The Bluebird Sessions at C2C 2017 were relocated to NY_LON, which was a plus in one way as everyone got a better seat, however i'm not sure that this modern bar in any way truly captured the spirit of the Bluebird but as ever the most important thing was the Songwriters not the surroundings. Luck of the draw had placed us in the front row within touching distance of the delightful Logan Brill.
To her left was Canaan Smith, most recently to be seen as support on the last shires tour, while completing the trio was perhaps a lesser known name Jeff Cohen unless you start to study the small print on the sleevenotes of your favourite records and then you will realise just what a coup it was to spend time in his presence.
Logan kicked things off with help from an additional guitarist Matt McGinn, on an exceptionally strong song "Giving Up", while Canaan opened up his set with "Sweet Spot". Even
Jeff would be first to admit he is a writer rather than singer, but he has a great penchant for name dropping and story telling which is exactly what we like about these shows. His opening spiel was about quitting his job to be a songwriter and getting his first tune on the Princess Bride soundtrack and on Dawson's Creek. "Crazy For This Girl", displayed his slightly husky vocal showing why he is primarily a writer.
Logans second song was another exceptionally strong song called "Scars" even if its origins from a tv show called "Couples Therapy" seemed unlikely. Canaan dedicated his second song to his wife which was a much slower soulful affair. Jeff brough on some assistants to aid with his singing in the shape of The Shires, he gave us snippet of "Daddies Little Girl" being an example of a song he would not normally have written before going on to join Ben and Chrissie on "1000 Hallelujahs".
Logan continued to impress with another new song "Walk Of Shame" as well as revealing that she sends her songs to her mum for approval. Canaan played "Bronco" the song dedicated to his dead brother. While Jeff gave us a story of how he came to write "Holy Water" with Big & Rich.
Time was by now racing by, Logan again pulling another top drawer song out in "Break Each Others Hearts" while Canaan played his forthcoming single "Like You That Way2 with the great line about being "Mrianda Lambert crazy". In a slight diversion Jeff then introduced us to an Indian singer Nikhil D'Souza, with whom he has been working on a project for the last 3 years, his voice was simply amazing and has echoes almost of Jeff Buckley, it swooped high and low and will surely be something worth checking when it comes out. Finally Jeff told us an amazing story that related to the power of songs and songwriting that was too touching and detailed to try to paraphrase, it was the lead up to his closing song "In Her Eyes".
Each year the Bluebird Sessions throw up something special - this one was no exception.