Presented By The Small Hall Sessions

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL M WARD GALLERY BY ROB HARBERS

Review By: Rob Harbers

Artist/Band: M Ward Sup by Tom Cunliffe

Venue/City: Te Awanga Community Hall, Napier, New Zealand

Date of Event: Friday 28th February 2025

The Small Hall Sessions have delivered many a great experience to their army of followers and tag-alongs. Audiences that are continually held in awe by the acts they witness on a regular basis, and as such are intensely loyal to the concept. However, and this is not to take anything away from the venerable lineup of past performers, tonight the bar was raised by an order of magnitude, one friend remarking that this was one of the best things they’d ever seen! High praise indeed, but an understandable reaction to a spellbinding session by the masterful M. Ward.

This being the most high-profile artist to grace the stages of the Sessions, the night commenced with something relatively rare for the format, in the way of a support act with these duties being performed by Tamaki Makaurau’s Tom Cunliffe. Over 5 songs, he took us on a journey through past interactions and inspirations, with songs that were packed with meaning and intent, communications expressed with admirable clarity and literacy. A worthy, and highly appropriate, introduction to the experience that would follow.

M Ward’s entry to the arena commenced with an intricate instrumental piece, showing his skills on guitar while capturing his audience’s attention from the first minute. And having grabbed it, he wasn’t to let go for another hour and change-segueing quickly into the beautiful love song of ‘Eyes on the Prize’,  ‘Fuel For Fire’, with its feel that called to mind ‘Wichita Lineman’, is a great example of the way that so many of these songs call to mind so many others – a riff here, a lyric there – such as ‘I dug beneath the Wall of Sound’. An artist who acknowledges and celebrates what’s laid the tracks for him to follow, and inserts many callbacks, little sonic Easter eggs if you like, dotted through the material to reward the attentive listener.

Or sometimes the links are even less obliquely expressed, such as in his cover of Buddy Holly’s ‘Rave On’, the outro of which saw the introduction of piano over a looped guitar riff, and signalled the move to the piano for a few numbers. ‘Here Comes the Sun Again’ a further example, in title at the very least, of the callback theme, leading into a cover of Daniel Johnston’s ‘Story Of An Artist’ a treat of wry lyrics and exquisite piano, the crescendo of which triggered a memory of Sigur Ros. ‘Poison Cup’, the ode to full hearted love, closed out with a nicely meaty riff, giving everything, indeed! And then letting it loose again with the evocative ‘The Sandman, The Brakeman, and me’.

Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the name of the next song, and I don’t have enough of a background in this material to know it, but in any case, it contained the beautiful couplet of ‘Holy water underground, tastes more like wine than beer’ true poetry, to these ears at least! But time flies as they say, and next thing the man was leaving the stage, with just a looping guitar riff to recall his presence. That, and the repeated calls for an encore, which saw him return for his version of Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ the most beautifully languid expression ever of this classic, suggesting the dance to be closer to a slow waltz than dancing the blues! And that was the encore, one and done, leaving us to pick our collective jaw from the floor.

In introduction to this event, Jamie frequently mentioned his long interest in this music, and it wasn’t hard to see why-such experiences are the very apotheosis of the Small Halls Wairua, and leave many memories in the hearts of those fortunate enough to be present. A fantastic guest, another star in the pantheon; I think Jamie may need to rest for a while before trying to come back from such a peak!