Three Chords and the Truth UK

BYE BYE is the debut full length solo release from English singer-songwriter Sophia Marshall and unwraps as a highly desirable record. Its stylish façade and steely interior presents an artist with an acute ear to formulating a sound successful in alerting many a discerning listener. The album refuses to adopt a static stance, with its half hour duration keeping folks on alert to which way the music is going to turn. Sophia does a good job in keeping the sound and vocals internationally neutral thus you never really grasp whether it’s majoring on her English roots or the obvious Americana pretensions. This trait helps create a door-opening niche. Sophia first crossed my path when she played an invited set at this year’s Maverick festival as part of the AMA UK Friday evening showcase. On that occasion, it was her previous material as a member of the Have Nots that made the most initial impact. This is probably due to any new songs not featuring a killer instant hook, which is con...

2017 is shaping up to be an exceptional year for Whitney Rose. A tantalisingly short but rather good EP release at the start of the year was followed by an extensive tour that saw a fair few dates in Europe and the UK. It was in fact the Nottingham gig back in May, which showed Whitney and her band in a wider focus. Now the calendar year is about to be crowned with the unveiling of a brand new full-length album titled RULE 62. Whether this is the true follow up to the EP or 2015’s HEARTBREAKER OF THE YEAR is immaterial, but a renewed acquaintance with Raul Malo, who was a key component on the latter, has paid dividends on the new album. First and foremost, this is a record of the highest quality. It mixes incisive song writing with a throwback sound that retains a vibrancy and freshness. Pooling a classic soulful pop feel with traditional country is an immediate winning formula, especially buoyed when you have some top notch players in harness within a Nashville studio. Of cours...

Capturing the essence of an experience, The Orphan Brigade has re-assembled to once again bring the spiritual to life. This time they have left the New World of Octagon Hall Kentucky and taken their tunes of discovery to the Old World, or to be more precise: the caves beneath the town of Osimo on Italy’s Adriatic coast. What has been repeated though is the knack of absorbing a moving experience and re-creating its effects in song and music. The true test of this type of project is, does it cross the line to convey the emotion to the listener? This can only be truly answered on an individual basis, but there is sufficient craft, guile and panache in The Orphan Brigade project to present a compelling case. Essentially, now that the Nashville based trio and band core of Ben Glover, Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard have re-convened for a second recording, the term ‘project’ can possibly be dropped. However, such is the concept nature of HEART OF THE CAVE, you can only appreciate the...

While the Kitchen Garden is renowned for its warm and intimate atmosphere, occasionally its hardened stone floor and bricked walls can be the perfect setting for the steely songwriter. Michael McDermott is one such artist who fits this bill and certainly packs a powerful punch when fully immersed into his songs. Along with his wife and fellow performer Heather Lynne Horton, Michael made his Birmingham debut in this Kings Heath oasis and left an imprint as profound as the way he approaches the subject of his songs. There was probably a varying degree of artist awareness at the start of this show within a healthy gathering that frequented the venue on a Sunday night. However, at the end each left a lot wiser in understanding a songwriter personifying the well-worn statement of ‘heart on your sleeve’. Think the poetry of Dylan, the ground game of Springsteen and the inspiration of Van Zandt, to begin to unravel this Chicago-based artist. The tough façade did at times mask a tender inte...

It was a case of slender evolution as Danny & the Champions of the World set about crowning their activities of 2017. A year when a new album rose from the embers of creative freedom and a tour rolled around the country with a near total domination of fresh material. It has also been a year where a familiar face convened behind the keyboards and faces that are even more familiar set about re-creating an excitement never short of uplifting inspiration. Danny Wilson will forever be the humble front person of a band that has cracked the code of giving an exhilarating live experience. An Oxford gig courtesy of Empty Rooms Promotions on a non-school night is as good a guarantee as you’re likely to get for a top show and a packed Bullingdon rocked passionately until time came to pass the baton onto the disco kids. Friday curfew gigs can work in different ways. An early finish can benefit the long distance travellers and a band can be more focussed on delivering the goods, but you ha...

