Haley Heynderickx – Hebden Bridge Trades Club – 23rd August 2018

Secret Meeting score: 83

by Dave Bertram

On the poppy Oom Sha La La – taken from debut LP, I Need to Start a Garden – Portland singer songwriter, Haley Heynderickx, delivers a direct metaphor: linking the horticultural struggles of starting a garden with the art of songwriting. The meticulous discipline of gardening is one that requires a great deal of care and detail, apparently. And it’s this approach which manifests itself in the precise and immaculate craft she displays across the record which was received to much critical acclaim.

In a live setting, she is perhaps a little more fluffy around the edges. Touring the UK alone without her band, she admits to being nervous, borrows instruments and makes up the setlist as she goes a long. But this only emphasises her sweet and endearing demeanour, losing none of the guile, talented musicianship and emotive delivery that symbolises her debut.

The Trades Club crowd find her with just a twelve-string in tow and a mix of old and new. Opening with No Face, her voice soared over beautifully and precisely picked guitar as she bemoans the ups and downs of love and loss. Jo, Drinking Song and Oom Sha La La are delivered with more of a folk twinge and new tracks Ozaki Tears, Simple Song and Ride a Pack of Bees are clear signs the formulation of the next record is well underway.

Without her band, she delivers songs that command silence – her wonderfully, fingerpicked lullabies depicting tales of love, loss and the negative impacts of gentrification. So rapturous is the response, you wonder whether a move across the Atlantic would help her career – at least her next garden is ready to bloom.

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