New songs, fantastic guitar work and great harmonies

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Marina Ósk & Ragnar Ólafsson – Græni Hatturinn, Akureyri; April 18th, 2024

I think it was early this year that my friend Ragnar told me he’d tour Iceland with fellow musician Marina Ósk in April and as soon as I knew the first date I booked a flight. Not only was this something new for me, but also I will take any opportunity to go to Iceland in the spring. I was wrong about the spring part, but the trip was totally worth it. Such a beautiful concert.

After spending one day in Reykjavik, relaxing and going out for ice cream with M., I was on my way to Akureyri and had some time to rest before the show. Went to find out when the doors would pen and ran into Raggi, who was just leaving the venue. We hugged, chatted a bit, I said hello to Kjartan and he introduced me to Marina, before we said goodbye until later.

I was back just before the doors open and found myself a table at the front. soon, some more people showed up. Sadly, they venue was not sold out, but those who came were in for a treat and clearly enjoyed the show. Raggi talked to me for a bit beforehand and told me they would have two guests on bass and drums that night so the second half would be a full band show. Nice. 🙂

Shortly after 9 pm, Marina, Raggi and Kjartan took their spots on stage and Raggi introduced all of them. Until that moment I hadn’t even thought about the fact that they would be speaking Icelandic. 😉 They started the show with ‘Hugsanir’, sung by Marina. It sounded beautiful, I immediately loved her voice. Next up was ‘Er kólna fer’, the duet they had recorded – getting to hear it live put a huge smile on my face. Not only did their voices harmonize beautifully, but Kjartan’s guitar playing was excellent.

They switched places, with Marina now at the piano and continued with ‘Warsaw’, with Kjartan’s pedal steel guitar being the perfect addition to the song. 🙂 This is a song I have liked from the beginning – I love it to hear Raggi use his baritone voice. On the last verse, he sang the wrong line first, but then immediately corrected himself. Tiny mistakes always make for a special evening.

There was a surprising amount of banter that evening, of which I didn’t understand anything. Still, sometimes I got the gist of what was going on and the main thing was that they were having a lot of fun on stage. 🙂 ‘Message’ was outstanding. Having just recovered from losing his voice, Raggi had a hard time reaching the high notes, but he got there are the song gave me goose bumps. <3

They switched places again and played some of Marina’s songs next, starting with the jazzy ‘I have a heart that’s blue’. It had me moving along in my seat. They joked a lot before they continued playing and everyone in the room was giggling. It all felt like sitting in someone’s living room more than at a music venue. ‘Lítil nótt’ was a waltz, i.e. a song in 3/4 time that I really enjoyed.

For ‘Haflinna’ Kjartan decided to put on a hat. Maybe the pedal steel guitar demanded it. 😉 It was a lovely song. It was Ragnar’s turn again and they gave us ‘Petals’. No matter how many times I hear this song, I always love it. <3 In the end, he went right into ‘Hallelujah’. It was beautiful. Afterwards he told the story of Dylan and Cohen talking about songwriting and how it took Dylan 10 minutes tow wrote ‘Just like a woman’ while Cohen was continuously writing ‘Hallelujah’. I’d heard him tell the story before so I knew what it was about.

While Marina announced the next some, someone’s phone was ringing and jokes ensued. ‘The Moon and the Sky’ was lovely too and this time she played piano, before she picked up the guitar once again for the final song of the first set. It was the only one she didn’t announce, so I have no clue what it is called, but it was wonderful with a really happy, upbeat melody. She and Ragnar traded lead vocals. Maybe it was a cover song, but I forgot to ask

After a break, they were joined by the bassist and drummer on stage for a more rocking part two. I very much enjoyed the full band sound. Again, there was some banter before they started and a lot of it in-between. I enjoyed seeing them bounce joke off of each other. Marina started the second set. she talked about a podcast about “the Swedish Jack the ripper” or at least that’s what I made of it. The upbeat ‘Nobody but me’ followed and I felt like dancing. 🙂

A jazzy number followed and again, I have no idea what it was called, but enjoyed it. ‘Things like this don’t happen’ was a bluesy song about Mr. Right and seemingly impossible events. That one was a lot of fun. She switched places with Ragnar again and he spoke about floating down the Mississippi on a boat and how he wrote a song for good luck. Of course, ‘Southern Nights’ was next and we got a decent sing-along going. 🙂 After that, it was the first time all night, he spoke English to thank me for coming, joking I knew his music better than he did. 😉 I confirmed that it was a special gig and the song had worked really well with the full band. <3

Next up was ‘Deva’ and it was excellent. I found it fascinating how easily those song could be transformed into full band arrangements. Kjartan nailed the guitar solo in the end. ‘Bravery’ followed and sounded fantastic too. 🙂 Always a great song. After that, the bassist and drummer left and they were a trio again. For the last time that night, he sat down at the piano and Marina took the lead once more, playing a beautiful version of ‘Time after time’.

