Buriers Headlined by Micah P Hinson

BY ALEX ZINOVIEFF
THURSDAY, 1ST MAY 2014

2007 Micah P Hinson proposed on-stage to Ashley Bryn Gregory at the end of a concert in Union Chapel. She said yes, and they now play music together. Sound a bit like someone else you know? Well the similarities don’t end there. Like our favourite troubled country singer, Hinson has seen rocky times - and he draws from them as the bulk of the matter that constitutes the content of his songs. With Ashley as his June, he thrashes his cathartic songs out on stage, with an almost cyclical relentlessness. His guitar is shrill, and slightly piercing, but provide a scratchy accompaniment to the star of the show - what comes from his mouth. Hinson possesses a voice that doesn’t really belong to his body - a deep, slightly guttural, rumble that you can’t believe the slight man on the stage is able to make. I didn’t feel the live set did his music justice, and it felt a little bit flat. I am anxious not to give a negative review, because it’s not fair on an artist that I think has produced some fantastic recorded work.

A band I thought were mountainously magnificent was Buriers, who have played alongside Hinson throughout the tour (and at this show). Their music is truly unlike anything I’ve heard before. Set to poetry, and sometimes spoken word, the songs build, ebb and flow through storybook narratives and metrical movements. Lead singer James P Honey is one of those rare people that have their way of doing things, and a method that doesn’t allow itself to become bastardised or muddied by normality or convention. I’ve included a video of theirs at the bottom of the page. Watch it. Immediately.