One verse into the opening track of the new Jeremy Pinnell album is enough to announce that this record is going to resonate. True to form, TIES OF BLOOD AND AFFECTION sticks to the rulebook, carrying on in a similar vein right up until the final track where the peak is scaled. This rulebook is straight down the middle-no frills country music undeterred from dipping into life’s darker side, often born out of the bars, dancehalls and honky tonks stretching across the land. This brand new nine-track album is the second release from a no doubt proud Northern Kentuckian, a location that is not shied away from being referred. This is a continuation of the previous record, which contained the simple State abbreviated title OH / KY. Maybe the geographical references do have some impact on a writer acknowledging the influence of their roots, but the stellar selling value of the record is Pinnell’s acute ability to capture the spiritual embodiment of country music. Strong melodies primar...

The first ‘cautionary tale’ was not to expect the similar chilled out mellow vibes from the latest Dylan LeBlanc album of the same name. The second was to inject a degree of ear-adjusted patience before waiting for this gig to ignite. Once these parameters were applied, the true worth of this enigmatic artist surfaced. On a night where both the headliner and invited support act Aubrie Sellers had to compete with the sonic deviances of a vacuous venue, you had to dig a little deeper to discover the true worth of two artists blessed with innate musical qualities. If a little push was needed to venture down the M5 to Bristol on a Friday evening to see Dylan Le Blanc, the late addition of Aubrie Sellers to open his UK shows sealed the decision. Apologies for any misguided sentiment in suggesting via the title of this review that the show was a co-bill. The excitement of catching Aubrie on one of her first appearances this side of the pond had been buoyed by last year’s release of NEW C...

Peter Bruntnell is one of those artists where you don’t have to search too hard to find someone who has a good word to say about him. Whatever you want to call the scene that he has been part of for over twenty years – alt country, roots rock, Americana - , the song writing prowess and the knack of delivering knockout full band performances has led to many plaudits. From a hazy memory, the West Midlands hasn’t seen too many live performances from him in recent times, so it was good to anticipate a few tunes being caught when a show at the Kitchen Garden was announced. Peter admitted that his solo acoustic shows are bit sparse these days, so he was prepared to go with the flow leading to an element of spontaneity sparked by a series of invited audience requests. The pattern of these songs was characterised by their popular appeal especially ‘Sea of Japan’ and ‘ Caroline ’. One request that did present a challenge was ‘ Jurassic Parking Lot’ , but not to be outdone this was duly de...

Two years ago, Stourbridge-based folk musician Kim Lowings stubbornly battled the ailments to get through the launch show of a new album. This time there was no uninvited obstacles as she both, hosted a memorable evening and glided through her own set. Thus presenting the whole of WILD & WICKED YOUTH in its crafted splendour. For the evening to celebrate the official release of this acclaimed album, the studio venue at Bromsgrove’s Artrix Arts centre proved the ideal setting. Friends, family, fans and fellow musicians flocked to the location from places near and far, all amply rewarded with a full evening of folk music in contrasting forms. In order to give the faithful a music packed evening, two opening acts were invited to perform providing a near three hour feast, give or take the minimum changeover/refreshment breaks. Susie Dobson alongside guitarist Ant Miles played a low-key short set to get the evening underway. Her music was a gentle mix of traditional and cover songs...

Moseley Folk: the only festival where you can watch a mid-Atlantic-styled alt-country act amidst a band of scurrying youngsters having a hay fight. Moseley Folk: the only festival which epitomised the sentiment of ‘Sunday morning coming down’ on a Friday teatime by the sequential scheduling of Seth Lakeman’s fiery fiddle playing and Nadia Reid’s absorbing Kiwi noir. Moseley Folk: the only festival where the blissful tones of Laura Marling persuaded the rain clouds to halt their activity. Regardless of where the 2017 renewal of the Moseley Folk Festival stands in comparison to its eleven previous stagings, this year’s had an alluring pulse that ignited a weekend of eclectic music. Whatever the persuasion, style or origin of influence, it’s all folk music dressed in many coats. John Moreland Is Moseley Folk Festival about the headliners across the weekend; the equally important artists plotting their road to stardom via the Kitchen Garden stage or the attendees content to just ...