Ally Venable & Tom Moriarty

Night & Day Café, Manchester – It’s the middle of October and Autumn has properly arrived. It’s dark at the ringing of seven bells and I’ve even had thoughts of putting the heating on – only thoughts mind. It looks like it’s all downhill from here on in, and Christmas will be here before we know it.

If all this sounds a bit miserable and bah humbug, I would have to agree with you, so there’s only one for it. I’m in the need of some good blues / rock and fortunately for me, Ally Venable is in the UK for the first time and I’m down for the opening night of a five-date tour. We should have been heading to Gulliver’s in Manchester, but such was the demand for tickets, we now head for the bigger venue of Night & Day Café. The demand was also big enough in Edinburgh to warrant a move from the Voodoo Rooms to La Belle Angele as well. Apparently, word gets around, people have heard many things and now they want to see why.

The Night & Day Café is a good venue for me as I’ve had many a good night here, and if you ask the sound and lighting Fella nicely, he’ll normally switch a few extra bulbs on, instead of just the pure red lights, which are normally in fashion and an extra pain to deal with in the photo edit. Blimey, more moaning, for which I apologise ! We have Support too, in the form of Tom Moriarty, who’s new to me, but again comes highly recommended, so it looks like we could be in for a much needed, good night out.

Tom Moriarty – Moriarty is quite an unassuming chap. He strolls on stage with minimum fuss, picks up his guitar, gives an acknowledging nod to those that have come out to play early – and there are many - and starts.

He opens with ‘Pride’ and goes straight in to ‘Riptide’ which will be the title track of his new album. It has Moriarty’s trademark style lyrics that often tell tales of his Irish ancestry and has a healthy Hammond that plays nicely through it, but not strongly enough for me, but this matters not, as they are both are well received by Manchester

‘On the Road Again is performed acoustically and is more folk rock. Moriarty is quite an amenable guy and has a good line in banter that’s warming and welcoming on a cold, wet night in Manchester. He tells us that the river is a spiritual place for him and suggests to us that we have all got a sensitive side to us and so we should relate to the next tune, called… ‘She’s Like the River’. ‘The Rise and Fall’ tells about what happens in relationships and is a real punchy tune, as is ‘The Enemy Inside’, which has a healthy dose of Hammond coming through again. Moriarty has been likened voice-wise to Ray Lamontagne, which isn’t wrong, but I’d go a bit more with Joe Cocker, either way, neither are bad names to be associated with and the good and kind people of Manchester certainly approved of what he did tonight, judging by the reaction he got at the end.

I caught up with him briefly after the gig and he told me that he’s Supporting Philip Sayce on his ten-date tour in May, next year, and as I’m already booked in for Chester on the 30^th, I’ve got much to look forward to.

Tom Moriarty Setlist

Pride

Riptide

On the Road Again

She’s Like the River

The Rise and Fall

The Enemy Inside

Ally Venable - Now, where to start with this lady. Aged 26 for starters and with six, yes you read that correctly, six albums to her name already and a bucket load of awards from the age of sixteen. She hails from Kilgore, in Texas, where she still lives and is held in quite high esteem by all who know about these sorts of things. She’s never set foot on our green and pleasant land before, which is why the tour is more of a taster and only five dates long. It won’t be the case next time she returns though as four of the five dates have sold out as I write this, so more dates and bigger venues will be on the cards next time, I would suggest.

Tonight’s crowd must be 90% male, if not more, - I don’t know what that means but they have a lot of love and affection for this girl judging by the reaction she got when she walked on to the stage. She’s asks, in a soft, Southern Texan drawl “Are you ready for me to play y’all some blues tonight?” at which point, the place erupts in delight, and the tone is duly set for the evening.

The band needs to warm up so they open with an instrumental version of an Erykah Badu tune ‘Penitentiary Philosophy’ purely as an intro. Not only is it her first time over here, but it’s also the first time she’s ever played with this band. It she hadn’t have told us, we wouldn’t have known. She damn near makes her guitar scream, which also sets the tone for the next seventy-five minutes or so. ‘Brown Liquor’ is next, with a hard-hitting riff and killer vocals, which carry on through ‘Unbreakable, both from the new album  ‘Money & Power’, the theme of which is what it truly means to be a force to be reckoned with, apparently. “I want this record to wake people up” Venable herself says.

