Jenny Mitchell and band
Knox Church
Wednesday, October 19
REVIEW BY BRENDA HARWOOD
Songs of love and loss, wandering souls and the landscapes of home kept a large audience spellbound in last night’s fabulous performance by Jenny Mitchell and band at Knox Church.
The 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards nominee was joined by a six-piece country band, comprising her twin sisters Maegan and Nicola Mitchell (vocals/guitar), Jess Hindon (fiddle), Joe McCallum (drums), John Dodd (bass), and Mike Hood (banjos/harmonica), for a magical evening of stories and great music.
The show began with a bracket of (mostly) original songs by Maegan and Nicola Mitchell — stories of family, love, break-ups and the joys of being single, and the special ties between twins. Accompanied simply on guitar, the duo were in very fine voice, creating some lovely harmonies, and bringing beautiful passages of Te Reo into their songs.
The twins’ complementary voices were put to good use in Mitchell’s impressive set, drawn largely from her new album Tug of War, with some older songs and favourite covers thrown in.
Mitchell’s warm and expressive voice was to the fore in gentle songs of new love, such as If You Were a Bird, and in more rockabilly numbers like Snakes in the Grass, and the anthem Troubles’s Gonna Find You (co-written with Tami Neilson), drawing enthusiastic applause from the large audience throughout.
There were plenty of touching moments too, such as when Mitchell was joined on stage by her Dad Ron Mitchell for This Guitar about passing on the love of music in the form of his old guitar.
With her relaxed, warm stage presence, and undeniable talent — backed up by superb fellow musicians, Jenny Mitchell is a songwriter and performer going places.
She performs in Gore tonight.
