Strathclyde Suite, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 23 January 2011

THERE ARE many great singers, many great songwriters, and a fair few great singer/songwriters. There aren’t, however, all that many singer/songwriters who start pulling in the superlatives while still in their teens (sorry, kids, Justin Bieber doesn’t count). There is a not insignificant weight of other people’s expectations resting on the slim shoulders of Carrbridge’s Rachel Sermanni, still only nineteen but widely hailed as the Next Big Thing. You’d never guess, though, as she steps onto the Strathclyde Suite stage.

Rachel Sermanni (picture by Paul Campbell)

Sermanni’s New Voices commission for Celtic Connections is Tramping, a title which encompasses the travels of both the body and the soul. For the occasion Martyn Hodge (percussion), Joe Rattray (double bass) and Siobhan Anderson (fiddle) join her regular ensemble of fiddlers Laura Wilkie and Louise Bichan, plus pianist Jennifer Austin to add further finesse and brio as required.

The songs include the self-explanatory ‘Waltz’, an ‘Ode to Bed’ (she is, of course, still a teenager), naturally followed by ‘Sleep’, somewhere we all travel alone (no bad thing, she says). She moves to the piano to play a tune inspired by the Grey Man of Ben Macdhui; it could be the soundtrack to a Tim Burton movie, with a ghostly chorus supplied by the white-clad Hidden Lane choir. It’s massive, and massively impressive, but “That was very fun” is Sermanni’s laconic verdict.

It’s only when she speaks – but not when she speaks verse – that her youth is apparent, though her artless approach is preferable to stage-school polish. ‘Fox’ was inspired by a possible previous incarnation, she confides, while ‘Coming Home’ deals with that time when all you want is the comfort and familarity of the place you know best. Everyone’s certainly been there.

She has a deft touch on both guitar and piano (apart from a fluffed capo change) but the voice is her major instrument. Comparisons with the unrestrained musical adventuring of Bjork, the humour and theatricality of Jacques Brel and the wistfulness of Nick Drake would not be out of place. Added to the songwriting talent, it’s a recipe for an interesting journey ahead.

Rachel Sermanni’s tramping through life will be worth watching.

© Jennie Macfie, 2011

Links

• Celtic Connections
• Rachel Sermanni