Roxanne de Bastion at the Liverpool Loves Festival 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sun was on its waning path across the River Mersey as Roxanne de Bastion took to the Dovedale Social Stage. The journey to the city’s Liverpool Loves Festival may have been a fraught and arduous one, but it was one that led to Ms. Bastion being greeted like an old friend and one in which the day would ultimately revel in her way of musical story-telling, the fire in the Folk and the wonderful way in which to turn one particular song associated with one genre into the epitome of another.

It perhaps sits well within Ms. Bastion’s young upbringing that that the narrative is where the ear lends itself to when listening to the music she has lovingly created. It certainly captured the mood, expansive light and full of the drops of fire that burn in the imaginative process that showcased the latter part of the day on the Dovedale Social Stage and with the thought of the immense local names to come on the Main stage later in the evening.

For now though, within walking distance of the graces that line the boulevard, Roxanne de Bastion played gently with the heartstrings of the audience and the light that shone brightly on the River Mersey behind her reflected in the faces of the crowd smitten by the words and imagery on offer.

Opening her portion of the day with Some Kind of Creature, Ms. Bastion played Seeing You from her 2014 E.P. before strolling with purpose through a couple of covers, one that naturally loaned itself to the proceedings in a version of The Pretenders’ hit I’ll Stand By You and one that was perhaps an un-thought of herald of the Folk genre when stripped back and given the delicate touch employed by Ms. Bastion, a fantastic reading of Andre 3000’s Hey Ya. To hear this song in such way sent shivers down the spine and the tingling feeling was still there long into the night. It really does make a day worthwhile when you can hear a song long associated with a genre that you might not listen to, being changed to one that you realise was made truly for another.

Finishing her slot at this year’s Liverpool Loves Festival with the song Red and White Blood Cells, Roxanne de Bastion gave a superb account of herself and became a new idol to those in the Pier Head crowd who had not seen her perform before. Generous vocally, mischievously cool in her musical ability, Roxanne de Bastion is one to watch.

Roxanne de Bastion will be back in Liverpool to perform at the Liverpool International Music Festival on August 31st at The Kazimier Garden.

Ian D. Hall