Kathryn Williams
UEA Lecture Theatre 1, Norwich
When a singer is blessed with a voice as beautiful as Kathryn Williams', her choice of song seems almost irrelevant. The fact that she has exquisite taste in cover versions just made a great gig even better.
About half the set consisted of other people's songs, as collected on her new album, Relations. Opening with the Bee Gees' I Started a Joke and closing with a mesmerising version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, this concert in a hot and sticky LCR was quietly beautiful throughout.
Her command of the audience was all the more impressive given her long-standing severe stage fright.
Having a hilarious line in between-song patter and an endearingly sweet manner helped, as did her delicate and moving turn of phrase.
Her self-penned Devices featured the line “The sort of song you sing on Sundays”, which describes the tone of her music well.
Adding to the music throughout were her performing partners David Scott and Laura Reid. Scott's precise guitar picking and Reid's cello are the perfect complement to Williams' pure voice. Reid's plucked bass lines and dark swell of slowly bowed cello were particularly moving on Python Lee Jackson's In a Broken Dream.
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A memorable concert from one of Britain's foremost singer-songwriters.
