Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The smaller stage inside The Cavern is perhaps one that does not get the big audiences, however in amongst the memorabilia and the scrawled on graffiti, the pictures of the greats and the memorable, there is always a very loyal crowd hovering in the tight fitting space and the haunting memories of the underground venue that established British popular music as the envy of the world.
The pictures tell a thousand words, they stir memories of those who have performed in The Cavern and they join the recently placed plaque honouring David Bash’s contribution to the Liverpool music experience, the 15th year that the International Pop Overthrow has found its way to the venue and one that really should include Alison Green’s superb performances when she comes to the city, when she thrills with the Canterbury ideal and the taste of a sentinel spirit hanging in the air.
The international Pop Overthrow has long been established in the minds who make their way to Liverpool for a week of intense and groundbreaking music, performer and fan alike, they come because the music is guaranteed to be incredible, enlightening and soul bursting cool; all three categories that Alison Green fits wonderfully in and then overflows the genre with her own persona, the celebrated Whisky Ginger Johnson, the darling of the lyrical wonder.
Popularity should not be a measure of how good an artist actually is, popularity unfortunately is somehow in the eye and not in the soul but for Alison Green, the sense of the admired is vastly different, this is a performer who smiles when she sings, who the cares of the world are very much in evidence when she performs but to whom the music is a patent healer and in her the music is all about dynamic inspection, the lyric and the acoustic guitar guiding the listener onwards.
The stage is always set for Ms. Green, there is a harmony that surrounds her which is unmistakable and it all comes down that smile, beguiling the lyric, making it impressive and poignant and it is no wonder that she regularly gets invited back and in songs such as King’s Lynn Blues, Travelling Man, the mesmeric Shame, the superb Ghost Boy and Let’s Go, Alison Green showed the crowd exactly why she is a healthy reminder of the Canterbury set and their contribution to Folk music.
A welcome return once again to this hugely talented song writer, one of great insight and flourish, it is never a dull moment when Alison Green is in town.
Ian D. Hall