Exactly a week earlier, I was at Coachella, with 80,000 Radiohead fans, so this small folk gig could have been a culture shock. Fortunately though The Deaf Institute is my favourite Manchester venue, and I already knew that The Staves were enchanting from my encounter in September when they supported The Civil Wars. Since then, their prominence has been increasing: they've just returned from a US tour, are undertaking an extensive UK headline tour, and have been announced as support for Bon Iver in The States. Their début album is due this year too, and on the very day of this concert they released their second EP The Motherlode, which you can stream on Soundcloud.
Despite frenetic touring, The Staves said in this interview: 'As for conquering the world, we don’t know. We just want to make music that people feel a connection to, that they enjoy listening to and that we like.' The sisters from Watford have a mother from Wales, a nation steeped in a tradition of communal singing, so they started their musical journey singing at home, progressing to open mic nights in their local pub and then doing a covers show. Perhaps by chance, they were contemporaries at the same state school as indie pop singer Kyla La Grange, yet their style is less showy.
The Deaf Institute was packed, but the crowd were incredibly attentive, and listened in rapt silence even to the support act, Dutch folk singer Christof. He sung his beguiling folk melodies solo, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica. Christof spent four years in Ireland, and the Celtic influence could be discerned in his music as well as his accent. The Staves though were joined by a drummer and bass player, who played sensitively, although they were even more touching as a solo trio. The highlight of the show was Wisely and Slow, which was sung a cappella, Emily, Jessica, and Camilla gathered round one microphone.
The sisters made an effort to lighten the mood with banter between songs, and had a surprisingly polished stage presence. The key is clearly their voices, and specifically the gentle 2 and 3 part vocal harmonies, although they also played guitar and ukulele. They have an ethereal sweetness, with lullaby like melodies, and their unpretentious music making, unadorned with gimmicks, was most moving and calming. There's no doubt that it was received extremely well in Manchester, and the audience, myself included, went away feeling more a peace with the world.
By their own admission though, The Staves have limited original material to draw on at this stage in their career. There could perhaps have been a greater variety of mood, and there were times when I wondered if the music could have been more demanding, and less uniformly comfortable. First Aid Kit, whom I'd seen a week earlier at Coachella, are more assertive and catchy, whilst retaining charm and tenderness, whilst The Civil Wars are in a magical league of their own in folk inspired music. Yet, The Staves draw from the English folk tradition, not the American country one, and the comparison is superfluous when their act is so beautiful in their own right. I certainly predict that they will go much further in folk loving circles, and encourage you to investigate them. Even if I'm not sure they'll break out of the genre like their supporters John Paul White and Joy Williams, you should make sure you're in the know about them.
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