John Oates

Hi John, Eileen here. I was so excited to be a part of tonights concert at the Hydro in Glasgow. I was there with my husband. Son and daughter. You guys are amazing, although there was definate tension on stage tonight. Daryl seamed a bit off, which affected the whole performance. I have listened to your music non stop for months since booking my tickets. I was so looking forward to seeing you guys (once in a lifetime, on my bucket list) I'm disappointed (NOT IN YOU JOHN) you are fantastic. Daryl let the whole group down tonight. Sorry to be negative, I'll just keep watching your Dublin concert. AMAZING. Keep safe lots of love Eileen Paton. Xx

The show was AMAZING. To see her in such a small intimate setting was magical! I felt like a walked into a once in a lifetime experience. She was funny, humble while confident and her voice is awesome.

I have been a Sam Bush fan since the 1970’s during the early New Grass Revival days. He is the reason I started loving bluegrass music. I’ve been to many of his concerts and I believe that this one was the best ever. His current band consists of extra talented musicians. The played a large variety of songs from New Grass, and Sam Bush songs throughout the set. The surprise was that they end with 3 electric songs, including “Whipping Post”, which was an audience request. They ended the set with an original Sam Bush-Jeff Black song “Stop the Violence” a new song and blew me away. They played an acoustic encore that left the audience wanting more. I can’t wait to see them again!

Monday 19th December. The Borderline. Yola Carter. In one of the last gigs at The Borderline before its refurb in the new year it’s the fabulous Yola Carter once of Phantom Limb now solo cutting a new path in the country soul scene. Hitting a lot of the ‘one to watch’ lists for 2017 we jump on board at the first stop.

It’s refreshing to see the artist hit the stage at the allotted time and despite her nursing a cold we are overwhelmed by the force of that voice from song one. Self-medicating on water and beer, if she’s not at 100% it’s not showing tonight.

She hops, skips and jumps through her only recorded release to date the EP ‘Orphan Offering’ joined on stage variously by her backing band and guest vocalists Danni Nichols and Emily Barker. Highlights for me are the excellent ‘Fly Away’ and the new song about her mother’s death ‘Free to Roam’.

After the usual charade of leaving the stage before the encore, Carter reappears with the excellent Emily Barker for a great version of the Band’s ‘The Weight’.  I am not familiar with Barker but her higher range perfectly complements Carter and I would have welcomed a lot more of them together.

It’s a small but enthusiastic crowd and I’m sure that once the word gets out the crowd and the venues will get bigger. Carter is such a talent and her voice in the lower range grabs you from your toes and envelopes your whole body as she goes through her vocal gears. If this is what it is like with a cold then stand well back when she unleashes the full force of that voice when fully fit.

It’s been a hellava ride this year with this being my 52nd gig (many thanks to the most understanding wife in the world) and considering what has happened in the world in the past twelve months it’s a fine way to send off 2016. This year has only cemented my passion for live music and 2017 is already shaping up nicely.

One final word for The Borderline and its makeover. Don't change too much, lose the velvet curtain so we can see the iconic sign on the wall again and please, please make the men’s toilets bigger and drier!

Keep on rocking into 2017 y’all.