Malcolm Holcombe

Malcolm Holcombe had a bit of fun with the audience, coming on stage and announcing with a twinkle in his eye how great it was to be in Bristol. He played up to the impression of the drunken hobo, telling long, rambling, but hilarious, stories full of apparent non-sequiturs, while periodically barking ‘Are you with me?’ at the crowd. With Holcombe you get the full blues package. He looked every bit the dishevelled down-and-out, although he isn’t, and his unaccompanied blues guitar and gravelly voice conveyed a life lived the hard way. Support act Elle Osborne played some lovely English folk and she joined him on fiddle for a gorgeous encore of ‘The Blue Flame’ and ‘Who Carried You’.

The Prince Albert, 21 September 2012

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