Girls With Guitars 3rd Anniversary Show At The Colour House Theatre, Merton - Tuesday 4th July 2006 by Luthea Salom

A last minute change to the show, previously scheduled for 8:00pm on Wednesday 5th July, rearranged because of the World Cup semi-final game. The heat was on! It had been thirty-two degrees, the hottest day of the year so far and whew, it was a hot night in more ways than one! The heat played havoc with the guitar tunings, the audience were melting and the performers had to contend with extra heat from the stage spotlights, but everyone hung in there for the duration of the show.

The opening featured guest performer October rocked our socks off, accompanied by her sturdy bass player, having played Glastonbury's massive audiences, she's right at home on the acoustic stage and for that matter the Girls With Guitars one.
Next up, new comer, the beautiful Carrie Tree with tender melodies and haunting vocals, reminiscent of Mindy Smith, she has travelled the world writing songs from Sad Deserts Sky about the plight of the aborigines, to Inside Her Tears written in a pilgrimage town on the river Ganges, and Early Morning Train Ride written on a train journey from London to Brighton. We hope she'll be a frequent guest at GWG in the future.

Catherine Rushton followed on with an array of songs penned in Nashville, Moving On Faith, the tear-jerking When He Holds Her and the already successful "Read My Lips" which has just been recorded by Lucie Diamond, soon to be a hit (we hope, go Catherine!)
After a well-earned break, where everyone escaped the heat momentarily to catch a wiff of a breeze by the old watermill on the river, we were floored by the huge smokey jazzy-bluesey tones of the gorgeous Lotte Mullan with her band. Her vocals are both sweet and raw, her songwriting is exemplary and her boys did a great job of backing her up, complimenting her style to perfection. Watch out for this little girl, she's gonna be big soon.

It was not only July the 4th, American Independence Day, but also the third anniversary of Girls With Guitars (UK) and our UK founder and host Jae Avery, accompanied on stage by Jeffrey Backus on twelve-string, lifted our spirits with I Believe, then slapped us right between the eyes with her powerful political ballad Stop The World, declaring that Blair and Bush are at Sunday confession, then resolved by getting a real groove on with the funky Forever With U2.

Finally, the beautiful and tiny but very talented Luthea Salom took the stage and captivated us all with her songs and stories of closets and new year's eve and got us all thinking with her thought provoking political rant called "Accidents". Seems it's the job of the songwriter to make a stand and vent the world's voices about world events, I wonder who's listening?