They thanked us and took a bow, once as a trio and then as a full band with bassist and drummer jokingly standing in front of the others. The audience cheered for more and wanted something Icelandic so we got a cover song that I didn’t know, but everyone in the room did. It sounded somehow familiar to me too and was the perfect ending to a great night. 😀

Setlist

Hugsanir
Er kólna fer
Warsaw
Message
I have a Heart that’s blue
Lítil nótt
Haflinna (?)
Petals
Hallelujah
The Moon and the Sky
?

Nobody but me
?
Things like this don’t happen
Southern Nights
Deva
Time after time

?

Once the show was over, I bought Marina’s CDs and sat with Raggi and his friends B.and M. – they had enjoyed the sow so much that they were  considering going to the next one and we made plans. Raggi mentioned that they were staying in Akureyri that night too, so if I could get there, they could take me back. That sounded like a great offer. 🙂

Since there was packing to do, M., B. and I left and went to the bar next door. However, their babysiter called and they had to rush home before Raggi and Kjartan arrived. We hung out for one last drink, before the bar closed. I helped them carry guitars to their hotel and we hugged goodbye. Happily I walked home, not only smiling about the great concert I had just seen, but the possibility of another one tomorrow.

This world’s a fixer upper

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Grace Petrie – Trinity Centre, Bristol; March 23rd, 2024

Bristol was the last show of the tour not only of my personal one, but of the whole UK run, and it could not have been any better. It blew me completely off of my feet and I still don’t have the words to describe it. “I thought Manchester was great, but this was bloody fucking amazing!” I said to Grace after the show and she agreed they had felt the same way. Nothing to add here.

My day started with breakfast in Exeter, a lovely chat with the other guest and finding out they ha been to the previous night’s show as well. 🙂 One of them even sold me Gabi Garbutt’s CD, because there had been none left when I got to the merch. Goodbye’s, a bus ride to Bristol, food and a short rest at my hostel, before I went to the venue.

Grabbed some food on the way and when I got there around 17:30 there were two people already in line, N. and P., who had both dressed like Grace has on the ‘build something better’ cover, tool-belt included. I applauded them for their outfits, took a pic with their phone and we chatted. Next to arrive where my acquaintances from the previous night, both with fresh Grace tattoos and we all kept each other company. It was very lovely.

When the doors opened, the line stretched around the corner already and we were all happy to get out of the cold. Got the perfect front row spot and was already excited. I felt it in my bones that this was going to be a good one. Chatted with the people by my side and was having a great time already. Everyone was really lovely.

Before we knew it, Grace was on stage to introduce us to Gabi Garbutt and remind everyone that only “Tory scum” talk during support acts. She mentioned hearing Gaby on the radio and inviting her on the tour afterwards.

I fully understand. The second time around, Gabi’s songs spoke to me even more than the previous night and the fact that N. and P. were singing along to all the songs made it even better. I really liked ‘Notes from the Undergrowth’ and ‘Panic’, but all the other songs were lovely as well. She introduced all the songs with a bit of background info and also spoke about how much she loved being on tour with Grace and how great all the new songs are. She seemed to genuinely enjoy herself and left the stage to great cheers.

Setlist

Lady Matador
Bad Boy Bird
Notes from the Undergrowth
Genet’s Journey
Your Blues
Panic
New Kind of Weather
This Higher Place

After a short break, Grace was back and told us how she had met Molly Naylor at an event for the Labour party, fell in love with her poetry and then with her. <3

Molly’s poems were fantastic, including some audience participation too. At first, she invited all of us to the arts, then spoke about Grace’s dog, her relationship with alcohol and her love for pylons. Before the pylons poem she asked if anyone was in love and P. and N. answered “yes”, so she wanted to know if it was real love and admitted not knowing what that was in her 20ies. 🙂 Now she knows it is an action and a choice. The introduction to the dog poem was asking who loved dogs or cats “or both, rejecting the binary.” My highlight was ‘You’re alright’ an ode to not always having to be glamorous and perfect.

