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Review from Portadown Times 9th December 2005
No doubt about it – Nina has what it takes to go far….
Nina Armstrong launched her debut EP at a packed Groucho’s (Richhill) on Thursday night, writes NIALL CROZIER.
And what a night it proved to be for the Community Network Portadown employee, who has developed and matured at such a speed over the pas two years that one cannot but wonder where she might be and what she might be doing 24 months hence if she continues to progress at this rate.
CONFIDENCE
She come a long way from her first faltering appearances as a support act on the Portadown Folk Club bill, witness the fact that on Thursday night she had the crowd baying for more. She unveiled As Doubt Walks Away with total confidence, performing each of the four tracks – and a host of others that aren’t included on this particular recording – in a manner which was so relaxed as to make one feel that she doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘nervous’.
PACKAGE
Accompanied on guitar by the excellent Stuart Neville, she is an on-stage natural. In fact, she is the complete package. She pens very good lyrics – mercifully devoid of the clichés which are so commonplace in singer-songwriters – and then delivers them equally impressively. She has a genuine vocal range, too, knows exactly when and how to push the buttons marked ‘sensitivity’, ‘sensuousness’, ‘seriousness’ or ‘savvy’ and possesses a natural warmth and charm that make her a very easy-to-watch-and-listen-to artist.
Her between-track patter with her audience was first-class, too, ditto her rapport with her accompanist who, incidentally, taught her to play guitar. Given that – as recently as three years ago – she had never held down a chord, the standard she has reached in that time reflects very favourably on tutor and student alike,
SERIOUS
I don’t know how committed she is to further song-writing and ‘live’ performances, or if she regards all this as being little more than a hobby. If the latter is true, my advice to her would be to get serious and make the most of her considerable talent. She sounds good on disc and sounds and looks particularly good on stage. In short, she has all of what it takes to do very, very well.
As Doubt Walks Away is Nina Armstrong’s excellent introduction of herself to a wider music world in which some with considerably less ability than she possesses have flourished. She deserves to do so, too. If she decides to go for it watch out for that name on bigger bills….
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