A review of Michael's recent appearance at Pleasance
Folk Bar courtesy of Martin Lenon, Embra Evening News
Exceptional slices of everyday life
FOLK REVIEW
MARTIN LENON
Michael Marra, Pleasance Folk Bar ****
MICHAEL MARRA is a legend. Theres no getting away from that simple fact, as a full house last night at the Pleasance will happily testify.
His genius is that he takes everyday, ordinary subjects and turns them effortlessly into extraordinary songs. Very few songwriters can take the mundane and turn it into the exceptional. Marra is one of the few.
In his hands, romance, struggles and even epic events are turned into extremely human experiences, just because of the way he examines them. He does what a songwriter should, which is to help the listener re-evaluate what they thought to be commonplace.
His first song, Houseroom, was new. He wanted to "get it over with, so Im not worrying about it". Within moments he had established an air of authority - a quality shared only by the likes of Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits.
The audience knew that whatever seemingly exotic happenings he sung about had happened to him. Marra has absolutely no airs or graces, a fact underlined by his choice of keyboard stand, which was - symbolically or for practical reasons - an ironing board. His songs were about the everyday - his cat, divorce or work - but textured and coloured through the eyes of a poet.
His introductions and delivery were as unique as his song-writing. Marra is blessed with a drier-than-dry wit which would make Arnold Brown gasp with jealousy, begging for discarded one-liners.
Microphone feedback at just the "right" moment in an introduction, prompted the wry remark: "Timing is everything." He was absolutely right. Timing like his isnt learned, its natural, and Michael Marra is brimming over with talent and technique.
Compared to almost any other singer - even Waits and Cohen - his voice isnt lovely, but it is full of honesty and emotion. Even songs like Reynard in Paradise, Hamish or If Dundee Was Africa, nominally humorous numbers, were full of pathos and realism.
Marra, as host Paddy Bort noted, would be a superstar if anyone outside Scotland could understand him.
Copyright@Edinburgh Evening News
