Funk and soul band's double bill at Lyth will be a family affair for Barry
Barry Gordon admits his accent these days is "more East Lothian than Thurso East", having spent all his adult life living in Edinburgh. "Caithness, though, will always be home to me," he insisted ahead of what is sure to be a funktastic double bill at Lyth this weekend by his band James Brown is Annie (JBiA).
It will be a homecoming of sorts not just for Barry but for two other members of the touring funk and soul sextet, Isaac Sutherland and Lyle Watt, who are also originally from Caithness. "The three of us are looking forward to being back in the Motherland for a wee while," Barry said.
The sold-out concerts on Friday and Saturday will also allow the 45-year-old guitarist to catch up with the two people who, he says, remain his biggest fans – his parents, Donald (76) and Christine (75), who still live in Thurso.
And audience members can expect a family get-together as part of the entertainment. "My dad took up playing music relatively late in life," Barry explained. "He's an alto saxophonist – his jazz name is Old Bones Malone – and he has played alongside us a few times before.
"Any chance to share a stage with him is a rare treat I always look forward to. I just wish we could have taken up this music malarkey together when we were both younger.
"He and two of his other saxophonist pals, Hilary Geddes and Dave Mainland, will be sitting in on a song with us at both Lyth shows. I've given them the name Tower of Bower – a nod to funk ’n’ soul legends Tower of Power, with a Caithness twist."
Barry is keen to acknowledge the success of Lyth Arts Centre in the four-and-a-half years since Charlotte Mountford and Tom Barnes came in as co-directors. (Tom is taking up a new post with a human rights charity at the end of this month, with Charlotte continuing as director on a full-time basis.)
"Charlotte and Tom have done an amazing job at Lyth – engaging folk, getting audiences in, and doing their level best to bring top-quality arts to the county," Barry said. "We were due to play at Lyth much sooner, but then Covid struck. True to her word, though, Charlotte made sure we got back up the road sooner rather than later."
With their slick and sophisticated jazz-infused style, JBiA have been hailed as the best funk and soul band to emerge from Scotland since the Average White Band (AWB). Having begun as an instrumental trio, the Edinburgh-based group have gone on to play at some of the country's biggest festivals, made several TV appearances and shared a stage with some of the top names in the genre. AWB legends "Molly" Duncan and Hamish Stuart produced two JBiA albums; another, Alan Gorrie, also wrote a song exclusively for the band's debut album release.
The JBiA song Get Up to Get Down was a BBC Radio Scotland single of the week and BBC weather presenter Judith Ralston has starred in one of their music videos. The line-up is Barry Gordon (guitar and vocals), Eddie Miller (electric piano and vocals), Jonny White (tenor saxophone), Scott Jamieson (drums), Isaac Sutherland (bass, guitar and vocals) and Lyle Watt (guitar and bass).
Barry combines his musical career with his job as a journalist. He also works as a scribe for college and university students with disabilities.
After their two nights at Lyth, the band will be heading south to play at jazz clubs in Leeds and Manchester and they will be performing at a few festivals during the summer. "Later in the year we'll be playing at Eden Court in Inverness [November 11] under our other guise, The Tomorrow Band – which, in some ways, is a big-band version of JBiA," Barry explained. "The Average White Band's Hamish Stuart will be playing a set with us at it, as our special guest."
After the disruption caused to the music industry by the pandemic, Barry and his bandmates are thrilled to be out playing to live audiences again.
"Performing to an online audience was a nice novelty during lockdown – but there's no substitute for the face-to-face, person-to-person connection that only live music can bring," he said. "For musicians, the energy we receive from audiences is our lifeblood.
"Covid isn't going anywhere soon, though, so while it's reassuring to see consumer confidence being restored when it comes to attending shows, it's vital that audiences – and musicians – remain careful and diligent."
- James Brown is Annie are at Lyth Arts Centre on Friday and Saturday (8pm both nights; both shows are sold out).