The Voice & The Verse tour hit Budapest again this Wednesday. Two of the usual suspects were in town, Irish singer-songwriter Niall Connolly and Irish poet Neal McCarthy. Joining them were American singer-songwriter E.W. Harris, cajon playing Justin Storer (US), percussionist John Connolly (Ir) and bassist Gavin O'Sullivan (Ir). Niall has just launched his fourth album, "Brother, the Fight is Fixed," and Neal brought a lot of new poems. Even before we kicked off, Niall whispered to me, "I love Treehugger Dan's. A bit of magic always happens when we play here." E.W. entertained us for the first set, interspersed with poems by Neal. E.W. sings a lot about space and robots. Once in the middle of a song he paused and said, "Ideally at this point an alien would come down and play sax." I particularly liked Neal's "Vittula," and "E-Minor." He also does a great give-and-take with Niall on a couple tunes. Niall's band played most of the second set with harmonies and finger-picking provided courtesy of E.W. The whole band played well together, and obviously enjoyed themselves on stage. Justin was particularly good on the cajon. Near the end of the night Niall broke a string and did an amazing presto-change-o with E.W.  and  finished out the song.  Also by request, he played my favorite, "70000 Words." The good vibes from the Voice & The Verse" can sustain me for several months, but I still hope they come back again in December as is their habit.

Great photos of the gig courtesy of Mike Featherstone here