Here’s a controversial opinion about Billy Bragg: the man has a beautiful voice. On Mid-Century Modern, a track from his most recent studio album, 2021’s The Million Things That Never Happened, his mahoganied lower register fills Edinburgh’s palatial Usher Hall with warmth. If the loveliness of the delivery knocks you momentarily sideways, the song’s sentiment swiftly grounds you. “Freedom’s just another word for acting with impunity,” Bragg croons.
Accompanied on mandolin and keyboards, he plays Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key, a Woody Guthrie lyric he set to music alongside the US band Wilco circa 1998. The song tells of a boy whose silver tongue gets him in trouble with a girl’s mother. “There ain’t nobody that can sing like me,” runs the chorus; Bragg delivers the line sonorously, without a wink.
