REVIEW: JOSH T PEARSON AT EXETER PHOENIX (25/11/11)
The stage is bare, the lights are low and Josh T Pearson, the man who reigns from Texas, is stood with nothing but a guitar, voice and beard to his performance. No Gimmicks, no magic tricks just a simple finger plucking guitar enthused sound, both lulling and melodic. His voice and lyrical ability bears similarities with other singer songwriters such as Withered Hand and Micah P Hinson whose anguish also drives them.
Shutting my eyes during his set enriched my experience with a time deleting euphoria, which held me in a barn sat upon a hay bale listening to a cowboy, telling stories from his deep and dark heart. Josh T Pearson is a storyteller, tattooing words in the blurs of your brain. Last of the Country Gentlemen is his first album since leaving Lift to Experience in 2001. The album is an emotionally vulnerable soundtrack for the ears of those who have felt a similar heartache. The quiet and concentrated birth of the album highlights the genuine, authentic label it rests on.
The audience stand silently transfixed by Pearson’s heartfelt melodies which are sable and depressing in their lyrical crafting. Yet as each song ends so we are reunited with Pearson’s comic genius. He tells jokes like hes running out of gas, racing through all his favourites and when hes done with those he asks the audience to help him out. He is aware that some of his most devoted fans have heard the jokes already and he acknowledges this in his standard American drawl which is oh so encapsulating. He has a Leonard Cohen-esque way of interacting with his audience, who dare not heckle or speak during his set.
The Phoenix was an excellent venue to showcase Pearson’s vocals which were never lost in the voids of the ceiling. A Bafta performance with absolutely no critique. At the end of the night its decided, Pearson wears the beard in the relationship it doesn’t wear him.
Words: Kayleigh Cassidy
Photo: Laura Williams
