Three Chords and the Truth UK

The journey complete. Destination reached. Mission accomplished. Around 1000 reviews since 2012 and a race now run. Pastures new ahead, with music still to the core, albeit a different focus. Archives intact until Google decide to crash this platform. Farewell, so long and keep it real, authentic and live. We will never know whether it was the journey or the destination. However, two things are certain, there are more than three chords, but the truth is always singular. 

It's been a tradition since 2012. So that annual trawl through the gig diary to add a quantitative aspect to the live music experience continues for another year. Also the ritual of honouring those who take gig-going to extraordinary levels is upheld and their presence does as much as any insider to keep the wheels of live music active away from the realms of the public eye. Anyway, from a list that fluctuates from year to year, here are the twenty shows that rose to the fore to shape the gig year of 2019. 1. Lucinda Williams - Birmingham Town Hall 2. The Delines - St.John the Evangelist, Oxford 3. Ryan Bingham - The Bullingdon, Oxford 4. Dale Watson - The Bullingdon, Oxford 5. Molly Tuttle - Kitchen Garden, Birmingham 6. Yola - Hare and Hounds, Birmingham 7. Hayes Carll - The Glee Club, Nottingham 8. Jason Ringenberg - Kitchen Garden, Birmingham 9. Simone Felice - Hare and Hounds, Birmingham 10. Danni Nicholls - Midlands Arts Centre, Birming...

If you are anti end of year lists then feel free to move on (but cheers for the curiosity click). To get this far there must be some minuscule of interest to what albums came from an exhaustive pile to create most interest and ultimate enjoyment throughout the year. Maybe art should not be a contest, but rules of the game suggest otherwise each December in these pages. So here goes, the favourite albums (please do not use the term 'best' until you have listened to every single release) of 2019 1. Miranda Lambert - Wildcard 2. The Highwomen - The Highwomen 3. Yola - Walk Through Fire 4. The Delines - The Imperial 5. The HawtThorns - Morning Sun 6. Ags Connolly - Wrong Again 7. Caroline Spence - Mint Condition 8. Danni Nicholls - The Melted Morning 9. Jade Jackson - Wilderness 10. Molly Tuttle - When You're Ready 11. Steel Blossoms - Steel Blossoms 12. Allison Moorer - Blood 13. Kelsey Waldon - White Noise / White Lines 14. Danny Schmidt - Standard...

It's fitting that the final review to appear on these pages is a previous recipient of the prestigious 'Favourite Gig of the Year' award. My Darling Clementine took the honours in 2013, and have since become regular review subjects with successive albums and a handful of other shows. It is also fitting that the final review is from the Kitchen Garden, a venue the scene of gigs well into three figures since the first published piece back in 2012. Not all gig reviews have come from sold out shows (that is not always a prime driver for a successful night), but it is nice to see the 'house full' sign for a change. So cheers to Michael and Lou for closing these pages, and to much more music from them in both the live and recorded formats in the future. Ok not the most comprehensive review to end on, but My Darling Clementine did record a song titled ' Our Race is Run ', and by a further stroke of fortune they included it in tonight's setlist. A shared senti...

Danni Nicholls crowned a successful year with a second visit to Birmingham and a third set seen when you throw her Long Road festival appearance into the mix. This is in addition to the release of her latest album THE MELTED MORNING, which has been rapturously received in ever expanding horizons. The Kitchen Garden has been a regular dropping off haunt for Danni since first discovering it a few years ago and this evening's show saw her at her usual best, filling the gaps between the excellent songs with much valued insight into their inception, collaboration and inspiration. As the decade draws to a close, Danni Nicholls is one of those artists who heralded its opening ten years ago when discovering her music at the Maverick Festival. Who knows where the next decade will lead, but one guarantee is that songwriting and music is set to play a signifiant part.

Cara Luft has built a loyal UK fan network, following the many tours she had undertaken over the years. On one of her several visits to Birmingham a few years back she introduced a new touring partner in the guise of fellow Canadian JD Edwards, which in effect was the embryonic stages of a brand new duo being born. Since that January evening at the Kitchen Garden in 2014, The Small Glories have gone from strength to strength on the back of a couple of album releases, signing to a US label and continual touring around the world including a successful stint in Australia. Perhaps it is the latter that shines the most favourable light on the duo as there is nothing quite like the interactive and connective nature of the live show to bring the best out of the pairing. It was of no surprise that the Kitchen Garden appeared on the latest touring schedule, and also that the venue was packed to its near capacity to greet the return of Cara and JD. Once recollections from previous Kitchen Ga...