Alex Cornish

SINGER-SONGWRITER

After the recent openings of the Picture House and Sneaky Pete’s, here’s another new Edinburgh venue that’s ripe with potential. Owned by Edinburgh University, the Bowery lies in the basement of the formerly underused Roxy Art House, and its combination of relaxed bar and reading rooms (open seven nights a week) with an intimate gig space is highly promising.

Of course, the venue’s proprietorship and the status of tonight’s headliner – the Edinburgh-based, Radio 2-touted Alex Cornish – as a singer-songwriter in the James Blunt/James Morrison mould mean that the scarf and V-neck brigade are out in force. We shouldn’t and won’t discriminate though, because Cornish’s stand-out tracks, including the title song of his debut album Until the Traffic Stops, are satisfyingly refined and folksy, and blow the above-named slush-hawking artistes out of the water.

The Bowery’s owners have created a venue which brings back memories of the old Bongo Club – hopefully more local artists and promoters will be brought on board to help it live up to its inspired name.