Laura Veirs - The Deaf Institute, Manchester 13/10/14

15 October 2014, 13:10 | Written by Joe Goggins

(Live)

(Laura Veirs)

The autumn months - October and November especially - seem to throw up so many good gigs that I could probably find one I fancied every single night; it’s probably best for both my bank balance and my sanity that I don’t, though, and it’s usually a case of strategically deciding which ones I can afford to forgo. Last year, I was keen to see Laura Veirs play live on her November tour, especially given how much I’d enjoyed her last record, Warp and Weft, which is comfortably one of the strongest of her career. Given the frankly prodigious rate at which Veirs continues to tour, though, I decided to give that last jaunt a miss; it was probably a sensible decision, given that she returns to Manchester tonight less than a year on.

She’s playing a slightly smaller room, too; the Deaf Institute is a perfect fit for tonight’s show, which unlike last year’s is totally solo and fully acoustic. Those full band shows, last time out, were designed around the fleshed-out sound of Warp and Weft; tonight’s set, though, doesn’t really lean too heavily on any one of Veirs’ nine full-lengths to date - instead, as she puts it, she’s playing the songs that mean the most to her at this point in her life. “It’s just me, my guitar, my rental car and my GPS on this tour,” she tells a crowd that’s maybe at two-thirds capacity. “It’s definitely been an experience.”

Her two children, then, are presumably at home with her husband, producer Tucker Martine, although their presence is certainly felt in terms of the songs she picks; a couple of cuts from her children’s album, Tumble Bee, are aired, one of which is introduced as “the one I sing to the kids in the middle of the night, when I’m desperate.” Elsewhere, highlights include a gorgeous cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End” and a section, early in the set, that focuses on traditional blues and country, with segued versions of the standards “Spike Drivers Blues” and “Freight Train” plucked from her Two Beers Veirs EP.

Veirs visibly grows in confidence with the crowd as the night progresses, encouraging some pretty complex crowd participation on the likes of “Life Is Good Blues” and a stirring version of the title track from July Flame. She also takes a moment to acknowledge Bernie Phillips, a local legend who’s been putting up touring musicians at her nearby home for eleven years now - including Veirs tonight - for no other reason than wanting to give something back. It’s a nice touch on an evening when the divide between performer and audience feels paper-thin.

It’s to Veirs’ credit that she continues to strive to reinvent herself as her work ethic shows no sign of diminishing; it just so happens that most of her back catalogue is perfectly suited to being stripped back in the manner that it is tonight. It does away with the experimental side of things, sure, but what it leaves you with - the voice, the lyrics and the frequent brilliance of the compositions - are unquestionably Veirs’ strongest suits.