Richard Buckner’s one and only date in Italy (amazingly, his first ever concert in the country) is at the relatively modest Bronson Club in Ravenna.
He is backed by Sacri Cuori, a three-piece band from Emilia-Romagna – the location of this group explains the choice of venue. The band’s leader – guitarist, Antonio Gramentieri – has been active in the region for a number of years, mainly at nearby Faenza with promoters Strade Blu. He has helped bring some class acts to the music starved region, mostly within the folk/alt.country genres – names such as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Howe Gelb, Devendra Banhart, Antony & The Johnsons, Steve Earle.
Sacri Cuori’s half hour support slot shows that they have picked up some pointers from such artists – their desert twang instrumentals would be well suited to a dusty American road movie. It’s a style that fits in well with Buckner whose past collaborations include a couple of albums with Giant Sand /Calexico’s Joey Burns and John Convertino.
Despite an unbroken run of superb albums from his 1994 debut Bloomed to this year’s Our Blood, Buckner still has cult status (i.e. too few fans). As a result there were only about 100 punters a Ravenna making for zero atmosphere.
Buckner and band seem unfazed by this and blaze through a set list which includes the first seven tracks from Our Blood played in sequence interspersed with other selections from his impressive back catalogue.
Buckner has the muscular build of someone who either works out a lot or does heavy manual work (I suspect the latter) – he sports a fairly ragged beard and his greying hair is given an artistic touch with a single long plait. He looks quite relaxed but doesn’t speak much – many of the songs segue into each other in any event. He does however make a point of praising his new-found band mates and says this has been his best tour ever.
Richard Buckner once spoke of doing a ‘breathy thing’ when he sings; it’s a masculine baritone with a surprising vulnerability. On record this sounds hushed and intimate but on stage this changes into more of a harsh growl as he has to make himself heard over the electric backing.
I can see that Buckner is more at ease with a band behind him, but I would have preferred to see him play more songs solo; only the encore of Ariel Jamirez being just him and acoustic guitar.
The musicianship is impressive but the overtly electric arrangements tend to flatten out the subtleties found in the recorded versions. For this reason I left feeling a little disappointed but it was still a blast to be in the same room with a man I have admired from afar for more than a decade.
This clip from You Tube is how I hoped he would have sounded:
