Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The question always hangs in the air on how Lydia understands, perhaps she is tune with the moment in which Dean Friedman plays to the receptive and knowing audiences in which ever city he finds himself performing, playing to crowds who do more than understand the appeal of geniality and genius in equal measure, they recognise and identify with the common touch held in the hands of the musician, and the soul of the poet.

Regardless of your thoughts on poetry, perhaps maybe seeing it as poor man’s excuse for literature or even art, in some musicians lives, it is a magical door which leads to being the finest examples of human observers, for without poetry, even in the form of the three minute pop song or the exuberance of wit of examination, life is a series of mundane events joined together by a tune that soon becomes as aching as listening to a jackhammer slicing through concrete, or a dentist’s drill determinedly descaling a year’s worth of plaque.

The poet sings, perhaps not in couplets, but in celebration, and for Dean Friedman, coming back to Liverpool always seems to be one in which the broad smile of performance is attached to the idea of festivity, the carnival of the stripped-down beauty and the gala of the guitar and keyboard. There is no need to feel anything but understanding, of seeing yourself in the same footsteps and experiences, perhaps in that the shores and town of New Jersey are not wildly different from the streets of Liverpool, the theatres held in the same affection as the venue of choice for Mr. Friedman, the Epstein Theatre.

It is to the act of observation and the bittersweet comprehension of youth, either still enjoyed in adult form or long since discarded but occasionally remembered as one would as they held a photograph up to a certain light, that songs such as Ariel, Lydia, Lucky Stars, McDonald’s Girl, Shopping Bag Ladies, Death To The Neighbours, It’s My Job, Hummingbird Effect and Rocking Chair (It’s Going To Be Alright) are greeted with the same sense of perceptible admiration as one could relish, and yet always with the smile of humility, of  wonderful self-effacement that comes hand in hand with the soul of Dean Friedman.

An evening of bliss and comfort is always needed in life, and whenever Dean Friedman comes to Liverpool, it is captured and enjoyed fully; a remarkable musician deserving the applause and generosity that forever comes his way.

Ian D. Hall