Review as featured in Maverick, February 2006

"What The Hell Am I Doin’ Here," to quote one Tia McGraff’s latest songs, was clearly not a sentiment echoed by those lucky to be in The Riverside, South Shields, for this gig.

Tia and Tommy undertook a very encouraging first UK tour in May/June of this year which captured the attention of, among others, Radio 2’s Bob Harris, who called them in during this second tour in November, to play a live session on his Thursday night show. Having brought fellow singer songwriters Gretchen Peters and Beth Nielsen Chapman to national attention, Bob clearly wants the same for Tia. Several venues had booked them in for this tour during their first tour back in May. This November, they returned to play a larger number of venues. In this, the final week of a four-week tour, her performance was the best I’d seen.

Canadian, but six year Nashville resident, ex music teacher Tia McGraff, and her songwriting partner and fiancé Tommy Parham, originally from Colorado, treated the audience to an eclectic mix of their own recorded material and previews of recently written material which is under consideration for the new album.

The audience, many of whom hadn’t heard Tia’s music prior to this evening clearly knew they were experiencing something special and were soon won over by their outstanding performance. Tommy is a wonderful guitarist and provides excellent harmony for Tia’s vocals. Tia’s personality comes across easily in her anecdotes between songs about their origins and her experiences in the UK.

From the touching simplicity of songs such as ‘This is How Waiting Feels’ where the soft sound of Tia’s voice is accompanied by Tommy gently plucking the guitar, to a never before heard cover of fellow Canadian artist Amanda Marshall’s "Believe in You," Tia showed the Riverside’s audience the true range of her vocal ability.

It is very difficult indeed to select particular songs from Tia’s set, but two which stood out for me were the title track of her new album, "Outside of the Circle," a song which was inspired by her Canadian outspokenness in a somewhat more reserved Nashville, and "Ought To Be Rock" another of her new offerings. We were also taken down to the Louisiana Bayou with the wonderful "Catfish Deacon" and Tia ended the night with a beautiful acoustic version of one of my favourites, "Jewel’s Café," from her second album of the same title, which describes a bar ‘not dissimilar to this one’ back in Tia’s hometown, ‘where life goes down easy….’

The audience were obviously impressed with Tia, having enjoyed the music, and afterwards wanting to chat, buy CDs and in the case of two new fans, asking to ‘jam’ with them after the show was over.

Tia and Tommy were impressed too and are determined to come back to this venue on their next tour, mid 2006, when their new album is released. Book your seats early!.......Helen Mitchell, South Shields, England !!

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 Tia and Tommy at The Meadow House, Berwick on Tweed, June 4th 2005 

Michael Mee gave their concert a glowing review, which it rightly deserved in the Issue 37 August edition ( Cool pic of Kenny Chesney on front cover )

Sometimes working out the appeal of live music is not rocket science.  Quite simply, you feel a whole lot better coming out of a night listening to Canadian Tia McGraff than you did going in.  She so obviously enjoys singing her songs to an audience; it’s impossible not to get caught up in it all.  Her appearance at the First and Last Venue at The Meadow House was the last night of a tour designed to introduce her and her latest album, OUTSIDE OF THE CIRCLE to UK audiences.  She has received such a warm welcome that she and her guitarist/fiancé (they announced the engagement on stage) Tommy Parham are already planning a return in the autumn.

Again the reason for such a welcome ids simple; she writes wonderful songs and sings them with an almost unbridled joy and an open heart.  Not the kind of overcooked ham joy of ‘Hi, it’s great to be in….’ (fill in the blank) but an honest pleasure derived form having the chance to get what’s inside her out.  Because that’s what you get with Tia McGraff, songs like Outside Of The Circle’ Small Town Life, Beautiful Sky and the exquisite Life Lines are as much a part of her as about her life and experiences.  While she has the ability to write and perform the beautiful Fishermen Song, written to celebrate the retirement of an old salt in her hometown, it pales alongside the songs that are wrenched from her soul.

With Parham, she kept the format simple, she played, she sang with a voice that hid nothing, she talked and she enchanted.  When on Cross The Line she and Parham combined harmonies there wasn’t a sliver of light between them.  Whether Tia Mcgraff is a country, pop, or as she demonstrated with Catfish Deacon a very good blues singer is not the point because that’s not what drives her on.  You can see in her eyes that it’s something deep inside that motivates her.  That ‘force’ creates its own atmosphere and causes the room to close in until there’s nothing left but the musicians.  Beautiful, talented, female singer songwriters, who can conjure up a catchy melody and lyrics that you’ll remember long after the night has gone, seem not to be in short supply at the moment but what Tia McGraff does can’t accurately be captured in such narrow terms.  All the magic is created on stage but it reaches out to every corner of whatever room she is playing.