Lauries, Glasgow, Wednesday 14 July 2004

Astrid Williamson

BORN AND RAISED in Shetland, singer-songwriter Astrid Williamson moved to Hull in her teens, and developed her music from afar. So, it was an emotional and nervy kind of homecoming to find herself on stage at the Shetland Folk Festival in May of this year, having last performed there as a child.

Astrid needn’t have worried. Shetlanders were more than happy to reclaim her; a picture of the singer even graced the front page of The Shetland Times. Whilst Astrid may be publicity shy, you sense this was a kind of embarrassment that actually felt pretty good, something similar to your parents cheering too loudly at sports day.

Now the singer is on tour once again – taking her lovelorn songs to the people of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen before returning south to play a couple of festivals. Her first solo album, Boy for You (following the dissolution of Goya Dress, her rock band of the London years), was released to critical acclaim and her new, self-titled album picks up where Boy left off.

Sweet, stunning songs on how hard it is to love with a calm plucked from the implicit understanding that life and love never run smooth. She’s touring the album solo and acoustic, and the pared down sound reveals a voice of strength and vulnerability, tenderness and longing.

Playing to a packed audience at Lauries, a bar near the Tron in Glasgow, Astrid selected songs from her two solo albums. Her voice brought to mind Natalie Merchant and Aimee Mann; with something alt.country (Lucinda Williams maybe) about her low notes and Baez in her top sound.

The songs keep love and loss close to nature; lyrics suggest heartbreak and hearts lost by the sea or under a turbulent sky. Tragic (Never Enough, Bye and Bye), inevitable (To Love You), but without being final, the songs suggest she’ll try again (Love), and you sense an acceptance that life’s about feeling it all, highs and lows.

One of my favourites was World At Your Feet, ringing with disbelief and desire – about the girl who “just wants to be happy” trying to get there with people who will only break her heart. Astrid also gave a beautiful rendition of Snow Patrol’s Run . Whilst understandably nervous about performing the song in a city which has adopted the band as its own, her voice made at least as much sense of the song as Snow Patrol’s frontman, Gary Lightbody.

Astrid’s current solo projects were prompted by frustration at not being able to hear herself sing when she was rocking it with Goya Dress. But she says she’s now becoming bored of hearing her own voice and she’s threatening to plug in her electric guitar once again. My advice – hear her acoustic while her patience lasts.

© Catriona Paul, 2004

Related Links:

• Astrid Williamson’s website