Laura Marling, Trades Club Hebden Bridge, 17th February 2016 9.5/10

Artists often spend hours in the studio with talented producers, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the distance between artist and audience inherent in recorded music. Even live, as performers play larger venues, they see the need to add musicians to their band and resource to their lighting and stage design. Last night, though there were no distractions or barriers, just 200 raptly silent music lovers crammed into a small room with the most talented English folk singer of her generation. When Laura Marling came to this venue last January, she'd just returned from life in California, and was about to release her fifth album, Short Movie. There was much discussion of her plugging in, deploying electric guitar for the first time, and she brought a band. Tickets were were allocated by lottery to fans on her email list.

This gig was rooted in the local community though: after hearing of the devastating floods which hit Hebden Bridge on Boxing Day, Laura contacted The Trades Club and offered to play a benefit concert. Last night, she alluded to a tales she'd been told of the extraordinary reaction to the disaster, including a group of Sikhs from Slough and Hells Angels who travelled to Yorkshire to lend assistance. She talked of the beautiful and all too rare sense of community in Hebden, and perhaps inspired by the presence of her sister, of her father. Laura is often shy on stage, but sensing she was amongst kindred spirits, appeared unusually relaxed here, even chatty. Yet, when Laura plays, she seems to inhabit a different plane, her focus inward rather than on the audience. A very occasional slip served as a reminder of her human fallibility, but this was a beautifully poised, hushed performance of incredible sensitivity.

The 75 minute set, as ever without an encore, started with the intense, extended opening sequence from Once I Was an Eagle, which I consider to be her finest work to date. Short Movie featured relatively little: instead she focused on earlier songs written for sparser forces. However, I Feel Your Love and the haunting Walk Alone were included, being my highlights alongside gorgeous renditions of Once and Sophia. We were also treated to two covers, a sad one by Townes Van Zandt and the more upbeat Do I Ever Cross Your Mind. More intriguing though, was the song Noelle from an as yet unreleased sixth album, played in full in America last autumn, by her request not filmed or recorded. Aside from the emotional directness, a benefit of the minimal presentation was the clear audibility of the words, which are central to her genius. That Laura was turned down for a poetry class in New York should give hope to all those faced with rejection.

I first saw Laura in concert halls, and only in past year have had the privilege of experiencing this exquisite artistry in an intimate space. She's easily able to command large audiences, though it feels more of an inward, personal journey than one which must be shared. Some have found Short Movie more detached than the early albums, but the two shows in Hebden Bridge demonstrate that this is an illusion created by the production. Laura may have gained in self assurance on stage, but her performance is every bit as raw, and the risks taken for expression are not characteristic of a genteel, reserved southern English person. She explained that as a teenager, she'd made up fictional back stories to explain her song lyrics to her father. Deep, painful, personal emotions are given voice in a way that transcends the boundaries of folk. Whereas some artists may feel exposed in a solo acoustic performance, Laura's talent was all the more evident through the lack of embellishment; this was a truly memorable evening.

Set List

• Take The Night Off
• I Was An Eagle
• You Know
• Breathe
• Walk Alone
• Waitin' Around To Die (Townes Van Zandt cover)
• Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (Dolly Parton cover)
• Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
• Made by Maid
• The Muse
• Once
• Don't Ask Me Why (partial)
• Sophia
• What He Wrote
• I Feel Your Love
• Noelle (new song)
• Daisy
• Rambling Man
• How Can I