The first Round Up of 2019 saw the monthly assembly of talent at the Colonel Fawcett continue, with three excellent guests joining our ever present hosts Two Ways Home. Looking at the stage from left to right first up are Bristol based brothers Foreign Affairs, surprisingly making their "In The Round" debut, last seen doing a sterling job supporting Larkin Poe, next up (and possibly the cause of the queue snaking down the stairs some twenty minutes prior to doors opening), hot from her show at the Slaughtered Lamb the previous night Olivia Lane. Next to Olivia and the first returnee in two years of Round Ups, was Jake Morrell with Two Way Home taking the stools to the right hand side of the stage. With an assembled crowd including Laura Oakes, songwriter Sue McMillan and ex Wandering Heart, Tim Prottey-Jones expectations were set to high
Round 1 saw Foreign Affairs open with "Piece Of Work", with a twin vocal intro and then a harmonica this was rootsy music at its finest, with the middle section delivered a capella and almost gospel like, this provided a great start to the evening.
Olivia Lane was supported by Justin Lee on guitar and backing vocals and opened with "So Good It Hurts". Olivia a bubbly lively character with a vocal that effortlessly slid each line into the next and it was easy to see how she had made such an impression on those that had seen her the previous night. Jake Morell quipped that he felt "outduo ed" being the only solo performer of the night, but performed with the gusto of two people on the catchy "Heading For Heartache" which saw Olivia add some additional backing vocals, he played with so much force that he joked "My hands hurt" on competing the final notes. With a debut album due in 2019 Two Ways Home chose to debut a new song "Everything's Alright" which included an impromptu Justin guitar solo.
Foreign Affairs started the second round with "Baby Come Home" from their EP the "The Old Fire Station", once again the room was marvelling at the dual vocals, with Lawrences vocals soaring and sounding positively huge in the relatively small upstairs of the Colonel Fawcett. Olivia Lane continued to be extremely engaging, her new songs like her round 2 contribution, "The Cape" with its "I'm Taking It Back" chorus suggest an artist on the brink of making a quite special record. For Jake it was a chance to air his next single with the song that made such an impression at his shows at the end of last year, "Half Your Heart" played a little slower tonight captured the room with its personal story. Two Ways Home closed out Round 2 with their own personal song "Better Days", a lovely gentle performance with their dual vocals showing them at their very best.
Foreign Affairs started Round 3 with their single "Faded" that has had over 100,000 streams, which was revealed to have been written like all good songs in 20 minutes. Lawrence's big deep vocals again impressed and they managed to get a finger clicking vibe going in the room and ended on a nod to each other suggesting just how well it had gone.
Olivia Lane had her own quickly written song "Hey 3 AM", composed in an hour. Leaving the guitar work solely to Justin allowed Olivia to concentrate on delivering a perfect vocal performance on this personal song that will resonate with many. The run up to the break was completed by Jake Morrell's "Wire & Thorns" apparently written in traffic while Two Ways Home had the perfect end to the first section with "Push and Pull" which had all of the stage and all of the room joining in on the "My heart my beating heart" refrain.
A short break allowed refreshments to be taken including a new "Round Up" cocktail before the evening resumed,
Foreign Affairs resumed the second half of the evening with a hilarious tale about Adam going awol after a gig in Switzerland, before playing "Say What You Want About Me" a combination of Pop meeting Gospel in something refreshingly different. Olivia Lane displayed a slightly different style of writing for "You Got Me", which again saw Justin providing backing vocals on a moving excellent song.
For Jake Morrell's turn it was time to find out how to play acoustically the song we last heard playing out on Dermot O'Leary's Saturday morning show on Radio 2. A testament to just how catchy it was being shown by the room joining in instantly on the chorus unsolicited. Two Ways Home closed Round 4 with a lovely guitar intro that turned into a splendid version of "Take My Hand" with its "Lonely Lovers" chorus showing the interplay between Lewis and Izy to great effect.
The final round as ever came around far to fast, Foreign Affairs raised an eyebrow or two with a wonderful take of "You've Got a Friend In Me" which will be their new single including once again some lovely harmonica. Olivia Lane gave everything for her final song "Perfect Skin". there were wry smiles all round when Jake Morrell had to sing "Englishman" with its chorus about not needing to go to Nashville while sat next to two of its inhabitants, Olivia Lane who looked on smiling. Two Ways Home closed another great evening of Round Up with the uptempo "Just For Now" with the room duly joining in with appropriate "Hey"s
Foreign Affairs will be at C2C 2019 and will be crossing the Country later in the year supporting Larkin Poe
Jake Morrell will be at C2C 2019 and his sparkling single "Home" is available now
Two Ways Home will return for the next Round Up in March and will be beavering away on their debut album due soon.
Olivia Lane's "Hey 3AM" single is available now and will surely be back in the UK soon,