Jack Rose – Sage Gateshead (November 2009)

Ian Wylie expected more

It’s not Jack Rose’s fault that a lofty reputation travels before him when he tours.

But finger-picking fans drawn to the Sage Gateshead tonight by Rose’s avant garde, Eastern-tinged acoustic guitar experiments, the drone music of his influential noise band Pelt or his inspired interpretations of John Fahey, Robbie Basho and other Takoma label artists will have gone home just a tad disappointed they glimpsed little of the breadth of this Virginian’s talent.

An evening in the company of Rose and friends Mike Gangloff and Nate Bowles of the Black Twig Pickers Band is a perfectly enjoyable 90 minutes of solid, skillful, high-tempo bluegrass, gospel and ragtime. Each number zips along – the sound raw, but well-trodden as Gangloff switches between fiddle, banjo, jew’s harp and vocals and Bowles between washboard and bones. There is warm humour too, thanks to Bowles’ whoopin and hollerin and Gangloff’s snail jokes as Rose searches for yet another eccentric tuning.

And Rose’s brilliance is inescapable, his playing dense, urgent and intricate as he leads the band through flawless versions of Fahey’s West Coast Blues, and Rose’s own Rappahanock River Rag and trademark Kensington Blues.

Yet none of the songs in tonight’s set ever threatens to break out into raucous hoedown. Maybe, as the band admit themselves, they are missing harmonica player Isak Howell – stuck in a day job from which he can’t extract himself for this tour.

And the only real sighting of the man feted by outré music magazine Wire is when Rose lays down his acoustic to pick up the lap steel for a virtuoso demonstration of slide play that comes deliciously close to sitar territory. However Rose has clearly decided his time with the Black Twig Pickers is not the occasion for veering off-road and interpreting primitive blues and country classics in any 20-minute, mind-altering raag-out.

It seems a relatively safe and comfortable outing for Rose who dislikes the limelight and prefers to communicate his thoughts to the audience through Gangloff and Bowles. As soon as he has plucked the last note of the final song, he packs his guitars in their cases and disappears instantly from the stage leaving his bandmates to chat with curious fans.

Of course, Rose wouldn’t be the first guitar genius uneasy with public performance – though fans are generally forgiving of artists who are more generous with their genius.

But let’s not grumble. On its own merits, the evening is a pleasant opportunity to bask in the warmth of some Virginia sunshine and hope that Rose returns from this sabbatical refreshed and ready to push on.

Ian Wylie