Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

March always brings its own personal bluster and rage along with it, it is a month that dominates in many ways its environments and whilst January and February can be particularly cruel and deceitful, March verges on madness, on a tight spring, a vicious beast coiled up ready to pounce and knock you over with unexpected results. To combat the madness thrown up by a month which doesn’t believe in just standing still, in which rain and shine are intermingled like a bad marriage, some restoration of beauty and calm are needed.

It is a calm that is always provided, no matter the time of year, no matter the inclemency of the weather and the madness of the month, by Dave O’Grady, the man behind the superb Seafoam Green.

Calm, a rescue from the temptations and aggressive stance in which the blood can boil and the heartache can dominate, calm, a source of unflinching joy, of respect and true power in the hands of those that are benevolent in their voice and whisper a sense of tranquillity in which to hold very dear; it is the composure of the artist which brings peace to the fore.

In Seafoam Green, the tantalising beauty of Dave O’ Grady, the storm outside can be forgotten, can be displaced and dispersed, and on a night where he was supporting the fantastic Ezio, the storm was not only dispersed, it was made to feel inadequate as it understood to take on the dramatic cool of this single man was sheer folly.

The quietness of the seated crowd reflected fully the admiration held for the voice and the lyrical generosity in the man’s ability. Songs such as Home, Whisky, the serenading composure and truth in My Oldest Friend, the powerful message behind the magnificent cover of John Prine’s Angel of Montgomery and Runaway were all captured with Dave O’ Grady’s sense of force and overwhelming honesty.

Seafoam Green, a man who identifies and frames the relationship between honesty and delivery, who knows that if there is no truth then the song is as mad as the month of March, and who on the stage inside the Music Rooms of the Philharmonic Hall took that truth out like a sword of honour and let it defeat any negativity knocking on the door. It is always a pleasure to catch Seafoam Green’s Dave O’ Grady, it should always be seen as a mark of privilege to hear the music that fends off any lingering dragon.

Ian D. Hall