BY MICHAEL CHOWNE

An oft repeated refrain from TALENTBANQ is ‘Be in the room’ and that proved to be sound advice on Tuesday 26th May 2026 at Green Note in Camden for a special evening.

On a swelteringly hot night the 55 capacity venue’s air conditioning was much needed as the music sizzled on stage in front of a sold out crowd. Our first time seeing Nashville born Audrey McGraw, after we’d heard great things following her two previous Green Note performances and a support slot last year with Brandi Carlile at the Royal Albert Hall, and she lived up to high expectations. 

At just 24 and with the genes of country superstars (daughter of Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, who we’ve seen performing live together at The O2), Audrey is commendably forging her own path in music and is finding her quite different sound. With a beautiful voice at both lower and especially higher registers she’s also able to belt out those piano power ballads, here playing keys herself whilst accompanied on guitar by Adam Chetwood. 

Audrey has only released 5 songs to date and 4 of them were amongst the 13 songs she played, including covers of Neil Diamond’s ‘I am…I Said’ and Heart’s more upbeat ‘Barracuda’. The only noticeably country track was a new song written with Lukas Nelson (son of Willie Nelson), ‘Beautiful When I Cry’ – a potential hit right there! Audrey, who clearly takes her father’s advice to be ‘Humble and Kind’ said that Lukas spent an hour turning one of her poems into something powerful, admitting that she had never encountered a songwriting session before.

Lovely to see Adam Chetwood’s partner, Hero Fisher, called up to the stage to sing ‘Willin” with the two of them. Hero, interestingly born in London to Australian parents but brought up in a village outside of Paris, plays her own sold out Talentbanq show tonight at 21Soho Below. 

Opening the evening we had a really great performance too from Los Angeles born Toni Cornell (daughter of Soundgarden & Audioslave singer Chris Cornell). A few years younger than Audrey at just 21, she said she had known Audrey since she was 14 and they had manifested then that they would play together. Really enjoyed her set and she came back later to sing ”At the Bottom’ with Audrey and Adam.

Of course there was also the best hype man in the business, Ray Jones, compering the evening – when Ray’s in the house you know it’s going to be a top night!