Clare Free Band, The Greyhound, Beeston – Friday 4/03/11

Clare Free are Clare (guitar & vocals), Matt Allen (guitar), Dave Evans (bass) and Pete Hedley (drums). Based around Oxford, Clare writes & performs her own material in a traditional blues style. The band released their first CDLP in April 2010. They have had plenty of regional & national airplay since then and followed up with a 4 track EP which is currently available on free download.

They opened tonight with the funky starting “I Won’t Lie” a defiant stance that established Clare was here on business. After the celebratory “Time of our Lives”, Clare allowed guitarist Matt some stage to demonstrate his soloing skills for “Worst Kind of Man”. Through the ballad slow intro and geared up chorus of “Fool to Pride”, to the wonderfully titled “She’s An Evil Woman” (“We know her!” came the response) and the honky tonk plonk of “Little Miss Jealousy” Clare Free gradually warmed up and began to win over the intrigued and hopeful punters.

At this point they took a risk, their first cover (BB King’s “The Thrill has Gone”) was interfered with as they demonstrated the skills of the rhythm section with a sharp switch into reggae style. This extended into a long drawn out dub exercise which although fine in instrumentation, extracting the maximum from a minimal drum kit, seemed confusingly out of place to many. Returning to the rockier style of their new song “Small Miracles” and ending on a more familiar Ruth Brown’s “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean” brought warm appreciation to the end of Set 1.

A harder second set followed with the Floyd-sounding “Please Don’t Say You Love Me”, the heavy rock influenced “Believe in Me” and “Creepy” the telecaster twang of “My Everything”, back into blues ballad for “My Perfect Man” and the poppier “Let Me Down Easy” before a rousing finish comprising an energetic version of Stevie Ray’s “Pride and Joy” and their current flagship song “Funky Mama’s Kitchen Blues”.

Considering the mainly unfamiliar material, Clare Free succeeded in impressing those present with their blend of refined song writing, solid instrumentation and wide ranging (though centrally blues based) repertoire. Personally, I tend to prefer more 1x dimensional acts (men do that!), but what pleased me, was that underneath the gloss of the girly front cover (see website & promo), lurks a powerful band engine ready and willing to drive all the way down gigging road. www.clarefree.co.uk

GT