Review & Photography by Ritchie Birnie for MPM
It has been far too long since I have seen Sari live due to all sorts of reasons but a Sari gig is like slipping into a pair of old jogging bottoms, comfortable, easy and one of the places you want to be.
Before I get to the happy place that is a Sari live show we have something new to me in support Sabrina Kennedy. It takes minutes to realise exactly why this woman has found herself on a Sari Schorr tour, a fellow yank, an incredible voice and boy can she talk. Both support and headliner can tell stories in music and I can imagine these two get on like a house on fire.
On songs like “Overflow” her vocals soar throughout the rafters of this old church. I was hooked from the off on those dusky tones, those tear jerking lyrics and a one woman’s history being laid bare.
When she burst into “Hold Tight” I was spellbound. This is Rock, this is R&B and this is the heartache of Blues all rolled into one. Sabrina Kennedy demands your attention and she has a voice that defies genres that will take this talented young woman far and I am well and truly on the bandwagon.
Sari Schorr has bucked the trend with the Running Wild tour as she has gone old school and is touring songs without the album being released. Maybe a gamble but I think her fans are truly enshrined in everything she does so we are all just waiting in anticipation as she opens with “Mister in the Middle” and as much as you know this is Sari this is a new Sari. The whole engine room is changed again and the new songs definitely have a tweak of Southern in them.
We flit back to safe and tested grounds in “Ain’t Got No Money” and we see the performer, the vocalist and the woman we know and love.
The evening proceeds to bounce from new to old. The few of us who do not want to be confined to chairs are bopping and weaving at the side and back of the venue and Sari sounds just as amazing as she did 9 years and 1 month ago in this very same venue when I first saw her.
Things are changing though, she informed us that she has just agreed a major label for the release of “Running Wild” but no names as of yet and so we burst into that albums title track.
The lady is definitely branching out, the Blues is still there, the vocals and songwriting has not wavered and the old fans are still happy. The thing is Running Wild could be tapping into a whole new demographic and I for one welcome that as this lady deserves to be heard and seen far and wide.
Amongst the new songs one shone out for me in “They Call it Freedom”. If you have ever had the chance to speak to Sari beyond the hello, I thought you were amazing chats you find a very warm and deeply thoughtful human being. She is definitely what they call a thinking man/woman’s songwriter and this track really had the grey matter ticking. The song is about her Grandad and his move from Russia to USA and having to leave his family behind before bringing his kids over one at a time.
Through work I moved my family from Scotland to England ( which is surely a worse fate…especially when the kids end up sounding English) but I did wonder how you could leave kids behind and how you chose which ones come over next. The fact that Sari got to sit with her Grandad ( I never knew either of mine) and discuss all this and then bring forward such a beautiful song tells you all you need to know about the woman, an amazing talent wrapped up in a truly beautiful soul.
Between those new numbers we were treated to incredible versions of “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Ordinary Life” and “Valentina” but there was some noticeable absences, some songs you do expect to hear and sadly miss when they are not but this tour feels like it is all about the new. The old will always be there, we can always listen to those songs so tonight was about celebrating what we do not know.
I wonder if Sari was nervous like her very first shows, not knowing the reaction. Is that an adrenaline rush or pure fear? Even tonight’s encore is two new songs in ” Afterglow” and ” Love the One You’re With”. That last one’s lyrics sounded like a cop out to me and not advice I would give out, do not accept second best people!
Either old or new I will be there as when Sari sings you listen and God dammit you will enjoy it too. She has a voice like a sultry angel and a sack full of messages to live your life by. There is only one Sari Schorr and she is magnificent live.
