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Heather Findlay

Legends, Newcastle

15 October 2011

There is a moment in Gaze, when Heather's voice drops on the word "hol-low", that is one of the most perfect moments in all music.

. . .

That's actually all I wrote in my review book on the way home last night. But Heather and Chris deserve a better review than that, so I'll add a bit more.

They played about 35 minutes in support of Touchstone, and included about eight songs drawn from various parts of their careers. Only two from The Phoenix Suite (Cellophane and Phoenix), and a handful of old favourites.

The first thing that struck me about the gig was how much this is a "duo", not just "Heather and an accompanist". Chris actually takes lead vocal on two songs (Dogs from Halo Blind and Out of Season from the Evernauts). But no matter who sings lead, their voices always harmonise beautifully. It's one of the best vocal partnerships I've ever heard.

It's interesting that in Chris's very brief time in Mostly Autumn, he wrote two of my favourite songs (Gaze and Silver Glass). Both of them are played tonight.

And what really makes this acoustic duo work is Chris's amazingly full guitar sound, easily filling in for an entire band.

(For completists: the other songs played were Yellow Time and Odin Dragonfly's Magpie.)

I'm not going to say any more about Heather, except: that moment in Gaze is just one of a thousand reasons why she's my favourite singer today.

What else? Oh yes. Best support band I've ever seen.