Ariel Posen Live @ The Jam House, Birmingham
Ariel Posen, Brings A Sweet Taste to The Jam House
Canadian singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist, dropped into Ireland, and the UK as part of his tour to promote his solo debut album, How Long. One of those dates, was a return trip to Birmingham’s Jam House, where he brought his stylistic blues, and soulful, melodic rock; performing with bassist Eoin Walsh, and drummer Davie Ryan, both from Ireland. Many of his songs from How Long, are autobiographical in nature, the thoughtful lyrics, served up with a nice helping of guitar riffs, hooks, and a healthy measure of slide.
Ariel dived straight into his new album, with the easy rolling rock of, ‘Try’, Eoin’s 5 string base, making its mark from the start. Slow, pulsating rhythm ebbs out, the bass oozing funk, throbbing like a Harley on tickover, as Ariel harmonises with his slide play, a superb, ‘SisterMotherLover’, the dirty, fat slide notes fill the air, as the atmosphere noticeably thickens.
We move on to wallow in the lovely title track from the album, ‘How Long’, via a quick dip into an esoteric jazzy, slide, jam. A beautifully crafted song, that drips with sorrowful soul, how long can this feel so wrong, as Posen questions his mistakes, searching for the way forward. The song stretches and breaks into ballsy fuzzy riffs, and as Davie pins it together with his insistent rhythm alongside Eoin’s deep bass. The album is full of self doubts and emotional struggles, as he says, its not a happy album, but musically, that’s a different matter altogether. And, like the album, Ariel just drops in these seemingly ad-hoc, intriguing little pieces, which maybe, are part of a big jigsaw, just waiting to be put together.
The copper slide has barely left his little finger, all evening, and his next dip into the album, brings it back into use, a stunning, almost demonically dark, ‘Get You Back’, he’s dug in deep, and looking for a way out of the dark days. Moody blues indeed, but its a spell binding song, ticking drum rhythm, and bombing bass, give the grounding for the dark guitar licks, heavy with dirty fuzz, the lyrics may be borderline depressive, just got to get you back, many of us have plumbed these depths, perhaps few could say it in music that bubbles and threatens to erupt volcanically. Best slip in an upbeat song, ‘Can’t Stop Thinking About You’, says everything, with Ariel wielding his powder blue Collins guitar, can’t say you see many of those!
That bass and drum pulse, drop to an even slower rhythm, as Posen rolls the dice, on, Better Late Than Never’, full of tear inducing slide runs, proving it doesn't have to rock, to roll. The band close on a cover, John Martin’s ‘Angeline’, with a solo guitar feed in and some fabulous slide to as the song builds.
All in a tasty spread of intriguing music, served up in Birmingham’s Jam House, I’ll leave you with a few words from Ariel himself.
"The guitar is the tool to get the music out," he says. "Always serve the song first. Otherwise, you're just playing an instrument.”
Words & Photo Graham Munn
