Baskery are three sisters from Sweden, Sunniva, Greta and Stella Bondesson. Sunniva plays guitar, Greta banjitar and drums and Stella the double bass. Vocals are shared amongst the trio, often all singing simultaneously. 

Five albums, fifteen years as a group and a lifetime of singing together bring harmonies to die for. For comparison purposes you could draw on Alabama’s Secret Sisters, but there’s three of the Bondesson sisters and musically they are more complex and energetic than the Alabama duo. A closer indication might be The Wood Brothers.

The trio began with the kick-ass swamp blues Here To Play and Shame To Dance to get the audience going. Raucous, bluegrass with a heavy beat twist. Midway through came the heavy beat and fuzzy guitar, high energy Throw A Bone, followed by the uptempo country-influenced Miss America.

They slowed it down with a captivating a capella traditional Swedish drinking song from the 1700s, Bort Allt Vad Ord Gor (Gone All What Words Were). The slow blues of The Curse was followed by two wolf-related numbers Wolf Hook and The Fall “the reversed version of Little Red Riding Hood”. 

Self-confessed Neil Young devotees, they performed a beautiful harmonised version of Heart Of Gold. They were later to revisit Young’s material with a ten minute guitar-heavy Down By The River as an encore. They have a forthcoming album of Neil Young covers due in 2024. 

Ending the main set with with the barnstorming Haunt You they returned for the encore, ending with the breathtaking beautiful Swedish traditional lullaby Gunnatt (Good night). 

With lively banter, including the obligatory dimissive comments about the banjo,  between themselves and the audience the trio travelled through a varied 90-minute set with fourteen songs taking the audience across the world, bringing in songs influenced by the places where the sisters have lived and visited, including Mexico, Devon (where the latest album was recorded), Nashville, California, Finland and of course Sweden.  

Baskery have a batch of UK dates in Feb/March 2024. Catch them if you can. 

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