Dar Williams & Wes Finch - 26/11/2016 - Tittensor Vh

Moving to a Saturday night for the first time, A500 Music's final show of 2016 saw the internationally acclaimed Dar Williams make her first stage appearance in Stoke-on-Trent.

Opening for Dar was the incredibly talented young singer songwriter Wes Finch from Leamington Spa Surprising at least one audience member (who had attended the same school and turned up not expecting to see an old class mate onstage that night), Wes delighted and moved us all with a compact set of new material and some great songs from his last acclaimed album 'Awena'.

After recently hosting Shanade Morrow at Tittensor, it makes you wonder what they are putting in the spa waters of Leamington that it is producing such a rich vein of fine young talent.

New York to Stoke-on-Trent is not a particularly well beaten path for musicians, so it was a proud moment for us at A500 Music to be hosting a Singer songwriter with the credentials of Dar Williams.

It's not every day, that an artist who has sold over a million albums worldwide, 'rocks up' at a tiny village hall in Tittensor and unsurprisingly the show had sold out weeks in advance, with people travelling considerable distance to join us.

Describing it as a geography lesson of the United States, Dar opened her set with the title track of her most recent album 'Emerald'. Having toured internationally for over twenty years, Dar's songs draw heavily on her experiences during this journey. With a pure clear voice, a relaxed guitar style and a strong narrative running throughout her performance, (evoking memories of the great Joan Baez), each song weaves a colourful tapestry; a patchwork of life, poetry and soulful melody.

"I haven't seen much of Stoke-on-Trent because it was pitch black when I got here" quipped Dar, so instead she chose to get to know the town by coming out to meet as many of her audience as she could after the show and for such a renowned artist she was refreshingly humble and genuinely appreciative of the respect she had been shown by everyone at Tittensor.

With our first full year of hosting live music in Stoke-on-Trent drawing to a close, what better way to bring the curtain down than by hosting two such outstanding musicians in another evening of wonderful live music.