Carl Verheyen

@ The Marr's Bar, Worcester - 8/2/02

A blues guitarist with a massive pedigree, Carl Verheyen gave a relatively small audience 90 minutes of brilliant entertainment tonight. With the unbelievable bass of Cliff Hugo and the massively effective drums of Steve Di Stanslao, Carl held his listeners captive throughout with his spellbinding guitar skills and fine vocals. They all made it look so easy with their effortless playing styles and obviously enjoyed themselves at the same time.

Starting with an acoustically intro'd number before swapping to electric without missing a note he went through a set of mainly original numbers such as 'Revival Downs', the superb 'Diamonds', the slower and slightly funky, 'Chinatown' and magnificent 'Wasted Blues'.

Later, the drummer and bassist left the stage to allow Carl to do a great acoustic rendition of what most of us recognised as an instrumental version of 'Sunny Afternoon' which showed the subtle, picking side of Carl's playing. Towards the end, a rearranged, unbelievable version of Jimi Hendix's 'Little Wing' brought the house down and must have had Jimi smiling down on him.

There were several opportunities for the other two members to show their abilities with shortish solos thrown in during a couple of numbers. Then again later in the set they both had full blown solo spots and really let rip - excellent!!

The billing tonight suggested that this was a night not to be missed. Unfortunately, too many people did miss it! However, I would like to bet that everyone who did go, went home with a huge memory of a remarkably good trio of musicians; not least Carl Verheyen himself.

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