In the end she spoke about being happy to go out and read to people again while during the pandemic there was a time when we thought it might not happen again. She also told us about her poetry book she had for sale and the comic about space lesbians. “There are only three left, but I’ve had a look around and there are no queer people here” 😀 I loved her poems just as much as the way she presented them and thoroughly enjoyed each one.

Setlist

If You Didn’t Get The Invite, This Is The Invite
My Girlfriend’s Dog
Dry January
Pylons
You’re Alright
Whatever You’ve Got

When it was time for Grace and the band, Molly stepped back on stage and fired up the audience to cheer for her, first like a murmur and then growing louder. It worked perfectly and we greeted her and the band the way they deserved it. Grace asked us if we’d been feeling patriotic and everyone shut up “yeah, me neither” she quipped and played us ‘The best country in the world’. Like the previous day, everyone around me sang along to every word and I did my best to keep up. Fail again, fail better. 😉 We had a nice clap along, going too and I was already fully lost in the music.

I was moved and shed a few tears, feeling extremely happy at the same time. Much, much later I realized that Grace makes me feel similar to how Springsteen does. I can’t put my finger on the way, but I hink it’s something about the energy and passion she brings to the stage and I guess it’s about the stories too.

She introduced the band and we cheered for each one of them. Of course we had all heard the album and joked how she became annoying in her attempt to get it into the top 40. It worked, with being number 28 in the UK album chart, 6 in the sales charts and number 1 in the download charts for the entire country. Hell yes!

Next up was ‘The House always wins’ with the shout along of “roll up, roll up” or as Grace put it “don’t worry about being in tune, it is very much a howl of rage.” It worked out nicely, even when we were supposed to sing along with Ben and she did something else. Mostly anyway. 😉 The band played their hearts out and the audience was absolutely fantastic!

We learned that ‘Start again’ was written after the last election, her least favorite so far. I really love her sense of humor. With this song I realized that I remembered most of the words, because I had just covered it on the ukulele. Grace spoke about the music industry and how streaming on Spotify does not make artists any money. So she urged us to buy albums and support the artists we love, because otherwise we will create a situation where you can only get music from people who can afford not making any money on it. “You don’t have to buy my records, but please do buy somebody’s records.” ❤️ ‘We’ve got an office in Hackney’ was written after one meeting with music industry people and some of the lyrics are direct quotes. That makes the song even better. 😀

Did we fancy singing along with another one? Of course! I felt an energy running through me, like it only happens at the best of concert, when I become part of something bigger than myself and with everyone else I sang “I will love you forever and we will dance again next year.” This song still tugs at my heartstrings and I still feel it justas much as I did when I first heard it during the pandemic. At some point, Grace gave me a wink and a smile and I smiled right back. ❤️

Grace mentioned, how she talks and write a lot about politics and how she sometimes feels we are moving backwards, instead of forward. She said how heartbreaking it is that Roe v. Wade was overturned and how that is only the beginning and how the powers that be are trying to divide us. “Take it from me, there is no conflict between women’s rights and trans rights!” We all cheered loudly and it gave me hope that, maybe, one person at a time, we can convince everyone. Sadly, ‘Meanwhile in Texas’ and elsewhere “girls are gonna die.”

Before ‘Pride’, she spoke about the terrorist attack on the gay night club in Florida that was the worst hate crime in her lifetime and how she had grown up feeling that homophobia was a thing of the past. Then she talked about the current climate of fear-mongering and moral panic that makes her be afraid. So as someone with a platform she feels the need to speak up about it and how looking at her community and the fact that there are “So many more of us” gives her hope. I was crying again, as I sang along.

We learned that the song ‘King and Country’ had been inspired by listening to the radio and how even cruel news get delivered in neutral tones. She also mentioned the war in Gaza and the sentence that stuck with me is “wherever you stand, you just can’t deny that we don’t talk about the children in Gaza the same way we talk about children in Ukraine.” – true. She also mentioned that the current situation is a direct result of the actions of teh UK that they have never taken responsibility for. I love how outspoken she is and how much of a storyteller.  <3

‘King and Country’ was beautiful. This truly is not my king or country, but in many ways I feel the same about my government and lines like “some teenagers have blocked the motorway so we lock them all away” totally fits for Germany as well. It’s been a while since I have listened to someone, singing political songs the way she does and speak directly to my heart with her words.

