Music Review

02 December 2008 03:12 BST

Tom Baxter – smoky elegance

"The season of mellow mists and fruitfulness," wrote the poet Keats of this time of year, and it’s a suitable description too of the music of singer-songwriter Tom Baxter. InTheNews caught the artist in London on the last night of his recent UK tour to find out more.

Gifted with an astonishingly smoky yet elegant voice, singer-songwriter Tom Baxter, who is also a dab hand with paints and pens as the artwork which adorns his new album Skybound< click here to read our review > attests to, wrapped up his UK tour in the faded grandeur of the Soho Revue Bar, an environment that mixes Moulin Rouge with an episode of Minder.

Performing to an appreciative audience of around 200 people, Tom Baxter and his band comprising guitar, keys, piano, violin and drums, effortlessly offered songs from his new LP and debut album Feather And Stone, released in 2004.

Baxter’s voice has strong echoes of Van Morrison and Joe Cocker, especially when he blazes through blues-tinged pieces like Better and My Declaration, and he stirs memories of Jeff Buckley on beautifully heartfelt numbers such as A Day In Verona, a reminiscence on young love.

A combination of Baxter’s emotive, resonant voice; his top-notch guitar-playing – which glides seamlessly from Latino to belting rock – his well-drilled band and a faultless lightshow deftly ensured that the audience’s attention was focussed upon the stage.

A relaxed but dynamic performer, Baxter's rapport with the crowd was natural and good-humoured. Listening to Tom Baxter sing, you feel like he’s a good mate and you trust him.

It's this element of trust that gets your foot tapping and your head nodding as he delves into sumptuous Arabic-edged riffs, carried along by his band, amid his soaring emotional vocals.

Throughout his hour-and-a-half set, Baxter treated the audience, a portion of which was dancing on the small dancefloor in front of the stage, to tracks from both of his albums, and it was intriguing to compare material from the two LPs.

Feather And Stone was recorded when the artist was apparently at a low ebb, but encouragement and support from family and friends enabled him to find the strength to put the album together, and he found he’d devised a guidebook to life for emotional people, as it were. A point illustrated by songs like Don’t Let Go and Almost There.

Whereas Skybound which features Better, a track used in Run, Fatboy, Run, the latest Simon Pegg comedy, is a sequel of sorts with a celebratory, life-affirming streak running through it albeit one suffused with realistically optimistic numbers like Tragic, Half A Man and the brilliant A Night Like This.

To wild applause and loud cheers, Tom Baxter and company, thanking the audience, departed the stage having performed songs that made you laugh, cry, smile and reflect – providing the ideal soundtrack to real life.

Lee Davis