LIVE REVIEW: EMILY MAE WINTERS WITH JACOB STONEY - THE GREEN NOTE - LONDON

A rendezvous with Emily Mae Winters is never a date to be declined, it is fully three years since her last appearance at the same venue and during that time our favourite teacher come poetry geek has released no new material. Tonight, she will come armed with a large batch of unrecorded songs that will make up her third album due to be recorded next year, arguably putting on her best show since the High Romance album launch. She will be aided and abetted by Jacob Stoney on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals as required who would prove to be the perfect foil and will help turn this into a truly special evening.

Emily shows no sign of having been away from the stage for so long, looking as if ready to collect an award in an elegant blue dress, and sounding in fine voice. The lack of new material has not deterred her followers, and the Green Note is healthily packed and as attentive as ever. The stage is set with a stool and an adjacent small table with overturned lyric pages, to the rear of the stage, what looks to be the result of a dodgy woodwork class, a chassis housing a keyboard, on top of it a device that Jacob will use to provide atmospherics.

It is exactly that sound that will kick the evening off, soon joined by Emily adding a siren like backing. It creates a magical world through which the sound of a piano ripples. It is well over a minute, maybe two before things truly begin as Emily sings over a strong piano sound. It is a song called "Back To Before", Emily will only start to play her guitar after the first chorus, for which Jacob will provide additional backing vocals. It is a quite stunning way to open after such an absence. Next would come "Burn", previewed in her last show, and immediately reminding us just how strong it was within seconds. A hypnotic melody, haunting affecting lyrics, too many to absorb in one sitting, however you immediately knew you were in the presence of something special. Starting an evening with four unrecorded songs shows a great degree of faith in your material and Emily Mae Winters has good reason to be so confident. For "Early Days", Jacob will switch to guitar for this song about being in love. It seemed to be built around a delicately fragile guitar while Emily's vocals would hold it all together. The final new song of the opening salvo would see Emily move to piano for "Once", "all about dreaming" apparently, "I must write them down or I won't remember". Creating a mood by increasing the volume of her playing and singing, this was a performance masterclass.

One of the more established songs the followed with "As If You Read My Mind", Emily, now back on her stool would sing with her hands in her lap for the first verse, then clasping the microphone for the second. Jacob would add some perfect harmonies to accompany Emily's singing which had an essential purity about it, such was the sweet sound produced. The title of the new album will be "Porcelain", for which Emily will stand, there are undoubtedly echoes of early Kate Bush in terms of sheer lyrical vision and sound - rarely has a song being heard for the first time sounded so impressive - Emily's vocal seemed to reach their limits before then finding further heights to climb - this was truly sublime.

A dip into "Siren Serenade", the debut album came with "Miles To Go", where Jacob's guitar work was exemplary along with his subtle backing vocals. For the next new song, "Surrender", Emily would cradle her guitar, as she sung her "Love song to music". This was classic songwriting with a timeless quality to it that could happily sit at any point over the last century it was that good. The only other recorded song in this first half was "Come Live In My Heart And Pay No Rent", which saw another sweet union of the two voices on the chorus,

This was not just a collection of songs, each one was an event packed with beauty, drama and an ethereal magic. The half time break gave an opportunity to reflect on what had passed, Emily famously has a genre hopping voice, folk, country or torch ballad singing she can adapt to each style with an effortless ease.

The second half would start with "Lately", the lost track from "High Romance" such is its lineage. It seemed to be destined to be the purest pop song on that album and hearing it once more was like being reacquainted with an old friend, with Emily confidently firing out the lyrics of the chorus with Jacob in support. One song that did make that album, "Would The World Stop Turning?" followed to the sound of twin guitars, with Emily rocking backward and forwards as she played the story of her life.

Another new song would come in the form of "Tender", which would open to the line "Tender Is The Night" which Emily would be well aware as being the title of an F Scott Fitzgerald novel and being a Keats geek, appearing in "Ode To A Nightingale". The song about "Never giving up", starts to a burst of atmospherics before Emily adds in an equally absorbing vocal. Drifting back in time to Emily's first ever song, "Anchor" would come with it's repeating guitar refrain while another oldie "Blackberry Lane" never sounded better, such was the atmosphere created.

For "One Of These Days", Emily would remove her guitar and just hold the mic in her right hand as Jacob supported on piano, in another most moving rendition. Emily seemed very keen on one word song titles during the evening, the next one "History" came with a more strident guitar style and had a more poppy feel to it.

Having touched on Keats in an earlier song, the next song currently untitled was an "Ode" and came with a short English lesson as to the structure of an ode. Probably the most literary song of the evening, it was highly evocative.

A final switch to piano would occur for "Sanctuary", it would see Emily give free reign to her vocals, as if they had not been tested previously. Initially a slow ballad, this would become a classic pop tune with which to leave us, Jacob and Emily's voices blending to perfection on the timeless chorus, which surely along with "Lately" is already crying out to be an early single.

Naturally such an event needed an encore and with "Wildfire", Emily would send us off into the night, with a rocking upbeat tune.