ELKIE BROOKS – Live and Acoustic – review

ELKIE BROOKS – Live and Acoustic – review
Backline Productions

As you all know, Elkie Brooks is the finest female vocalist this country has ever produced. If you don’t know that, then you’re a fool unto yourself and should be shunned. Shunned. Anyway, this release was recorded back in 2021 when she was a mere stripling at 76 years old. It was her 80th birthday last month and she’s still doing shows on her Long Farewell Tour. So sort yourself out.

But back to this. It was recorded at the Landmark Theatre in North Devon and is the first live long-player from Elkie Brooks in almost twenty years. It’s just Ms Brooks, accompanied by pianist Tom Kincaid and saxophonist Mike Smith.

Now here’s the thing about acoustic albums. Unless you’re in the world of multi-instrumentalists, it all gets a bit samey after a while. And, despite my passionate advocacy of Ms Brooks, ever since a puberty tormented, teenage Mr H saw her perform ‘Fool If You Think Its Over’ on Top of the Pops, that still applies here.

When it’s fabulous, it’s truly fabulous. So, you can count ‘Do Right Woman, Do Right Man’, ‘Warm & Tender Love’, ‘Everyday I Have The Blues’, ‘Don’t Cry Out Loud’ and ‘Sunshine After The Rain’ as absolute barnstormers. Does it work on Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ or Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’? Absolutely not.

Am I glad this exists? Of course. Ms Brooks is still in remarkable voice. Yes, it has some gravel that wasn’t there forty years ago, but she knows how to use this and control it. Do I have a ticket for her farewell tour? Of course. I’m not an idiot. It’s out on CD and LP, and is available from https://www.elkiebrooks.com/ where you will also find her latest tour dates.

Sighs.