John Davidson and Jacob Bryant, of John and Jacob, have just finished touring in the UK as the special guests of the brilliant Striking Matches but their Edinburgh date, a remnant date of their own headlining UK tour that unfortunately didn’t happen, was proof that these guys – as well as the other 3/5ths of the band – should and will be headlining more dates very soon.They brought their guitars, trademark suits and a lot of passion to a dreary Edinburgh.
With only one full album to their name – their self-titled debut, John and Jacob – one could be forgiven for thinking that this would be a set on the shorter side…but one would also have been very wrong. Their set lasted over an hour and a half and was comprised of album tracks, EP tracks, covers and some pretty special songs from their next album – some material that the boys themselves confessed they were playing for one of the first times. ‘Norway’ was one of the new songs and looks likely to be the single they’re going to lead their new album with and it had the room captivated. If you haven’t been lucky enough to hear this track on their travels then definitely keep an ear out for it in the future…this could, and if all is right with the world, should be a very big song for these guys.
‘Be My Girl’, arguably one of their most popular songs – no doubt, in some respect, thanks to the TV show Nashville- went down a treat and ‘I’d Go Back’ had everyone one in the audience united in one big, and beautiful choir. But the highlight of the night was when the boys unplugged their guitars, jumped off the stage and took to the floor to perform ‘Breaking the Law’ in the middle of the crowd. It was loud and it was rowdy and I couldn’t help but feel incredibly lucky to be a part of this night. And I had only paid a little over £12 to be a part of it…I would have happily paid much, much, much more.
Afterwards, as always, John and Jacob took time to talk to everyone, take photos and to sign. A class act both on and off stage and it’s hopefully only a matter of time before we get the full band over here.
Support Act: It’d be mad NOT to mention the support for the evening, which came from Holloway Road a band that, admittedly, I was only really familiar of the name and not their music. But after their decent sized set (it’s really nice when a support act gets longer than 15 minutes and I think these guys got a little more than double that) I will definitely be checking out more of their stuff and you should too. They’re yet another very welcome addition to the growing UK country scene.
