Bertie Blackman

Bertie Blackman

I should precede this blog with the following: despite the fact that I like Bertie Blackman, I do find her hit and miss.  Her songs are either fantastic, or they’re far from it.  I’ve been a big fan of Bertie’s voice ever since I heard her single ‘Favourite Jeans’ on the radio.  Even the singles she’s released following ‘Favourite Jeans’ I’ve enjoyed. 

But there are times when Bertie writes songs that are difficult to like.  For example, she often has songs where it’s just her and an electric guitar and aside from the fact that the guitar playing is pretty messy, it just comes out boring.  But then she’ll have a backing band for another song and it will sound fantastic.  I really think she should either have a full band, or if she’s going to play solo, pick up an acoustic guitar rather than have a song that sounds like a dodgy b-side from a crappy 90’s riot-grrl band.

What Bertie Blackman manages to do well is differentiate herself from the myriad of singer-songwriters that flood the music market.  Her performance supporting Jeff Martin was engaging albeit hit and miss – she had a wonderful backing guitarist playing U2-like melodies and it sat wonderfully with her music, and why she doesn’t encorporate the delay/reverb backing guitar more often is beyond me.  Bertie Blackman is a talented songstress, and she needs to learn how to hone her skills – I think once she does that, she’ll take off.  So sit back and enjoy one of her great tunes, ‘Television’.

Bertie Blackman – ‘Television’ (mp3)

http://www.bertieblackman.com
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