Cantabrian entertainer Delaney Davidson is on a smaller venues tour which saw him play in Ophir this week, along with shows at Dunedin’s boutique venue ADJO and at The Galley in Port Chalmers.

A mostly seated crowd of around 30 people waited, looking at the stage set up in the corner of ADJO, before Delaney Davidson swaggered his way through the crowd from the back area. (ADJO is a food focused venue offering a host of Nordic cuisine options - I can recommend the smoked salmon smorrebrod).

Delaney set up a percussive loop in an open e chord for the song Movin' On, and lit a tied bunch of medicinal spirit cleansing herbs, which smelled like sage, he then wandered around the room blessing or cleansing people.

After his return to the stage, he completed the opening tune. His second tune So Long, featured him again building up loops, beginning percussively before adding layers, with a song developing out of thin air. It’s a skill he’s most proficient in.

He's got his take on the low down dirty country blues down pat.

He introduces himself, and gets the crowds permission to summon the Haitian demon god Dambala (which turns into a song of the same name). I don’t know if he actually is a spiritualist, but he's got his shtick manicured to perfection, taking the crowd along for the ride.

Delaney Davidson is part songwriter, part snake oil merchant, and part vaudevillian showman. He has been blessed with great songwriting skills, both lyrically, and melodically.

During tonight’s performance it's obvious that he's road hardened, and loves taking people on the musical and theatrical journey he's on.

He can play conventionally very well, but isn't afraid to experiment, and in the fourth song Moon River, he detunes a hi-bottom e string to slack and creates a loop which sounds like an irregular heartbeat, then adds loops with his voice which sound like wind. He tells a story, asking audience members to imagine they’re 6-year-old and you’ve woken from a dream, you go outside… I’ll stop there as he tells so much better than I could write it. Suffice it to say this tune, like the others in the set, was a full theatrical production.

Following the at times sonic onslaught, he asks if people want "a nice traditional folk song?"

He obliges with a beautiful tune, describing it as an older song before sharing his lockdown story, "I’ve been staying at home a lot recently," he quips, offering to play a batch of fresh songs.

There are some new gems, one of which contains the words; "we got a mean streak flowing through our veins". It’s a really nice new song.

Another newer tune, Don't Walk Away From Love is a stunner. Delaney describes it as a more optimistic tune, but it wasn’t always the case, "it used to be called ‘walk away from love", he jokes, using his desert-dry sense of humour.

Delaney Davidson played for around 2 hours, keeping the crowd spellbound.

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