Nick’s Daughter

 Fingers Piano Bar, Edinburgh, 11/8/2025

 Livi Graham (vocals and piano), Nick Graham (guitars, bass, piano and vocals)

Father and daughter folk-soul duo Nick and Livi Graham have become something of an institution at the Edinburgh Fringe (and now the Free Fringe). For the last couple of years they have enjoyed an evening residency at Fingers Piano Bar, plying a well-crafted vocal and multi-instrumental mix of original tunes and covers across the whole of August.

Their eclectic backgrounds and adaptable, subtle musicianship enables them to change sets throughout the month. So those who enjoyed this performance can be sure of some fresh surprises if they return on subsequent evenings. The one guaranteed fixture is a pleasing, pared-down version of ‘The Flame’, the number one hit that Nick penned for US pop-rockers Cheap Trick back in 1988.

He is also known for his stint alongside progressive rock drumming virtuoso Carl Palmer in his pre-Emerson Lake and Palmer 1960s home, Atomic Rooster, and for directing and composing music for the Reduced Shakespeare Company in Edinburgh and at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC in 1999.

Livi Graham, meanwhile, is an accomplished jazz and folk oriented singer-songwriter who graduated from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire and has featured on the BBC and at well-known venues such at the Vortex in north London and the St Ives Jazz Club. She has also fronted her own trio and quartet.

Tonight the duo delivered eleven songs, opening with the appropriately titled ‘Our World’ and ending with Livi Graham’s sublime ‘Ain’t No Blues (in Paradise)’. This displays her vocal range and expressiveness wonderfully with its melancholic beauty, late-night minor key ambiance, and more than a nodding gesture towards several decades’ worth of jazz chanteuse greats. Truly a song which clinches and - for me - steals the show.

That said, what passes between those two numbers is definitely not shabby, either. Quite the reverse. The Grahams (one of several possible monikers which would surely surpass ‘Graham’s Daughter’, were it not already taken) know how to pace a set and engage an audience well. They swap places at the piano, take to a harmonica or shaker when needed, and make good use of Nick’s proficiency on acoustic or electric guitars, plus the round tones that can be teased from an elegant Steinberger headless bass, as on the fine ‘Saturn Returns’.   

Then there was the well-rehearsed vocal harmonising, made all the more effective by its sparing and thoughtful use. ‘Martha’s Garden’, ‘Ask For More’, You Smile, I Smile’, ‘Sometimes’, ‘Love’s in Need’ and ‘Keep It Moving’ all displayed Livi and Nick’s individual and combined song-crafting skills.

We were also treated to well-executed versions of Joni Mitchell’s ‘In France They Kiss on Mian Street’ (from the 1975 classic album The Hissing of Summer Lawns) and the first track off Stevie Wonder’s iconic Songs in the Key of Life (1976) – neither of which could be said to lack challenge, and both of which were delivered, as on the originals, with love and devotion. A thoroughly enjoyable hour of music-making.

* Nick’s Daughter: on Bandcamp and Instagram (@livigrahammusic)