mersey wylie at Palm Sugar, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Sunday evenings can be a time of reflection, the chance to catch up on some time alone reading from a stack of books that you keep putting off, or even plunging head first into the afterthought of dish cleaning and ironing whilst one eye is on whatever the television companies believe you can cope with and allowing one side of your brain to doze off in bliss ahead of what passes for another week of toil.
Sunday evenings can be like that; however it is a waste of a life compared to having the utter pleasure of catching Mersey Wylie perform at Palm Sugar as part of a evening run by Liverpool’s Little Atom’s Karen Podesta and Gemma Aldcroft.
The mark of a performer can be on occasion measured by the way they hold the attention of a crowd, whether infront of a few thousand people or infront of an audience that found its way into a bar unaware that young musicians and singers play their heart out for a worthwhile cause. Mersey Wylie in the last few months may have supported her father Pete Wylie at the Zanzibar and wowed the crowd to the point of stunned admiration. She certainly blew away everyone inside the Scandinavian Church and memories still linger of early exceptional talent as she played alongside Dave O’ Grady in Leaf and on the University of Liverpool student radio but to catch her in the raw inside Palm Sugar was enough to make an unbeliever cry at the missed opportunities.
Assisted by Ellie Markham on piano, Mersey Wylie broke hearts and gained more fans as she performed three superb covers and two of her own original compositions as diners could be seen through the glass that separated the two rooms placing down cutlery and listening with as much earnest as those who elected to stay within eye-line of the very talented singer.
The five song set included a smashing version of the Anthony Newley written and Nina Simone endorsed Feelin’ Good, the gracious Son of A Preacher Man and Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine, on this track especially, all that was missing was the distinctive sound of Stephen Stills backing guitar to make it a truly mind blowing cover.
It is though in Mersey’s own writing in which she excels. Early in the year at the Zanzibar Club, this was proved beyond doubt and she cranked up the sound once more as she sang Never Really Mine To Lose and the beautifully personal In My Heart.
No matter where you catch this breath-taking vocalist, be sure you do, be it in the back of a bar somewhere or in a venue that really captures the emotion and passion in her voice to the point where it soars high and digs deep into the audience’s conscious, there is no way to be disappointed. Vocally stunning and a credit to the city of Liverpool!
Ian D. Hall