Dry The River, now on their second album 'Alarms in the Heart', are often described as a ‘hard folk’ outfit, which does like a weird amalgamation, but is actually pretty spot on. Their take on folk is fresh, deep and consistently earnest and often surreptitiously pained.
The band studied in Bristol, and cited that this stop at The Marble Factory was an important, nostalgic date. Lead vocalist Peter Liddle was barefoot throughout the performance, and their long, Anglo-Saxon tresses and shaggy beards added to their earthy, almost verging on pagan style that their poeticism and folk-roots covey.
Their voices were in perfect harmony, all equally strong vocalists with different but complimentary ranges. Liddle’s voice is so profoundly beautiful, but live was he was completely disarming as a performer. ‘Bible Belt’, from their debut Shallow Bed, was a poignant moment, and is a song about Liddle’s alcoholic parents, as his voice pirouetted around the room, the crowd stood in respectful silence at his deep creation.
Title track ‘Alarms in the Heart’ was delivered with precision and passion, ‘Gethsemane’ named after a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, was beautiful, and laden with powerful religious imagery, a recurring theme across both albums.
Their debut Shallow Bed was released in 2012, and their latest album has been met with much the same amount of critical adoration, some even citing it a progressive improvement. With one man down, their violinist, the Stratford-group certainly hasn’t suffered at the hands of his departure. Dry the River appeared stronger than ever - refined, triumphant and confident of their beautiful new offering. Finishing with ‘No Rest’, they performed a special rendition, which started with acoustics and switched over to electric. It was a perfect set, vocally, instrumentally and altogether completely enriching to behold.
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