Live Review - Beverley Festival 2011
Next up was a singer songwriter who recently sent a cd for review to the Fatea office, which impressed us enough to offer her a slot on the Fatea Showcase Sessions, Wendy Arrowsmith. If you had to describe Wendy in one word, it would be extrovert.
During the course of her songs, she had the audience singing and la li lahing along to her songs, including in one case, accompanying actions to go with it. She has a real bubbly personality that really pushes flamboyance into her set, but not enough to detract from the songs, which is important as many of her songs have important points to make on the human condition, including the misery we inflict on each other.
Her set just seemed to fly by and was thoroughly entertaining through out, she made the Wold Top Marquee feel like a front room, as if you were having friends around for an evening's entertainment like it used to be in the old days.
Neal Richardson, Fatea Magazine.
Live Review from Redditch Folk Club 23/01/10
We had a brilliant night at the memorial hall on Saturday. I’ve booked Wendy Arrowsmith before – she’s a lovely singer and a deft guitar player. She handles trad with subtlety and insight, while her original material is lovely. Her songs cover a range of human experience, both historical and modern, some great stories, poignant moments, and all wrapped up in some very fine tunes.
Wendy was last with us a couple of years ago, and I realised how much she’s grown as a performer in that time. Her singing voice – always lovely, has become a good deal more powerful, enabling her to hold her own in larger venues. She’s a stronger stage presence, and there was a lot more humour in the set, offsetting all the gorgeous traditional gloom. (oh, I love The Cruel Mother and tragic ballads, and she does them very well). We all ended up doing comedy hand gestures…
Brynneth N Colvin
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