Venue:
The Grace – Highbury Corner
Date: 24/07/2026
I’ve seen Esther Rose twice solo. Both times have been superb (despite the first time being a slight initial disappointment because I was hoping for fiddles and slide guitar!). I’m a little baffled why it wasn’t sold out but at least I wasn’t the one missing out!
So this time round, Esther had a full band and her performance seemed far far more relaxed than when I’ve seen her solo. Sadly no fiddle but she concentrated on her more recent albums which don’t have so much fiddle anyway!
Tonight was an extra special treat for me, I think my favourite instrument is the pedal steel and both the support band, and Esther’s band included one.
I was a bit concerned that I’d looked forward to this too much. But it was excellent. It was one of those nights where it’s hard to stop grinning.
There were two new songs and they couldn’t be more different. The first had a section in the middle that seemed to be inspired by The Ramones which must always be considered a recommendation! The second was solo as an encore. It certainly makes me wonder what the next album will be like. As part of the encore, she brought up another singer whose name I didn’t catch but their (very different) voices melded very nicely.
A quick word about the support. It was H B Whitman. He was very good – I’d go and see him again. Quite 70’s retro (Kristofferson/(early) Prine.)
The audience:
The audience was a pretty wide cross section. Old to young male and female. Unusually these days, there were probably more cowboy hats on stage than in the audience – and that was just the support band!.
It made me think..
It reminded me of barker in the old Johnny Cash song….’You get your moneys worth in the first 15 minutes and the rest is free’
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