It was the second appearance for Norwich’s finest Sam Coe & The Long Shadows at C2C, this time however we were to find Sam really suffering from the after effects of a heavy cold, that had left her somewhat hoarse, to the point that she had denied herself going to see Brad Paisley for fear of singing along too much and losing what voice remained! The set opened with “Hotel Cherokee”, an up tempo country opener, and then as if to tempt fate further went into “Jealousy”, an high paced rocker. While Sam’s voice was clearly not at its full capacity it was good to see someone not willing let it stand in the way of their performance.
“Holding On To You” had the feel of a pub rocker about it, and as a fan of Brinsley Schwarz that is by no means a bad thing. The live version of “No Sympathy” about one night stands, actually sounded better than the recorded version.
Sam’s new EP is called “Santa Fe” and the next couple of songs came from that, “Moving On” sounded exceptionally good on first hearing while the second track, the title track temporarily slowed things down for a few moments. There was time for a punchy closer with “Hey Heartbreaker” and one left with the feeling that if this was Sam Coe with a cold she could be a extremely entertaining if fully fit.