Sometimes the universe aligns in ways you can never anticipate. When I received an invitation to travel on Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and watch the singer Leon Bridges perform, I couldn’t believe it. A Grammy-winning singer I admire? On that iconic train? Snaking through some of Europe’s most scenic landscapes? It was the mother of trifectas.
I’ve been a fan of Bridges ever since I came across his hit song Beyond. I first heard it a full five years after its release, while shopping in a supermarket (that’s how plugged in I am to the cultural zeitgeist). His acoustic guitar chords, soulful yet tinged with a folksiness, brought me to a standstill in the biscuit aisle; his soft Texan rasp expressing his love for someone with a simple vulnerability was so endearing:
Initially I thought the song was from the ’60s or ’70s. When I found out it was from the 2010s I was even more impressed. Here was this young, retro soulman quietly and confidently going against the autotune grain.
Earlier this summer, the Fort Worth singer-songwriter was invited to perform on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express to Amsterdam, the latest high-profile artist to have performed on the luxury locomotive train (he is preceded by Lianne La Havas and Honey Dijon). Tall and softly spoken, Bridges was staying in the train’s L’Observatoire suite, an entirely exclusive carriage that has a bedroom, bathroom, dining room, and library and tea room – playful and elegant spaces filled with marquetry and textured walls devised by French artist, JR. “This is insane,” Bridges enthused. Though he has travelled on the Simplon-Orient-Express before, this was his first stay in its premiere suite. “I’ve never seen a tub on a train… this is a really elaborate setup.”
While a train carriage, when privatised and furnished, can feel surprisingly spacious, it is ludicrously tiny as a music venue. But such bijou proportions are what appealed to Bridges. “The more you grow in your career, the bigger the venues get,” he said. “You kind of lose that intimacy. This is something totally different. It feels like we’re being transported to a different time. It’s always a privilege to be able to get back to the smaller spaces… It’s really dope to bring these tunes in such a unique and intimate space.”