Jonathan Rice

Dragging on a cigarette cadged off a member of the audience, Jonathan Rice tells a rambling story about a punch up at a bizarre Christmas dinner in a Hollywood hotel. Then, with everyone still laughing, he draws us into another of his delicately exposed songs. Alone, he is everything you want from your lonely troubadour – relaxed but vulnerable, self-deprecating but not afraid to perform.

He turns in that old crowd pleaser, the off-mic song from the front of the stage. He has the voice to pull it off, and even the shuffling tiptoe stampede of camera phones it provokes doesn’t drown him out or break the spell. He only needs a guitar and a spotlight to freeze time and get his nails in your heart.

When his band join him though, this power to hypnotise gets buried under guitar solos and four-piece bonhomie. His songs suit musical expansion – his album ‘Trouble Is Real’ shows that throughout. But live, compared to the intimacy of his solo performance, anyone else sharing the stage with him feels intrusive, almost a bit irritating. Like a drunk friend coming and talking at you while you’re trying to read a text from a lover.

Some things are best kept simple – bacon sandwiches, directions and, seemingly, Jonathan Rice. On his own and musically unadorned he has a natural gift to connect with people.