Della Manley and Rupert Bent III , above, on-stage during 'One Night Only', held at Redbones the Blues Café, 21 Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, last Saturday. - Photo by ChaosDELLA MANLEY was the featured act at 'One Night Only', held last Saturday at Redbones the Blues Cafe, 21 Braemar Avenue, New Kingston.
The diminutive and beautiful Manley, as usual, had her guitar and was joined by Rupert Bent III, also on guitar, Richie Cunningham on congos and Ian 'Gibby' Gibson on bass.
Seemingly somewhat shy in person, this seems to come out in her performances. Dressed in a white blouse and a simple pair of blue jeans, Manley sat stage front and centre as she delivered her set in her understated way, which is beautiful yet incredibly irritating, as she gives mere hints as to what she could truly do with her voice if she truly let go.
With her two daughters, Maya and Rhea in the audience, Della Manley sang Nature Boy, Favourite Things, the wonderful Ashes on the Windowsill and Come Undone as all the players on the night seemed to have adopted the understated mode, with no competing among the instruments and very rare solos, allowing the music simply to blend and waft into the night air in support of her vocals.
As she sang, eyes closed, there were more than a few hints of American Tori Amos in some of her songs. Crazy Love and It's OK were next as she sang, with a subtle voice that soared.
Bent went off on a soft solo on City Lights, prompting her to ask the audience to "...give up for Rupert, give it up for all of them, cho."
As the audience sipped on the free Carlo Rossi California Red and White wines provided by WISYNCO at the venue, silence was the order of the night as they sat and absorbed the beauty of the night and the music.
Fragile featured a brief solo on the congos by Cunningham, before the ensemble moved into Peter Pan, which Manley introduced by saying "...it's about a time in your life when you feel like giving up- but you really shouldn't," before almost plaintively asking Don't turn your back on me. "This one is pretty new to me," she said, before moving into Flat Lining, which featured another solo from Bent as Gibby provided a constant bass underpinning, as he did for the entire set.
Manley seemed a little unsure of herself as she moved into Fragment, a song she said was one of her sister-in-law's poems set to music. It was interesting to note that although you could hardly hear her when she spoke, her voice was clarion clear and sweet as a bell when she sang.
With You In Mind was followed by her saying "I recently went to the 'Songwriter's Boot Camp', where I met someone who taught me a new way to string my guitar, Rupert doesn't have a problem with it. This is a happy song," swapping instruments as she spoke. Missing It All followed as she sang Count your blessings every day.
She seemed totally lost in the music whenever she sang, and this proved true on a fascinating cover of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time, her face constantly changing with practically every note. After Garden Bent asked, "Should this be it?" only to be greeted with a yelled "Hell no!" from the audience. "This is a hell of a long set," Manley said, but no one seemed to mind. The wonderfully expressive Bittersweet followed before she said "That's it guys, thank you so much for coming."
The audience would have none of it however, and begged for one more. A mini-debate on-stage followed as to what song to do and after they had decided, the two guitars, bass, congos and her vocals mixed beautifully, eliciting more applause.
The crowd would still not let them go, managing to get a second encore, a cover of The Moody Blue's Nights in White Satin, despite Manley saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you, I think you've had enough."
Although they had not, the audience left the venue, buying out the copies of her CD available on the way out to cap off what had been a beautiful night.
