After a successful run of shows during this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival, Tara Carragher returned with a single performance during the Cabaret Fringe of her wonderful tribute to the songs of legendary musician Bob Dylan. Once again this was staged at the Promethean – the perfect venue to relax with a drink on a Saturday afternoon and be enveloped in the sounds of this superb local talent.
The show was broken up into two sets, designed to represent the structure of Dylan’s own career. Initially it was just Carragher and her guitar on the stage, as she played tracks primarily from the sixties. This allowed the melodies of the songs to shine and Carragher’s voice soared. While there wasn’t a lot of small talk between songs (Carragher put this down to a desire to fit as many tracks into the allotted 90 minutes as possible), it was apparent that she was an affable person with a true love of the songs she was playing. To close this first set, pianist Richard Coats joined Carragher on stage for a rendition of Blind Willie McTell. This fuller sound, the combination of piano and guitar, gave a hint of what could be expected in the second half of the show.
The second set saw the backing band grow to five members with the introduction of drums, bass, electric guitar and lap steel. Carragher also switched between acoustic and electric guitar throughout this part of the show. Opening with the much loved All Along the Watchtower, the following 40 minutes included a delightful combination of well-known and obscure tracks with glorious guitar lines filling the space. While the majority of the tracks were still from Dylan’s early career, the comparatively recently released Things Have Changed showed that the man can still write a song.
Closing with a rendition of Knocking on Heaven’s Door we were reminded of just how much of a contribution Bob Dylan has made to music. Undoubtedly Carragher could have kept playing song after song, and we, the audience, would have been happy to keep listening.
Kryztoff rating: 4K
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