Micah Blue Smaldone

It's been 10 years since curiosity led me to pick up a copy of Micah Blue Smaldone's solo debut, 'Some Sweet Day', while on holiday in New York - without previously having heard a note. A year later I stumbled upon his next album, 'Hither and Thither' (still one of the all-time great LP titles), in similar circumstances. And that's the way it's continued really. Self publicity isn't high on Micah's agenda, so it's been a case of bumping into his new releases, side projects and one-off tracks more by luck than judgement, while remaining frustratingly unaware of his occasional European visits until long after the event.

In April, however, I dropped by Micah's infrequently updated website to discover, to my great delight, that a UK tour was imminent and a couple of weeks ago, in the unique and intimate surroundings of The Foundling Museum in London, I finally, finally, saw the great man live in concert.

In recent years, his studio recordings are sometimes embellished by other musicians, live though, it's just Micah and his 12 string guitar, intense and direct, delivering a series of dark, lyrically dense, folk-noir songs interspersed with Piedmont fingerstyle instrumentals. It was a performance I waited ten long years to witness and I barely breathed for it's duration. It was quite magnificent.

From Micah's latest LP, 'The Ring of the Rise', one of my favourite tunes of 2013, 'Time'.

And here's a live reading of 'The Clearing' from 2008's 'The Red River'.

(Previous Micah Blue Smaldone post here.)