Maintaining an impressive fortnightly schedule after their winter hibernation, the Small Hall Sessions are this week playing host to Otautahi’s Mel Parsons. This marks her debut on the Small Halls circuit, and it’s in support of her recently released album Sabotage, these appearances being dates 15-18 of a wider national tour of 22 nights all up. Or, as Mel put it herself, a 22-day paid holiday from a house full of kids! Either way, it makes for a great early spring night’s entertainment.

With a back catalogue now 9 albums deep, there’s no shortage of material to draw on, the newest songs fitting in perfectly with the older, all forming an impressive body of work. Songs drawn from real life, unafraid to confront the darker realities, but all delivered with a winning charm that both made a new set of fans and satisfied those already deeply familiar with the oeuvre. Mel could be said to be an old hand at this type of rural circuit, with her experience from years past with The Woolshed Sessions, which did exactly what it says on the tin-visiting the out of the way places and setting up to entertain the locals in whatever woolsheds were available. Tonight’s venue was a touch more salubrious (although perhaps of somewhat dubious age, given that our host Jamie performed within at the age of 4 years!).

Some 80-odd people attended and left with smiles on their faces. This belied the often darker-tinged nature of the songs, but at the same time reflected the deep strain of humanity running through them-these songs are nothing if not honest. A good example of this would be Don’t Wait with its refrain of ‘Don’t waste your time on blue’, advice which Mel admitted herself ignoring for an extended period back in the day. The introduction of Circling the City included Mel’s first name-drop of the night, touching on a promotional conversation with Mike Hosking (rather her than me!!!). This conversation discussed the video for the song, attracting criticism from the host for the vehicle she drove in it, to which she riposted by pointing out that unlike him, she’s a starving artist who doesn’t have a Lamborghini or similar to use for such occasions-score starving artist 1, puffmeister 0! But she was much kinder with us, dialogue touching on points including an exploration of family ties to the local area, and the oddities of aspirational road-trip packing, among much else. But above all, obviously, was the music, much of it delivered to the accompaniment of her stunningly beautiful white electric guitar (nearly the cause of a missed flight in Kansas City!). A highlight of the new material was a silky-smooth rendition of the album’s title track, Sabotage. This sat alongside the older Bones, a song appropriated by 'The Brokenwood Mysteries' as the soundtrack to a murder scene (Mel’s slight disappointment at this amply mollified by the money it paid!)

Tiny Days, inspired by the joys of parenthood, exposed once more the raw humanity and honesty at the heart of Mel’s songwriting, as did Failure and I Got The Lonely, the latter written in the aftermath of the lamentable demise of Tom Petty, and channelling the spirit of his work. More name-dropping ensued, with Mel telling of her recent support slots for Chris Isaak, which led in to a cover of his Wicked Game, the last cover of which I heard was by Aotearoa progressive rockers Coridian, which goes to show both its versatile nature and the almost mythical connection it seems to have to this country’s musicians. Speaking of connection, however, the connection between audience and performer that was there in this session was demonstrated by Mel’s increasingly disposable set-list being augmented by a request, in Alberta Sun, a song she admitted to “not having played for ages”. But she managed to scrape through it unscathed!

But as is too regularly the case with the captivation that is intrinsic to the Small Halls experience, before we were ready for it was closing time (nobody had to go home, but they couldn’t stay there!), thankfully not gotten to without a true Mel masterpiece, the powerful (and nearly 10-year old!!) Far Far Away. This song made such an impression that numerous audience members were seen to be seeking out the source album (‘Drylands’) at the merch desk, only to be disappointed (but teased with the prospect of a potential reissue in commemoration of its 10th birthday...). But on a night like this, that was the only disappointment to be found, so no cause for complaint really. In any case this evening left all punters with a glow, the glow of having shared in the experience of hearing music from the heart, delivered by a performer with pure humanity, in the company of community-the very ethos of the Small Hall Sessions!

There are still 3 more opportunities to avoid the FOMO induced by reading this, the best of which is on Friday at the Ashley Clinton-Makaretu-Sherwood hall. Booking details etc. at smalhallsessions.co.nz

Photo Credit: Andrew Caldwell

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