Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The last time Matthew McGurty performed in Studio 2 to such a loyal and intensely proud audience the winter of 2015 was in full blast and the cold was such that that the music of the man was not just a welcome glow in the corner of some good old fashioned public house, the type where they won’t let you leave for home without checking that you are safe to do so and if walking, pouring you the fortifying aid of a hearty whisky, it was the shine of the sun on a near broken spirit and the smouldering of a dusky maiden kiss.

If the sight of Matthew McGurty was welcome on that cold and frost inducing evening, then as the balmy and stifling days of the summer came crashing to a wet end, he was simply oozing in the at ease salutations of such an appreciative audience that it was like receiving an embrace from that lover you dared not ask for a dance.

There is something very elegant in the way Matthew McGurty performs, something tangible, impressively real in the stance and perspective of the musician; your thoughts go back to lessons of the classics and you wonder if at any time heroes of Greek mythology ever looked upon their muses with the same type of admiring look etched deeply into their smiling faces.

It is that elegance that carries songs such as Rabbit Hole, Humble Heart, Let’s Go, Nevis and Love Is with such warmth, such vitality and one that must never be taken for granted. It is the way of the world to treat such progressive and meaningful hearts at times with disdain, the taking for granted scenario where we push them into a box and then tape it off and stifling the abundant creativity; that must never happen to anyone with a resourceful artistic bone, least of all Matthew McGurty, for in his space on stage, he is arguably one of the finest acoustic and Folk players you are ever likely to come across; a towering strength with a fine mind.

The applause for that creative hold was such that if ten times the number of people had been in the room it would have made people outside on the barely lit street look around for the lightning that inevitably follows the thunder; the spark, the flame and the majesty of sheet lightning bringing life to the dark, it all resides in the heart of Matthew McGurty.

Ian D. Hall