For Immediate Release from Tin Angel Records & Anti/Type -- Live in London -- Concert CD & DVD from Devon Sproule, feat. Husband Paul Curreri and Pedal Steel Giant BJ Cole
"I've been packing dirty clothes, / Sleeping in my coat, / Eating in the car, / Living in a bar. Goodness, ain't that the way?"
As it happens, Devon Sproule (pronounced like “rock ‘n ROLL”) inhabits a big stage just as gracefully as she does a little bar. Live in London, the 28-year-old’s first live record, includes a 10-song CD and 8-song DVD: 18 performances that show Sproule as an equally powerful and nuanced performer. "I brought the tracks home to Virginia to master," she says, "and my friends heard the clapping in between songs and were all, 'Jeez, Dev -- that's a of people! Were you opening for someone?' And I'm all, 'Nope! They were all there for me!'"
"I asked God for a good man. / But I forgot to say, / 'I wanna see him everyday.'"
Sproule's husband, songwriter/guitarist/producer Paul Curreri suffered a throat injury that forced him to cancel his own tours, making him available to join Devon's band on guitar. On many of the tracks, Curreri shares sonic space with pedal steel guru BJ Cole. "Plea for a Good Night's Rest," the solo opener from Sproule's 2003 record Upstate Songs, grows from a delicate cradle song into a billowing heart-to-heart between Cole's steel and Sproule's voice. "Ain't that The Way" puts the entire band to work as singers, carrying the counter melody sung on Don't Hurry by fellow-Virginian Jesse Winchester. Curreri momentarily shrugs off his throat woes, dueting with Sproule on the desert-bluesy rendering of Black Uhuru’s “Sponji Reggae.” Throughout, Coventry-based rhythm section G Vaughan (drums) and Andy Whitehead (bass) provide a solid, subtle support. At one break between songs, Sproule and Curreri thank an friend in the audience for a bottle of Kenyan beer left on the stage (the couple collaborated with musicians in Nairobi last summer as part of a project called Chemirocha, exploring the connection between African and Western music).
Fortunately, for the folkies who saw Sproule's first tour of the UK, supporting Woodstock legend Richie Havens, Live in London is just as much a showcase for Sproule's idiosyncratic, highly original songwriting as it is a platform for her compelling band. Scattered between songs on the DVD are video clips of Devon and the band in their tour van and backstage, goofing off, dancing, drinking, telling crude stories, sleeping, lamenting petrol put in a diesel tank. "This was our first tour with a Flip camera," Sproule reports, "and when I watched the footage that Lyle edited together, I was practically in tears, it was so funny."
Sproule's first UK release, Keep Your Silver Shined, proved an indie hit for her Coventry-based label Tin Angel Records, topping year-end lists, landing her a spot on Later...with Jools Holland. Paste Magazine called it “The sexiest, sultriest southern album since Lucinda’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
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