicated to both John and James Prime, and is played from the heart and with respect by Ross and Lyle. It is a very touching and heartfelt moment in the evening, where John’s words about being called home, embedded in the song, movingly speak to lives well lived.

An artist and audience completely connected

Never Know Why, one of the singles from the Bright Circumstance album, feels to be a key moment in the evening. Ross and Lyle move things up a gear with this joyous rush of a song, and Ross brings in the audience to finger click along to the song’s final coda. Not only do the audience finger click in time, but artist and audience feel to be completely connected and together in the moment.  

Songs born in Ireland

This leads into a striking segment where Ross brings together the songs Riverstown and The Wild Atlantic Way (from With Healings Of The Deepest Kind). Both songs were born in Ireland, both reflecting in different ways significant moments of artistic and personal freedom in Ross’s story.  Riverstown tonight has a jazz lilt with some breathtaking high wire pauses left in the song. It almost feels like the song could fall apart at any moment, but of course it doesn’t …the wonder of Blue Rose Code in improvisation mode.

Lyle is watching Ross throughout and falling his lead, then unleashing a wonderous guitar break shooting out from the stage the most flowing of melodies. Ross beautifully scat sings the song’s conclusion, which is extended out by the two guitars into a shimmering soundscape, before elegantly segueing into The Wild Atlantic Way. At Ross’s invitation, the audience wordlessly sing The Wild Atlantic Way’s central melody, and do it very well, with Ross describing aptly their exemplary efforts as gallus. Gallus, if you don’t know it, is a wonderfully lyrical West of Scotland term 

When the set finishes with a rousing and soulful Amazing Grace, the first set feels like it was a full concert in itself. 

Set Two

Red Kites, another song from With Healings Of The Deepest Kind, is played in the second set, in a bluegrass style, with a soaring vocal delivery, and a banjo styled guitar solo from Lyle. It really fits alongside Starlit, from the same album which is played next. Ross introduces the song explaining that the song at its heart is about experience beyond analysis. Lyle’s echoing guitar accents and Ross’s gentle understated performance underline this sentiment, which is very much at the heart of the song.  

Whitechapel, from the first Blue Rose Code album North Ten, is played in a slowed down tempo that really allows the words to land from the stage. A song that talks of both personal challenges and hope never lost. One of the lines is affectionately changed to “A cold December blows in Aberdeen,” and the song ends with a bit of a hoedown. Few artists are able to engage so creatively and take risks with well-known songs, as you will witness at a Blue Rose Code show. 

The song Grateful, from the And Lo! The Bird Is On The Wing album, featured the Nashville Gospel Singers on the original recording, and Ross tells the story of rehearsing the song in a taxi with the singers, literally on the way to the recording session. Played tonight, when you close your eyes, the performance of the song sounds like there are more than two musicians on stage. Ross’s vocal improvisations are matched by Lyle’s poetic guitar solo. It is a quite delightful performance of the song, that leads to some of the biggest applause of the night.

New songs

A selection of new songs are played over the evening, and two to highlight are Broken Hallelujahs and Emily Dewdrop, both played in the latter part of the second set. Broken Hallelujahs is a sparkling and pacy classic rock and roll workout, with lyrics to match, which Ross and Lyle have a lot of fun with, including the song breaking down at one point. You could almost imagine Little Richard making this song his own. 

Emily Dewdrop, is a song inspired by the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, with the catalyst for writing it, coming from Ross’s recent reading of Christian Bobin’s biography of Emily Dickinson, The Lady In White. It is a song that is beautifully crafted with a gentle rise and fall and almost imperceptible swing. The lyrics seem to tumble from the stage and evoke pictures of a time and place and a creative life, that clearly mean a lot to Ross. It is one of the standout moments of the evening. These new songs suggest that we have a lot to look forward to on the next Blue Rose Code album.

Singing with grace and understanding

Played in between Broken Hallelujahs and Emily Dewdrop, is Ross’s reading of Jerry Lynn Williams’s song Running on Faith and his own Sadie from the Bright Circumstance album. Running on Faith is here played as a quite marvellous country blues with some impressive slide guitar phrases from Lyle. Sadie, accompanied by Lyle on mandolin, is a respectful eulogy to trying to make one’s way through poverty and addiction, and as ever is sung with grace and understanding.

The encore that concludes Blue Rose Code’s visit to Aberdeen, is a sympathetically authentic arrangement of John Martyn’s heartfelt plea to a friend, Solid Air. If I was to say that Lyle’s guitar work brought John Martyn’s spirit into the room, and that Ross’s rhythmic vocal following the contours of the song, brought Danny Thompson’s sublime double bass playing on the original recording to mind. Then you will have a sense of how good this version sounded. 

Blue Rose Code – why they matter

Where being kind and feeling an empathic and caring human connection with others, sometimes seems to be less valued and lost sight of in our world. Blue Rose Code offer music that cares and connects, and offers healing, as sometimes only music can. It is an artistic vision that respects its audience enough to assume that they will readily come on a journey of music that evolves and changes and celebrates not staying the same. It is moreover a music brave enough to reflect both the challenges and joys of human experience. Tonight, in Aberdeen, Blue Rose Code embody all these qualities.

For more information about Blue Rose Code, including upcoming shows: Website / Facebook / Instagram 

Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube