Delta Maid - Gig Review
Posted by Hunter on Thu, 09 Jun 2011.
Making the journey from Leicester to Nottingham to cover “The Pierces” isn’t really a hardship, and to be honest, I really like the tracks that I’ve heard from them so far, most notably “Glorious”. Playing at Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms, they were supported by Alice Gold and Delta Maid. Normally reviews are done for the headline acts, with a few lines giving the finer points and highlights of the support acts, but after hearing Delta Maid, a few lines will not suffice. Absolutely not.
Midway through Delta’s set the security chap in front of me said “She’s really good, her voice is a bit like Duffy”, and I thought to myself “better then Duffy”. There I said it, no doubt it’ll cause outrage that I dared to say that someone was better then Duffy, the internet will probably implode, the sky will fall in on our heads, but it’s there. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Duffy’s voice, but there’s something more subtle, smoother in Delta’s voice which I find more appealing.
I had noticed Katie Foulkes (aka Delta Maid) happily posing for photographs with people before the gig started and it struck me how unassuming, almost humble she was. She greeted everyone with a lovely smile, and seemed genuinely excited and grateful that people were there to see her. I had heard snippets of her single “Of My Own” from our review copy in the office, and what little I had heard was very good, so I had high hopes. So the question was, could she possibly live up to my high expectations? In truth, she totally surpassed them and left me standing there, shocked, struggling to comprehend the talent I was witnessing.
There was a polite “excuse me” as Katie brushed passed me, apologizing as she did so. I turn and there she is on stage, guitar in hand, a brief hello and introduction, and then this simply gorgeous honey silk voice, powerful, but not wayward, washes over the Rescue Rooms. She’s been described as a Liver-girl Loretta Lynn (a comparison that I feel may become a bit tired), or compared to Eva Cassidy, and in interviews she’s always seemed a bit shocked with comments like “I’d be an idiot to put myself next to those greats”. Her influences are obvious but she isn’t an imitator. Her well crafted songs reflect the nuances of real life, they’re heart felt, they’re real.
It’s a superb flawless tight performance of 7 songs that flashes by all too quickly, including the tracks “Broken Branches”, “All I Dreamed” and “The Way It Is”. There’s also a brief explanation, or back story, given to the track “Any Way I Want To” mid set, when she worked at a hospital in Manchester, and it’s a story that most of us can relate to, empathise with, the lyrics being received with nods of recognition, thoughts of “yeah, that I can identify with”.
Her bio says:
“Sometimes you don’t fit a niche. There’s pressure on you to fit in and do the popular thing. I know I don’t fit the mould but just take a chance and it might work.”
I have to say, there’s no might about it. It absolutely does work, and I suspect the vast majority of the audience are glad that she took that chance.
At the end of the brief set I follow Delta back to the “Merch” stand and cheekily ask for a copy of the set list and a photo. In hindsight what I should have done is asked for an interview and gotten her to sign her set list, which then would have been placed next to the signed Bon Jovi album and the Ibanez signed by Alter Bridge.
She is quite frankly, an incredible talent, and should under no circumstances, be missed.
To find out more about Delta Maid you can visit her website here: