Shannen Bamford at Studio 2, Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Shannen Bamford is nobody’s fool and the sweet reflections of life she offers wherever there is a microphone with the right properties to care for her haunting and sensual voice should be heeded with big smiles of enjoyment and truth of life thrust into any day.

It is a truth of existence that life without some sort of pleasure is to be considered an act of downfall, of allowing others to stand in the way and dictate that the soul should be austere, devoid of meaning and ultimately only fit for bitterness and resentment. Whilst nights in the city of Liverpool, or any town or village are allowed to happen where the next generation of musicians and entertainers are allowed to supply the world with art, then that austerity will never truly take hold and in Shannen Bamford it will never even see a foothold to wedge its despairing size tens into.

Supporting Vanessa Murray as part of her launch party for her debut E.P. was not only a pleasure for Ms. Bamford, a fact easily recognised by the sheer friendship between the two musicians but was also a privilege for the crowd who had braved the ensuing darkness of the November night, the thoughts of the lighter evenings of 2016 a distant and impossible dream for now, and they were not to be disappointed as the five song set was dipped in cool and baked with pride.

Shannen Bamford has long been a favourite of the music lovers of Liverpool, she exudes a voice that if it were denied to the city many would fear for what that meant for the longer term prospects of enjoyable evenings out. As she played the songs Shiver, Tides, Bullet, Hide and the beauty of Call Me Home, the look in every stranger’s eyes was one of immense gratification and respect, the urge to ask her to play a full set ever tripping off the tongue.

Whilst this was most certainly Vanessa Murray’s night, the democracy of the evening was well established and it is too Ms. Murray’s foresight that she asked some of the brightest and best of her generation to be there alongside her, for pleasure is something that has to be fought for, beige dullness guarded against, in Shannen Bamford she had a Captain worth her salt who was willing to fight alongside her.

Always a delight, Shannen Bamford continues to keep the musical light alive.

Ian D. Hall