Ashton Lane played a gig at the Wells Christian Centre in Norfolk supported by the talented Katy Hurt.
Katy kicked off the evening with the song ‘Falling Apart’. Katy’s vocals have a strong American influence to them; this is probably largely due to the fact she lived in Long Island, New York for a period of her life. Katy had some humorous anecdotes in between introducing her songs which the audience certainly appreciated! One which was about her apparently needing to pay for a new 4 X 4 for her father because they took it off road and it didn’t cope with the terrain so she needs to sell enough copies of her next EP to pay for it! She was joined on stage by guitarist Gab, whose musical ability and vocals were equally superb and certainly did compliment Katy’s performance.
She continued with ‘See ya Later’ which has a much more of a ‘pop’ feel to it in comparison to the other tracks on her current EP ‘Unfinished Business’.
In my humble opinion after watching her performance this evening Katy’s vocals have come on leaps and bounds in the short time I have followed her music.
Ashton Lane who are husband and wife Tim & Esther O’Connor, Tim on lead acoustic guitar and backing vocals with Esther on lead vocals. Esther’s father Graeme Duffin (Wet Wet Wet) is also in the band on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, so its very much a family band.
Ashton lane started off with a recently commissioned song, ‘Dance me Home’. They are a unique band in that many of their songs are based on stories or lyrics that have been commissioned by their fans. One song which stuck in my head was ‘Drive on’ which was commissioned by Wayne & Lisa Price about a road trip they made in America. It is a superb ballad and I was even humming it the morning after this gig!
The vocal harmonies from Tim, Esther and Graeme were absolutely phenomenal this evening. Many of the songs they sang will be on their next album ‘Travelling Mercies’ – the release date coming soon. The songs they chose for this evening were a mix of ballads and higher tempo songs. One of their best loved hits ‘One Kiss Later’ coming towards the end of their set, from their ‘Nashville Heart’ album.
Their on-stage chemistry is adorable, you can tell they love what they do plus they enjoy having friendly banter whilst on stage which helped to make it a fun and relaxed evening.
This particular gig was slightly different because the organiser, David Bignell, arranged this evening purely as an event to raise funds for charity. The Well Christian centre has close links with ‘Chinnamandhu Ramanjula’, an Orphanage in India for widows and orphans so half the money raised from the evening has gone to over to India; the other half of the funds raised are going to the Cornerstone Building Fund (their local church in Norfolk).