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Inara George & Van Dyke Parks Charm London!

5:04 PM GMT 24/11/2008

Inara George & Van Dyke Parks Charm London!

The weekend’s weather in London may have been inclement and downright unpleasant, but a day that was splattered with snow, sleet, rain and gales gave way to an intimate evening at the Jazz Café, Camden, which was warmed by the debut UK performance of Inara George and Van Dyke Parks.

Age old friends, the duo have collaborated on Inara’s new album, An Invitation, and agreed to perform the record in its entirety at the MOJO Club, our itinerant monthly night, as part of a mini European tour that also included shows in Holland and Belgium.

The opening act, Chicester’s Smoke Fairies, joined the bill and, during a wondrous and spectral folk-blues set, expressed their admiration for Van Dyke Parks’ work. Their reverence was clearly shared by an audience enticed to this tiny venue to see a man whose CV as a composer and arranger includes previous landmark collaborations with Brian Wilson, The Byrds and latterly Joanna Newsom’s hugely acclaimed album, Ys.

Parks – who celebrates his sixty sixth birthday on January 3 – proved to be in typically mischievous form, powering up the four-piece band for Overture, the instrumental opening to An Invitation, which then saw Ms George take to the stage for the remaining 12 tracks that make up the album.

Despite An Invitation being currently only available on import (surely a UK deal must be forthcoming after tonight’s intoxicating performance?), the reaction afforded the album was nothing short of ecstatic, the bonhomie between Parks and George adding to the joy of the evening.

The album material exhausted, the pair then delved back into Van Dyke’s extensive catalogue, drawing on material that included Jump and Vine Street. A finale saw Inara delivering a visceral version of Little Feat’s Trouble in tribute to her father and LF leader, the late Lowell George. It proved to be an emotional end to an extraordinary evening.

A full report on this one-off show will appear in a future issue of MOJO Magazine.

For more on An Invitation visit www.myspace.com/inarageorge while MOJO also invites you to check out the Smoke Fairies at www.smokefairies.com

Phil Alexander

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 5:04 PM GMT 24/11/2008

Related MOJO content:

Inara George , Van Dyke Parks

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