After this, the band left the stage and Grace was alone with her guitar, telling us she’d try something she had not done in years. She thanked the people who had been to several concerts and wanted us to get our money’s worth and then she was like “all the way from fucking Germany”. <3 Awww. That was the sweetest thing, people even cheered for me and one of me newly found friends gave me a shoulder slap. 😀 Years ago she had a job she didn’t like, working with “the cool people”, who made it clear that she wasn’t one of them. 😉 The song was ‘Inspector Morse’. It’s not a song I know well, but it was a lot of fun and we got a great sing-along in the end.

Ben joined her and we got a choice between “a song about Donald Trump”, i.e. ‘You build a wall’ and “a song about the sea”, i.e. ‘Haul away’ and most people voted for the latter. So we hear about her love for the sea and going there when she feels depressed and collecting sea glass whenever she gets the chance. One such piece of sea glass became an engagement ring for Molly. A wonderful performance of ‘Haul away followed and has been in my head ever since. I have always liked the song, but had never paid enough attention to the lyrics to wonder what it was about. Then and there I finally understood and that unlocked a whole new level of beauty.

The rest of the band came back and she joked about Frank Turner turning the new album Punk. ‘English Culture’ was one of the songs that changed a lot and really clicked once she rehearsed it with the band. No wonder. It’s fantastic! After that ‘Cynicism Free’ cheered us all up. It’s such a happy love song. This time, the response to “Are there any Madonna fans in the house?” was much louder than the previous night. So loud even, that she felt the need to tell us there was a reference in the song, but she would not play a cover. 😉

Next, we learned about the house she and Molly have bought and how they get to do a lot of diy there. It lead to speaking how we all feel overwhelmed so we don’t even start anything and if maybe all of us would just start somewhere, maybe we can still fix this world. ‘Fixer Upper’ followed and we had another great sing-along. Grace Petrie fans are never afraid to sing and I love it. Also, a few fans had brought inflatable hammers that we held up during the “grab a hammer” line and then threw to the back of the crowd. Perfect!

All evening I felt great and despite the often angry songs I felt hope. There was an instant connection with everyone around me. We had more songs to sing along to with ‘The Losing Side’ and of course ‘Black Tie’ to end the set. First though, Grace thanked everyone in the crew and the band, then told us we had been fucking amazing. She introduced ‘Black Tie’ as a song she had written to tell people to not feel alone and everyone sang along at the top of their lungs. It was the song I needed when I was 16 and lonely and didn’t know when I fet in. It took my 30 years to find it, but I am glad I did. <3

They bowed and walked off. only to be cheered back to the stage for one last song. It was ‘Northbound’ of course, the last highlight before the end. I loved every second of it. IN the end, she told us it had been the best night on the best tour of her life. Hell yes. A picture with us (including one phone dying and needing another one) and a final bow with everyone, before they left for good. Grace gave the setlist to N. and I got to take a picture. t was really funny. The last line read “do it all again from the top, we will never go home” – that would have been alright with me.

Setlist

The Best Country In The World
The House Always Wins
Start Again
We’ve Got an Office in Hackney
Storm to Weather
Meanwhile in Texas
Pride
King and Country
Inspector Morse
Haul away
English Culture
Cynicism Free
Fixer Upper
The Losing Side
Black Tie

Encore:
Northbound

Afterwards there were hugs and goodbyes and all of us heading over to the merch. I chatted with Alex (the merch queen of Grace Petrie and Amanda Palmer), told him I missed his lovely notes, because they had outsourced the sending of the new album. He asked for my name and remembered that I had ordered a few times. It was lovely to chat with him and I learned that there may be another tour in the fall, possibly in October. I promised to make there, somewhere, somehow.

Eventually, Grace came out and I got a hug from her too and we chatted briefly, both agreeing that it had been a brilliant show that “blew Manchester right out of the water”. She admired N. and P.’s tool belts and I took a picture for them. 🙂 The venue wanted to kick us out, so Grace led the rest of the queue outside and continued signing stuff and talking to people. <3 I walked home with a goofy grin on my face. What an amazing night!