Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

It seems to be that the phrase for Liverpool’s Eleanor Nelly is “always continues to impress and astound”; for when you see this young musician perform you forget about many things, Time gets swallowed up, Time finds a way to be its own destructing agent without decaying the fragile and sensitive beauty that is bonded between audience and performer. It is almost as if Time understands the special nature that comes with Ms. Nelly and wants to make sure that those that see her perform now in Liverpool enjoy, take pleasure in and bask in the enormity to come, for six months on from turning 16, Eleanor is surely earmarked to go to the stars.

Watching Eleanor Nelly support Gary Edward Jones at Constellations is humbling, the voice will break your heart but strengthen your resolve, she will in the best way possible take your life and make it better but also the tears will flow and she will do this with a smile, the elfin like demeanour but above all with humility and not one sign of conceit. It is the voice, always the voice that drives the love of the audience to her and there will come a day when that intimate nature she delivers will have to be expanded to the next stage, the likes of the Philharmonic Hall and beyond, for now though the intimacy is warm and captivating.

It is in the nature of the performer to be humble but as Ms. Nelly performs songs such as Old Soul, Me and You, I Call Safe, the astonishing and excellent new song Paper Aeroplane, Wannabe, the much admired Insane and Loved, Breaking Barriers and the superb Somethin’s Gotta Give, that feeling of humble is exemplified, it is framed and no doubt offered that Ms. Nelly is one of the most sincere and grounded individuals around.

Innocence always becomes lost but the voice will always enchant, the comparisons to Joni Mitchell visibly fill the audience with pride and as you look around, as the evening chill of the April air dissipates with the warmth offered inside Constellations, that pride glows and burns bright. This is woman who will eventually break hearts by not being in her home city as much, who will charm crowds in far off places; for now Time is stopped and the music and that demanding attention voice grows ever louder, it is an honour to see Ms. Nelly so adored.

A great support to Gary Edward Jones, but then you would not expect anything less.

Ian D. Hall