Samuel Jack held a festival crowd rapt, Louder Than War's Alan Ewart found

Samuel Jack played the Larmer Tree Festival on 15 July 2016, and a few days later Louder Than War published a review by Alan Ewart that stands as one of the most enthusiastic accounts of the act's live work. Published on 21 July 2016, the piece is worth revisiting as a snapshot of how a festival audience and a seasoned critic responded to Jack at that point in his career.

Ewart's central point was that Jack had held a large crowd completely captivated. Rather than describing a set that merely went down well, he presented a performance that commanded attention from start to finish, the kind of festival appearance where people stop wandering and simply listen. For a live act working in a crowded field of stages and distractions, that is a demanding standard, and Ewart was clearly persuaded that Jack met it.

Much of the praise centred on his voice and phrasing. Ewart singled out the way Jack shaped a line and handled its timing, treating vocal delivery as a central part of what made the set work rather than a backdrop to the songs. That emphasis suggests a reviewer listening closely to the craft of the performance, not just enjoying its surface energy.

The review also picked out a reimagining of Gangsta's Paradise, which Ewart described as extraordinary. Taking a well-known song and reshaping it so that it felt newly alive is a risky move in front of a festival crowd, and the critic's response indicates it landed as a genuine highlight. Ewart also covered a separate acoustic performance given as part of the festival's Songs from the Shed feature, which he described as stunning. That set showed Jack stripped back to a more intimate setting, and it reinforced the impression of a performer whose strengths do not depend on a full band or a big stage.

The review carried no numerical rating, so its force rests entirely on the language Ewart chose. Read now, it offers a clear picture of an artist whose live reputation, at least in the eyes of this critic, rested on vocal control, bold reinterpretation and the ability to hold a room in very different settings.