Night & Day Club Manchester, 26/3/2009

After finding this bands LP to be a contender for ‘Album Of The Year’ Shakenstir headed off to Manchester to see if Delta Spirit could cut the mustard live… Hot Dogs at the ready…

It all started with a innocent-looking, simple card-sleeved promo CD popping through my letterbox. I listened once and thought, ‘interesting but not devestating’, and then put it to one side for later, for more considered listening. And there it remained until I started planning a future radio show and the selection of a ‘feature’ album from which 3 songs would be played. I’d run out of great albums and then remembered that card-sleeved promo sitting, rather sadly, next to my player, in a pile of one. So in Delta Spirit’s ODE TO SUNSHINE went and then proceeded to take up residence. Yes folks, it does happen (rarely) that an almost forgotten album can turn out to be rather special.

By spooky coincidence the band was performing 50 miles away in Madchester and after several emails secured an interview and show review opportunity.

Delta Spirit is a quintette out of San Diego, Califirnia. Jonathan Jameson (bass), Brandon Young (drums, percussion), Sean Walker (guitar), Kelly Winrich (piano, high strung guitar, percussion) and Matt Vasquez (vocals, guitar, piano) (I found out) are friends who share a love of music. Hanging out with them in their dressing room it soon became obvious that these guys love what they do, are great friends and have as much interest in other artists’ music. Matt and I chatted on after the interview and I came away with a ‘highly recommended music-to-buy list.’

At 10:20 the guys decided it was time to wander onto the stage in the comfortable surroundings that is the Night & Day club. Despite a none-too-clever sound system the club is a friendly, welcoming place loved by many artists and especially singer/songwriters more versed in the acoustic guitar than its electrical cousin. So a five-piece, moderately hard rock band may struggle sound-wise. And so it was for the first few songs although things improved mid-show.

The first thing that struck me about Delta Spirit is the quality of the band’s songs. Now you can have the best band on earth but without similarly equipt songs there’s no chance… The band’s debut album ODE TO SUNSHINE (released in the UK a week ago) is full of killer, meaningful tunes written with passion and the need to communicate feelings and experiences, along with fears…