As someone who really only knew Sandi Thom for ‘I was I was a Punk Rocker’, I was pleasantly surprised by what the night at Whelan’s had instore.
Starting off we had an acoustic performance by local act The PW Sessions. Not bad, I like their use of percussion, mixing it with vocal harmonies.
Next up was Marcus Bonfonti, a guy who plays a mixture of blues and southern rock. Entertaining and funny as well as being a really good guitarist and vocalist. Great to see him acoustically like this but for some reason I could also see him fronting a band like The Black Crowes. I’d go see him again.
First things first ‘Punk Rocker’ is total not what Sandi Thom is about. Her live set kicked off and to my surprise Sandi Thom is country. We’re not talking Daniel O’Donnell country here, were talking the equivalent of Rascall Flatts, new American country. What’s more she’s damn good at it.
Thom and her impressive band of musician’s play songs from her new album ‘Merchants & Thieves’ and was quite simply breathtaking. Why Thom isn’t or hasn’t been mentioned in the same sentence as Miranda Lambert, Terri Clark and Carrie Underwood is beyond me.