Satin Beige, LIPA, Liverpool. April 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Relaxed, composed and only the barest hint of the immensity that resides in her fingers showing as they strain at the leash wanting to fly with the same feeling of majestic endeavour that she showed ahead of supporting Tommy Scott’s acoustic evening at Leaf in March, Satin Beige looks as if she doesn’t just want to give a performance to remember, she wants to show exactly why she is so highly regarded and so admired.

With support on stage from her recently put together band, Satin Beige took the beautiful opening to Love Drunk out for a well deserved spin and took the audience out for a drive that both sat in the realms of enamouring and confident serenity.

The cello is one of the most heartening instruments available, along with the saxophone and the drums it can make or break a tune, it takes strength of character, a heart filled with purpose and intrigue in which to carry of the sweetest of laments and the dirty tone of the desired and enviable. In Satin Beige the way she plucks the strings of her cello is in the same league as the incredible versatility employed by violinist Erica Nockalls, it is the sweetness wrapped in the heartache, the beauty played by one instinctively feels the heart in the wood and taught string.

In songs such as Soul Food, Goodnight Manhattan, Playing With Fire, the superb Being Me and the outrageously enjoyable Addicted, Satin Beige commanded truthful and pleasing attention, both in the Sir Paul McCartney auditorium and for posterity in the recording of her final showcase piece for L.I.P.A.  This was not just a moment to remember, this was the start of something beautiful, a cello in the hands of someone who cares, the crushing melancholy it holds in its bowels springing to action with glee and prosperity in the fingers of one who knows just how to get the most out of its wooden heart.

Following on from supporting Tommy Scott is hard gig to follow, yet somehow Satin Beige showed all the polish of a considered artist, one who even yet has not reached the very peak that will come, but one who strides with purpose towards that day.

Ian D. Hall