Briana Corrigan is probably best known as one of the original members of The Beautiful South and along with Paul Heaton, Dave Hemingway, David Rotheray, et al. they released a string of successful albums between 1989 and 1992. After parting ways, Briana had a solo career, a family, a stint as a music teacher in the Middle East and made Dublin her home. Now after a performance hiatus of more than 10 years Briana is back in the studio and back on tour making Liverpool the first stop on the British leg.
And so it was with her mix of crowd pleasing ballads, folky love songs and personal stories that she captivated and enthralled an audience that was possibly the most genteel I have ever encountered.
But before all of that we were treated to a performance by our very own adopted Scouser ‘Kaya Herstad-Carney’. ‘Scouswegian’ Kaya’s opening would inadvertently set a theme for the night – that of messing up with grace, aplomb and humour. Without her usual support from The Science of the Lamps, Kaya gets a moment of brain freeze and forgets the lyrics to her own song! Does she let it phase her? Not a chance! Instead she accepts the gaff with grace, makes fun of herself and moves on to track 2 of her set. Then like a true professional she regains her composure and presto! The forgotten song is back and delivered with her sweet and powerful voice. Kaya interspersed her songs with stories and jokes and her wit and humour is evident in her lyrics. Her style reminded me of Bill Bailey, witty, charming and musically gifted. In the middle of her set was a love song which she tells us was written especially for her ‘current’ husband Chris. Was the ‘current’ a Freudian Slip? We may never know, but seconds into the song she realises how weird it sounds and again we see her humour and grace.
After being suitably warmed up we are ready for the main event and Briana didn’t disappoint. Accompanied by Colm McClean on guitar and Mary Barnecutt on cello she delivers a mix of her solo work (including 13 Wonderful Love Songs, For Home and The Young Dublin Rose); songs from her time with The Beautiful South and a few others for good measure. These are woven with tales of her father and his band, her kids, life in Northern Ireland, her time with the Beautiful South and much more. Often when performers tell us these tales between songs one can start to feel frustrated and wish they would ‘get on with the singing’. However, Briana’s charm allows her to pull it off, indeed it added to the intimacy of the evening.
It would be churlish for Briana to ignore her time with the Beautiful South and of course she didn’t. She performed not only the songs she sang on, but added a smattering of her favourites from their back catalogue. For a touch of variety she included her own versions of Elvis Costello’s Shipbuilding and She’s Leaving Home by the Beatles. It was also time for more mixups with the cellist misplacing her music and Briana also forgetting her lyrics! I said it was a theme!
With the performance nearing its end we still hadn’t heard Briana sing the fan-favourite A Little Time. But as a duet, how was she to perform it? By getting the audience to join her of course! Now this wasn’t the normal pointing the microphone at the audience and getting them to fill-in approach; instead it was the ‘posh karaoke’ approach and two lucky people were invited to join her on stage. A night they will never forget and an anecdote they will probably tell for years to come.
Review and photographs by Gary Dougherty for Go Places, Do Things and Parr Jazz.
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