Despite being six albums in, there’s still the desire to throw in a few covers, the next being a James Taylor song ‘Steamroller’ where Venable reels off riff after riff, and the rhythm boys behind her cruise through their part with ease.

‘Texas Louisiana’ caused the crowd to give a huge cheer when the opening riff was struck and was eagerly awaited, it would seem. Venables voice is really on point tonight, as you’d expect perhaps on the opening night of a tour, nevertheless she hits the high notes without any effort and exudes softer tones as she goes through the set with a level of professionalism that belies her years. I cast a good few glances around the room to see how the crowd are actually responding and it would be true to say that they are totally enthralled by what they’re witnessing. ‘Stopper Back Papa’ puts a smile on everyone’s face, especially when they segway in the 80’s tune ‘Alex F’, but it’s her love for Stevie Ray Vaughan comes through in much of what she does, not least in what must have been a ten minute version of ‘Lenny’ and her own ‘Tribute to SRV’ which wasn’t supposed to be part of the set, but she felt the need to… and so she did.

Considering they’ve never played live together before, Pulido and Bedford have done her proud. The drums have pounded away all night; solid and relentless and the chunky drop-dead bass riffs have filled in every gap that they left behind. Bedford’s six string bass, and his fluffy, fur covered, five string, which he played one handed half the time with his left hand whilst his right pounded away on the dinkiest keyboard I’ve ever seen. He’s one seriously cool dude and took advantage to whip the crowd up further with the somewhat out of place “Make some noise” chant, but as he’s so cool, Manchester did anyway.

Not to be outdone, Venable says “We’re getting all sweaty up here for y’all, are you havin’ a good time?” The response is emphatic and leaves her in no doubt that they were. For a girl that’s never set foot on these shores before, her music definitely has, and Manchester certainly knew everything about her. She continues, “I’m so happy to be playing for y’all here tonight, it’s surreal to be doing this. I truly believe that music can unite us all”.

A cover of Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s ‘Ain’t That a Bitch’ took us down the home straight with some serious bass slapping going on from the furry five string, as Bedford and Pulido each got ab fair chance to shine and show off a little, they had earned it after all.

There was just enough time for one encore as we were in serious danger of breaching the curfew and a sublime version of ‘Real Gone’ rocked the joint, one last time, just for good measure.

There is no doubt that this was one powerful performance from the threesome, but the accolades that Venable has earned are totally justified as she put in an absolutely stunning performance. Don’t underestimate this lady. Her age belies her guitar playing ability and her talent is totally unquestioned. Her charisma is infectious, and Manchester lapped up every single drop of it. This was her first time here and I’m glad to be able to say that I was there to see it, but it definitely won’t be her last, and when she returns, I’ll be there again, because some things just have to be done.

Tour continues but only until Saturday, so you need to get a shift on.

Ally Venable Setlist

1. Penitentiary Philosophy (Intro)

2. Brown Liquor

3. Unbreakable

4. Steamroller

5. Texas Louisiana (Buddy Guy Collaboration Track)

6. Broken and Blue

7. Stopper Back Papa

8. Fire ( Jimi Hendrix Cover)

9. Feel That Sting

10. Lenny

11. Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan (Instrumental)

12. Ain’t That a Bitch (Kenny Wayne Shepherd Cover)

Encore:

13. Real Gone

The Ally Venable Band are…

Ally Venable – guitar, vocals

Isaac Pulido – drums

EJ Bedford – bass, looking cool

Ally Venable UK Tour 2025

14th Tues - Manchester, Night & Day Café

15th Weds - Edinburgh, La Belle Angele

16th Thurs - Nottingham, Bodega

17th Fri - London, The Garage

18th Sat - Sittingbourne, Bourne Music Club

Written in association with Noble PR