ANDREW JAMES & THE STEADY TIGER

The word class folk-rock duo from Cape Town, Andrew James & The Steady Tiger, are currently on a two-week tour up the East Coast. They will play at St. Clements in Musgrave on April 13.

“The degree of nuance and experimentation inherent to their approach makes it difficult to classify Andrew James and the Steady Tiger. It is still more difficult to explain how a guitarist and a drummer (not even half a rock band really) can create music so deeply layered and sonically diverse,” says the publicity material.

“In a reckless display of artistic impetuosity, the two men abandoned their previous commitments and begun their collaboration almost immediately after meeting in 2010 and together started exploring a wide range of musical styles, including Rock, Roots, Folk and Americana.”

In 2011, they worked with producer Aron-Turest Swartz (founder of Freshly Ground) to produce their debut album, Red in Tooth and Claw.

“Virtuosos both (in the strict sense of the word), their capacity for creating music that compliments and augments their lyrical storytelling knows no bounds,” continues the publicity material. “Watching Andrew wield the acoustic guitar, lap slide and banjo, using a unique and mesmerising finger-picking technique, is an experience in itself. His relationship to his instruments, from which he can coax sounds as diverse as they are expressive, is one of obvious intimacy, even love. His voice is alternately plaintive, nostalgic, innocent and angered as he considers the consequences of our thinking and our actions in uncertain times.

“James, on the other hand, can extract a beat from a feather and a shoe if it were asked of him; seated at his drums he appears as a blur of limbs and crashing steel from which infectious rhythms emanate in metronomic waves. Incorporating percussion instruments such as the cajon, darbuka and frame drum, he infuses African and Middle Eastern rhythms into their songs with hypnotic effect.”

Andrew James & The Steady Tiger will play at St. Clements in Musgrave Road on April 13 at 19h30. Tickets R50. Bookings and more information on 031 202 2511.