Review: Caleb Hawley, Bess Rogers and Alex Berger, House Concert (York), December 3 (From York Press)

Review: Caleb Hawley, Bess Rogers and Alex Berger, House Concert (York), December 3

3:04pm Tuesday 6th December 2011 in Music news and reviews By Paul Rhodes

WITNESSING a stellar performance close up is extremely rare. Watching Caleb Hawley’s version of Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke was one such moment - with spellbinding guitar and voice in perfect unison, all carried off with a smile.

The fact that Hawley was here at all shows that the House concert promoters are pushing the envelope.

Hawley was apparently on American Idol, but unlike most of those other X-infidels, he has charisma and his songs are unexpected and often funny. Bada-Boom, Bada Bing could be a massive R'nB hit, while Randy Newman would be flattered to hear We All Got Problems.

Hawley was performing with two other rising New York songwriters and the trio took turns showcasing their material; each revealing different strengths; Alex Berger’s writing could almost be from the pages of the Great American Songbook and his was the strongest voice, while Bess Rogers was more folky, but once she upped the tempo, as on the rollicking Anchor, she revealed a real gift for melody.

Both Rogers and Berger appear still in search of their own unique voice - and most of their songs lean heavily on those of the past.

Hawley too is a stylistic magpie, and while the choruses did pall, he seemed to better inhabit the material and appeared truly a star in the making. When the three performed together in the second set, the effect was to lift the music in a unique fashion.

While Hawley stole the prizes, that is missing the point of the evening, which was to share the stage and the plaudits, and triple the numbers of artists the audience gets to know. In that respect it was an unqualified success.