Acoustica: Emily Maguire - Gloucester Guildhall

Monday 8th June 2009

Crackerjack rating: 8 / 10.

Acoustica manages to nab some terrific acts for its appreciative Gloucester Guildhall audience and Friday night’s show was no exception.

Singer-songwriter Emily Maguire brought her sweet and soulful vocal to the intimate venue. Her intelligent songs brought beautiful imagery in ‘Sunday’ as she sang about cornfields by the sea. And she injected great feeling with ‘Free’ which highlighted high standards, morals and the importance of being a good person.

Her straightforward and emotionally honest songs were compelling and captured a feeling of wanting more from life.

In ‘Wanting Time’ her soothing and enchanting voice drew the audience in for a song of reassurance.

It’s easy to see why Radio 2’s Terry Wogan picked out her song ‘Keep Walking’, a tale of perseverance, for repeated play on his show.

She brings to the table thoughtful songs which are ultimately thought provoking and intelligent observations of life that draw you in.

It was tricky for Iain Archer to follow such a class act and his quirky and slightly edgy sound was a sharp contrast to the softness and sweetness of Emily’s performance.

But he injected a warm Irish humour and brought a casual laidback appeal to the night.

It’s easy to compare his vocal with Damien Rice but at the same time you’re not quite sure what to make of him and can’t quite tidily drop him into a niche.

His songs have a hint of a haunted songwriter and his music has such an atmospheric and powerful pull you can easily imagine them on the soundtrack of a blockbuster film.

Little wonder the producers of TV soap Home and Away picked his track ‘Summer Jets’ as the backing tune for a recent episode.

The audience lapped up his sincere performance and he drew huge applause but at times he seemed over emotional which came across as self indulgent and occasionally his powerful vocal was too wailing.

Emma Luther