I'M WITH HER (Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz & Aoife O'Donovan)
Support: SAMUEL FORD
Clifton Cathedral,
Bristol, UK
21 April 2015


Lineage:
Church Audio CA-14 cardioids > CA-9200 > Edirol R-09HR (@24/96) > Cool Edit Pro 2 > Sony Vegas 9.0 > CDWave > TLH
Recorded 12' back in line with house right stack, mics on collar

Recording, transfer & artwork by boombox

I'M WITH HER:

1. Crossing Muddy Waters
2. Today Is a Bright New Day
3. Walkin' Back To Georgia
4. Temperance Reel/Fire On The Mountain
5. Captain's Clock
6. Lord Lead Me On
7. The Accord
8. Run Away
9. Hornets
10. Banter
11. 100 Miles
12. Red & White & Blue & Gold
13. Lovesick Red Stick Blues
14. Fuel The Fire
15. Build Me Up From Bones
------------------------------------- *
16. Long Hot Summer Days
17. You And Me
18. Shadow Blues
19. Dark Road
20. Banter
21. Squirrel Hunters
22. Be My Husband
23. Encore Break/Banter
24. Darkest Hour

SAMUEL FORD:

1. London
2. For Her
3. The Storm
4. Tuning/Banter
5. Feel This Love
6. Tuning/Banter
7. Ballet

* - Suggested Disc Split. I have included artwork to put Samuel's set as filler at the end of Disc 2, or as a separate disc

boombox's notes may 2015:

Having seen both Sarah and Aoife before, I wasn't going to miss this one, buying my ticket back in early November when the dates were announced. For the unitiated, Sara and Aoife are, of course, better known as the singers from Nickel Creek and Crooked Still, while Sarah is a very well respected solo artist who can get musicians of the calibre of Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Dan Tyminski and Shawn Colvin to appear on her albums. The venue was a new one to me and considerably larger than the St Bonaventure's or Tunnels venues in Bristol usually used by Tim at CRH Music, but unsurprisingly, the cathedral was packed with an attentive audience ready to experience some magic. Right from the off, with their cover of a John Hiatt song, their first official release together, they treated us to impeccable musicianship and beautiful harmonies, as they presented a varied programme of original songs, traditional material and covers by their musical heroes, played on guitar, mandolin, mandocello, banjo (that's just Sarah!), fiddle and ukulele. I can't speak highly enough of this new act - catch them in small venues while you can! Opener Samuel Ford was also very good, using a variety of styles on guitar to support some strong songs from his debut release out in May 2015.

As for the recording, there is very little evidence of the audience during the songs, other than some very occasional, slightly off-key singing along towards the end from the couple sat in front of me. However, despite being a lovely sounding show, the PA was very quiet and the audience were very loud in their applause. In order to bring up the volume of the music, I took the decision to manually lower the volume of the gunshot clapper in front of me, which took about 15-20 minutes per set of post-song applause, and then lower the overall applause by 3db using the envelope function in Sony Vegas. It's still not perfect, but better now. Boosting levels also increased background noise from when I or my neighbour moved slightly. All that said, the music itself is pretty stunning and I think really captures just how talented these three ladies are. As always, my original 24bit files are available to anyone who wants to have a go at a remaster.

Enjoy!!

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