José González live at the Spring & Airbrake, Belfast

A diminutive figure, he tiptoes across the stage and takes his seat. Quiet and unassuming, it is typical of the man. But then, what need has José González of rock and roll histrionics?
The fingers move with deft grace, weaving delicate musical tapestries, plucking free the stitches that bind our emotions. It is an awing performance. González exhibits consummate musicianship, finessing emotion from the guitar, creating music that sounds as if it was drawn from the deepest wellspring of the heart. Whisper it, but perhaps he really is worthy of comparison to the melancholic minstrel, that sallow-faced troubled boy they called Nick Drake.
Certainly ‘Stay in the Shade’, is deserving of such reverence, a song that recalls the swooning despair of ‘Pink Moon’. The guitar is caressed, the precise touch of González emitting rare emotion from the instrument, classical motifs garnished with a scintilla of Brazilian Tropicalia. There is a cover of ‘Teardrop’, and he mines the song’s essence, extracting its emotional ore – it is refined, imbued with a quiet splendour. But, it is the re-imagining of that old Kylie number ‘Hand On Heart’ that proves González is a true musical alchemist. The leaden original transformed under his command into a freshly minted, golden creation.
He is too modest to proclaim it of course, but this José truly is ‘The Special One'.