George Ezra | Live Review & Photoset

Photos (c) Paul Lippiatt

If I learnt anything whilst swaying amongst the packed-out Fiddlers crowd on Thursday night, it’s that George Ezra is a fantastic storyteller. With debut album ‘Wanted On Voyage’ due for release at the end of June, Ezra returned home to impress a mixed crowd of old and young with his new material – and he deserves a hearty thumbs-up for it.

Introducing the show by explaining that his debut album is heavily influenced by his European inter-railing experiences, he swiftly launched into relaxed, acoustic album track ‘Over the Creek’ - and from there on in the crowd were completely under his spell. By no means was this a dance-your-socks-off kind of night, instead a laid-back, intimate introduction to a young contemporary folk singer/songwriter that has a wonderful way with words. Every song told a tale, each hypnotising melody painting a picture that had Ezra’s loyal following wholly entranced. As the night wore on, it wasn’t hard to imagine yourself bowing down before the towering mountains in Snowdonia with powerful, foot-stamping ‘Spectacular Rivals’, trundling cross-country to Hungary on the Ezra Express with sing-a-long classic ‘Budapest’, or sunning yourself in a sunny capital with chilled-out ‘Barcelona’. Upping the tempo with humorous, tambourine banger ‘Cassy-O’, Ezra proved that he too had a fun side – along with the young’uns at the front who relished every anthemic chorus.

Ezra may have burst onto the scene in the same vein as contemporaries Ben Howard and Tom Odell, but if his performance was anything to go by, he’s proving that he’s carving his own path with quirky folk-pop choruses and impressive finger-twiddling melodies. George Ezra doesn’t want to just sing to you, he wants you to be a part of every story and experience every city with him along the way.

Listen to album track ‘Leaving it Up to You’ here: