Live Review by: JAMES KIM
Two towers stand across neither ends of the stage, while the swaying trees serve as a backdrop. The lights dim, and the 22-year-old folk singer, Laura Marling, walks down the cobble stone steps and begins to strum her guitar to the tune of, “Rambling Man.”
The English singer-songwriter and her band graced The Ford Amphitheatre on a Sunday night. The open-air venue was rebuilt in 1931 to resemble the gates of Jerusalem, and could be described as an outdoor cathedral. Her voice resonates throughout the theater, and the setting compliments the “new folk” artist perfectly. Marling says, “I’m not good with stage banter,” in a soft-spoken British accent. Yet when she sings, her voice is clear and mature beyond her years.
After a few songs in, Marling’s band leaves the stage as she performs solo. The folk artist plays, “Flicker and Fail,” a song she tells the audience was written with her father. She plays the guitar with precision and sings, ”And the rain fell on the towers and on the late swaying trees,” with confidence. Her lyrics could almost be describing the venue itself. “I’m gonna play a new song. I hate when people play new songs at gigs,” Marling says. She proceeds to play two new songs with no given title.
Before playing the last song in her solo set, Laura Marling announces this is the last stop on her month-long tour. She tells the audience that she misses England and says, “It’s difficult to remember what England is like over here.” Marling says the song, “Goodbye England (Covered in Snow),” is about a church on a hill in her hometown that her father loved to visit. Her father requested that she bring him back there before he died. “It’s a hard thing for a six or seven-year-old to hear,” she says with laughter. As the night starts to get cold, Marling sings venerably, “and I never love England more than when covered in snow.”
The band enters the stage and they continue to play four more songs. The musicians play their eclectic range of string instruments: consisting of an upright bass, cello, banjo, acoustic and electric guitar beautifully together. Marling’s voice rises above these instruments when singing, “Salinas,” as the song reaches a climatic height. As the set comes to a close, the singer says, “In England, we don’t do encores.” They continue to play their final two songs—and when they finish—they put down their instruments. The intimate crowd gives them a standing ovation, and without pause, they leave the theater.
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