Trio ~ Adelaide Cabaret Festival Goes Country ~ Review

  [Cabaret, Music, Australian Premiere] Trio - Jess Hitchcock, Fanny Lumsden, and Alice Keath Dunstan Playhouse Thur 19 June, 2025   Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt all had significant solo careers throughout the 70s and beyond. The three women remained close friends throughout this time and had always dreamed of releasing an album together. Busy lives and contractual obligations made it  difficult to find the right time but it eventually happened in 1987. The album was simply entitled Trio. Subsequent decades led to a Trio II and a Trio III. Australian singers Jess Hitchcock, Alice Keath, and Fanny Lumsden accepted the challenge of bringing the best of the Trio collection to a live audience for this year’s cabaret festival. Presenting if you will three different faces of country music we had Jess Hitchcock in a full modest conservative dress, Alice Keath as the cowgirl in long boots, and Fanny Lumsden as the sassy alluring songstress. Together with a four-piece band they delivered a warm dose of country music to the cabaret festival – not something I imagined would ever happen! And that distinctive vocal style of country music was evident from the very first strains of the opening tune – Parton’s catchy The Pain of Loving You. The three singers take turns leading the vocals, but all contribute harmonies on every song. Though there were some quieter numbers every song featured substantial contributions from the band and often included the customary fiddle/mandolin/guitar break. All three took turns leading on acoustic guitar, Keath also treated us to banjo and autoharp, while Hitchcock played some lovely slower pieces on piano. These were in fact my favourites of the night. The original singers chose to largely sidestep their many multiple hits (this also may have been due to contractual obligations) and chose instead to populate the Trio albums with other material. Dolly Parton’s Wildflowers was a highlight of the live show, Neil Young’s plaintive After the Goldrush always sounds gorgeous, and the evergreen hit from 1950s – To Know You Is To Love You was a crowd favourite. This was a delightful hour of country music. I’d have preferred some more stripped back arrangements – Ronstadt and co did some beautiful work with just three voices and an acoustic guitar. I really enjoyed the anchoring sounds of the double bass, but overall it felt like the band were a little underdone. Country music appears simple and easy to play, but modern country relies on absolute precision and a feeling for that country soul at the heart of it all, and is harder to get right than you might imagine. Nevertheless the audience clearly loved the show, and singers, band members, and audience all went home smiling. 4 stars Michael Coghlan This was the only Cabaret Festival performance of Trio. #The Clothesline