Picture the scene. You walk through Liverpool One shopping centre. You are heading for Jamaica Street in the Baltic Quarter. You have forgotten to bring your umbrella and the heavy rain has drenched the place your hair used to adorn. Drops of spring rain run in rivulets over your brow and onto your nose. But then you step inside Unit 51 Café and enter another world. Warmth, a steaming latte or three and a stool to perch on by the window. From your vantage point you survey the other poor souls who forgot their umbrellas too. You are not gloating. Never.

Suddenly your transformation is complete and the sun begins to shine ever so brightly. Onto the stage comes Satin Beige and you embark upon a half hour journey into the worlds that she depicts.

This is not the easiest gig to play. Midday in a café with less than thirty people present is a difficult ask and the style, the songs, the moods and the themes would be better suited to one of those late night, pre-smoking-ban, soul-soaked, jazz n rhythm n blues bars. These, however, are the gigs upon which reputations and careers are built and where word of mouth has enormous potential. Satin has played much bigger gigs in much bigger venues but she is in the midst of an evolution and where better than a small stage for her to experiment with the introduction of beats to her live show. These add a new dimension, making the sound fuller, anchoring the songs whilst still driving them along. Dave Monks of BBC Introducing has played Addicted several times in the past. The drums have made this a much more complete song, more polished than when played live before. In fact in the whole performance the song structures are tighter and the endings more practised.

The set started with Midnight World, Satin’s single which is available on Itunes. At five minutes and four seconds it is a good deal longer than most singles, hence it is very good value for money. This is a journey into the hazy, twilight zone world of midnight trysts. The hypnotic attraction that occurs in the dead of night. As the song ends there is an unspoken thought that when the morning light comes the midnight world will fade away and reality will bite once more. People will probably compare this song to Sade, with its mix of jazz and soul and R n’B but Satin has her own, very distinctive, unique voice. She continues with old favourites, Slow Down and Love Drunk, both again amplified and taken to another level with beats. Satin starts and ends the show accompanying herself on her guitar, performing the middle section with Kije, her cello. It is hard to get a great deal of audience participation in a café at midday, as the next two acts, SPXKEN and Rony Trio both discovered but she gets a “Hi Kije” back from the audience. Some of the sounds coming from the cello are mesmerising, both when plucked and when the bow is used, such as the last sustained note of the next song, a cover of Drake’s Hotline Bling which she recorded recently on Youtube, along with a cover of Britney’s Toxic and a Beyonce medley.

Returning to the guitar for the last two songs, Satin bemoans Facebook, Twitter et al in Social Media Anxiety before ending with probably her best and catchiest song, Being Me. It deals with the issue of being born mixed race. Satin has, however, turned her racial heritage into a blessing, firstly for herself and then for her audiences too. Firstly, it inspired this great song and secondly it allows her to draw on the influences that make up her very DNA. She may not be African, Indian, Mexican, Brazilian, Spanish or Portuguese but she has enough racial diversity to write and perform great songs. Witness the Bajan twang (“I’m aalraaaight”), to the Guyana swagger, to the melancholic Lithuanian Jewish folk flowing through the cello bow. It is good to be content with who you are and the many places you have come from.

The show ends with a humble “Thank you very much” and the audience are content. As I venture out once more without my umbrella I have been infused with sunshine nevertheless and all is bright.

Below is a review of the Café Kerouac gig from last year

The single Midnight World is available on Itunes on the compilation album Ocean Waves and Mersey Sounds

Satin may have social media anxiety but she does use it!

 

• Twitter: @MissSatinBeige
• Facebook: MissSatinBeige. There is a link to the Youtube videos on here

 

Review of Satin Beige, Live at Café Kerouac. 3^rd May, 2015

 

It is almost seamless. Conversations cease. You can hear a pin drop. Fifty people stand transfixed. Arpeggios cut through the air and a haunting melody follows, this the unique partnership between Satin and Kije, her cello, to whom the song is dedicated. It is greeted by brief, rapturous applause, as people mouth, “She’s good!” before spontaneous silence reigns again.

Like a modern “Summertime” Love Drunk transports the spellbound audience to another plane as the rich, smooth, sultry vocals harmonise with Kije’s delicious bends and vibratos. Next comes Addicted, which has had airtime on Radio Merseyside and beyond. The young starlet seduces the crowd into a dreamlike state, deft as a snake charmer, with brutally honest lyrics and memorable melodies and rhythms. Nobody dares talk and thus break the hypnotic spell of her virtuosity.

This is clearly a young lady with the world at her feet, who is self-assured and knows who she is. From the guitar driven Soul Food, in which she knows who she is in a society where something is fundamentally wrong, to the exquisitely crafted Being Me, her homage to the melting pot of her own racial heritage. Every song inspires loud acknowledgements from a mixed age audience as her formative experiences, infused with humour and realism, speak to them personally.