Friday night at Mojos provided a night of downbeat troubadours showcasing their song-writing artistry.

Selk Hastings played some very slow folk country songs. Accompanied by Kate Kelly on glockenspiel and very sweet sounding harmonies, these women were charming to watch for a small amount of time but the music was so melancholic and lingering that it started to become a bit depressing after awhile.

Next on was Brendon Humphries from The Kill Devil Hills with The Sump, another acoustic number this time with more cryptic lyrics. His buddy Alex Archer from The Kill Devil Hills joined him on stage to provide some heart-wrenching violin on I Don’t Believe and more gypsy styling on Mandolay. Archer’s violin stole the show and the audience was disappointed their set was so short.

Joe Bludge arrived on stage to provide something close to a Bob Dylan impersonation with vocal punctuation and an accent just like him. Starting out with the beguiling Honey Bees, and then covering Jimmy Roger’s Gamblin Ball Room Blues, the lyrics were centremost to Bludge’s performance. After breaking the strings to his guitar, Fall Electric frontman Andrew Ryan kindly lent his guitar so Bludge could finish his short set with Rapunzal, a delightful song that was definitely a highlight of the evening. Ryan must have thought so too as he spontaneously jumped on stage midway through to add some harmonies to this mournful song that people apparently can’t help singing along to.

Along came James Cruickshank who was perhaps trying to lighten the mood a little with banter about the Dockers, but the crowd provided minimal response. From there he launched into a powerful rendition of Nat King Cole’s Nature Boy which showcased his impressive vocal abilities.

Cruickshank’s songs are so unique from one to the next that it’s hard to describe his sound without describing them individually. Far and Away from his newest album Hello Human is a song which he claimed is meant to “conjure up Africa” and that it did, amazingly just through him using a loop pedal to overlay different vocal noises like breaths and squeaks. The next song was meant to sound pirate-y and that it did, with a little help from Bobbi on viola and Emma on cello.

At this point it was becoming apparent that Cruickshank had some obvious tics or twitches, like weird hand moves, playing with his hair and that he kept cracking himself up. It was off-putting and intriguing all at once, like you were waiting to see what other odd behaviours he may exhibit or trying to figure out whether he was on drugs or something, but it certainly meant all eyes were on him. It kind of seemed like he wasn’t taking himself seriously even though he has the musical prowess and experience to be defined as a professional or stalwart of Australian music, but perhaps the small audience and their lack of participation were making him second guess his status/abilities. Or maybe it was just that he was being totally himself rather than creating a stage persona and in turn putting his insecurities/quirks on show.

Anyway, next up was Lighter Later from his first album Hymn for Her, a song about daylight savings (insert lame joke here). Then came Sad White Music which, not surprisingly, sounded just like that. Cruickshank after much ado managed to persuade an audience member onto the stage to help out with some tambourine. Emma with her cello came back later on to help with Cruickshank’s version of Pretty In Pink by the Psychadelic Furs in which Cruickshank displayed more odd behaviour by telling her to shush at one stage! Thom Yorkes Blues sounded just like Radiohead, as intended, then came the cringe-worthy/funny Schapelle which had lines like “you’re a goner…marijuana”, “fare thee well…schapelle” put to a French theme. Elsie May is a sweet song with an old time feel about a lady that died but wasn’t found for more than 2 years. Then there was a song about his car and a blues song Devil Took The Rain.

The previously subdued crowd yelled for more when Cruickshank left the stage. Cruickshank is a skilled singer-songwriter-entertainer who has an intriguing on stage presence. Every song explored a different style of music and sounded completely different from the last, with Cruickshank’s introductions to the songs perfectly summing up what we ended up hearing.

Topping the night off were Fall Electric who continued the theme of strings with Tristen Parr showing off his skills on electric cello. They too played only a few songs but the small crowd was dwindling by then anyway.