[Graham Knight]

Each Michael Marra show is a unique musical experience and his solo performance at Aberdeen’s Blue Lamp on Sunday was no exception. It was a master class in showing how a talented musician can entertain a packed audience while performing his own compositions.

From the moment Michael bounded on stage and took his seat at a gleaming concert grand piano – the audience knew they were in for a very special evening.

He began by making announcement in Creole French and after pounding out a few New Orleans “second-line” riffs he began his show with the self-penned tale “Dr John Is Playing Blairgowrie Tonight.”

If this title seems a little incongruous his wit, ingenuity and originality were further demonstrated by numbers that references to “Bob Dylan’s Visit to Embra” (Edinburgh), “Grace Kelly’s Visit to Tannadice” and the most far out of them all a composition about a famous Mexican painter: “Frida Kahlo’s Visit to the Taybridge Bar.”

Marra’s acutely perceptive lyrics combine humour with at times a bitter, ironic tinge that reflects on the darker side of life. His “Chain Up the Swings”, “He Gets The Beefheart, She Gets The Stones” and “The Lonesome Death of Francis Clarke” were outstanding in this genre.

The linking material he used between numbers was equally quick-witted and hugely entertaining. When a phone in the audience began to ring Michael said, “I hope that’s an incontinence alarm as that’s the only kind we allow”. This got a great laugh but Michael managed to top it by saying, “I said that at a show last week and it was an incontinence alarm!”

A tale about the hanging of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was cleverly linked with a story about Mussolini’s pianist son playing a gig in the fifties with jazz trumpeter and heroin addict, Chet Baker. According to Marra after a show Chet said to Mussolini’s son, “A bit of a drag about your old man!”

Michael Marra played piano, harmonica and guitar during the show and wrote 23 of the 25 numbers he performed. It was a magnificent performance – a tour de force by a true original.

Aberdeen Folk Club and Interesting Promotions are to be congratulated on organising an excellent show and I look forward to another evening with Michael Marra.

http://www.marra.me.uk/