Three Chords and the Truth UK

  Songs sans frontiers; a motto embedded deep into the heart of Michell, Pfeiffer and Kulesh. Three musicians of varying background seeing language as an enabler not a barrier, and a common bond of decency, liberty and celebratory song. Trio is a long adapted format in folk, roots and popular music. The key is to complement with a difference. Here Karen Pfeiffer is the theatrical dramatist adding layers of flute playing while exploiting an Anglo German background. Daria Kulesh portrays an expressive emotive demeanour from a central stage position providing an alternative slant on a Russian heritage away from the current narrative. Odette Michell exudes the calm poise of an English folkie using finely tuned vocals and deft guitar playing to stir an international pot. Together they grace many a stage winning friends and illuminating rooms.  The trio play the Kitchen Garden to a tee, embracing the surroundings and engaging the audience with bundles of participation. Fun blends wi...

  www.thingsfoundinbooks.com   Not every show on this tour can be hosted by a library but when so, an extra sparkle enters the room. The fit was obvious when Boo Hewardine and Yvonne Lyon’s Things Found in Books touring project secured a slot at Thimblemill Library. A project born in lockdown coming to fruition five years later with a record, a book and a run of gigs the length of the land. Urban festivals have helped bring the performance to the Midlands with the twelve-day Lichfield event staging a show last week and now the turn of the Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival to add this intriguing evening to a vast array of music events across the West Midlands. You could argue in the ‘spirit of San Francisco’ that the festival is ‘hardly strictly jazz and blues’ but there were no arguments to its artistic quality when two exceptional singer-songwriters stopped off in the borough of Sandwell to share their story songs and a little bit more. The idea was spawned when Yvonne Lyon ...

  www.mackenzieroark.com Mackenzie Roark and the Hotpants: a name to remember and the architect of an album full of songs set to lodge in your brain. Connotations of a grassroots band playing endless nights in bars and dives reflects the origin but the endpoint may well be halls, auditoriums and expansive festival fields. GHOST OF ROCK AND ROLL is an exciting hopeful release powered by breezy tunes and likeable melodies fusing smooth rock ‘n’ roll with jangly Americana. Violin and lap steel flavour the latter without dominating and the album would be among friends in any of the resurgent communities of post-punk and new wave. Through a thread of nine relatable tracks, Roark reaches out from a Richmond Virginia hinterland to keen ears in distant lands.  The album kicks off with jaunty guitars peddling the punchy ' Take My Money' along with Roark's writing leaving room for thought. 'Late Bloomer ' displays earthy qualities springing into life with a delightfully catc...

  The performing space is flooded with sunlight. A packed Kitchen Garden audience spills out into the courtyard. The scene is set for an evening of self confessional eloquence. The advertised duo curtailed by misfortune; the reset solo poised to personify ‘less is more’. Blue Rose Code is on the ticket, a moniker, a facade, a fluent vehicle to convey the songs of Ross Wilson. Two interwoven strands pull the evening together: songs of perception and ingrained soul; life musings shared through the prism of poetic prose. Tonight the room is a cathartic pool of co-habitation. The performer fills every crevice of an intimate venue with a voice of peace and gratitude; the listener absorbs every lyric, note and articulate word with relish. A sense of wellbeing is enacted. Music is the voice of the soul and Blue Rose Code strips back the essence of redemption to revitalise through finding the sweet spot.  Live music at its best inspires and moves. It seizes the moment rendering fact a...

  www.bettysoo.com IF YOU NEVER GO AWAY is an apt title for an artist recording their first full length solo album in just over a decade. There was a time when BettySoo was right up there in the upper echelons of the Austin music scene as a solo artist alongside songwriting icons like James McMurtry, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Chris Smither and Alejandro Escovedo. Two tracks into the comeback album and it is though this eminent musician has never been away. Mind you, she has been busy elsewhere. Class oozes from a measured record blending folk and rock with country sensibilities.  It helps that lead off track ‘ What Do You Want From Me Now’ was also a single, not always reflective of an album’s best but in this case clearly reflective of the tone set. Thirteen tracks takes the album into above average content territory, likely on the basis of an artist with a pent up base of songs to share. Although, there is an outlier at the end when a James McMurtry song is covered with the acclai...

  www.florencesommerville.com It's late summer 2022 and a young singer-songwriter takes to the stage at Moseley Folk and Arts Festival to open the second stage on Saturday morning. A sound erring more on the country pop side has to possess a certain oomph to catch ears at an event where edgier cultured acts parade a penchant for indie folk and Americana. From a then limited base Florence Sommerville cut a figure of promise as someone striding across invisible boundaries. Via a similar low key outing at last year's Maverick Festival, the same ears sensed an evolving process taking shape. Finding the sweet spot from your inaugural full length recording outing is a tough task. ENDLESS HORIZON is aural proof that early nous was not misguided. The leading songs landed on a precise mark; the final package unwraps as a record swathed in layers of sumptuous songwriting and a style breezing with an acute perception of exploring an horizon with self assured depth.  There is a supple dex...

  www.sarapetite.com Honesty, sincerity and truth; traits that keep the fire of Sara Petite burning. An artist at one with their craft and dedicated to a vision of exploiting the attributes at her disposal. Over the last four years fans in the UK have come to know the music of Sara Petite fairly well. Opportunities rarely afforded in the first decade and half of a lengthy career have been grasped on a realistic scale, tapping into a music community keen to welcome overseas visitors with open arms. Some travelling acts connect through a verbal charisma, others are more at ease with letting the music paint a picture. Sara Petite cultivates a tight script exposing for impact. Musically, a narrow path is followed channelling the raw energy of country, honky tonk and rock 'n' roll. A comfort zone many miles from a Californian home is created as an energised performance illuminates whatever space is commandeered. Rock 'n' roll in an art decor suburban branch library pushes ou...

www.tamineilson.com The journey may be a cliche but its narrative-inducing concept lends a hand to make some great music. A conveyor belt of places, people, landscapes and sounds can stir the pot and prod the creative instinct of many an artist. NEON COWGIRL is a moving piece of self-celebration on several levels. The country heart of Music USA has always been Tami Neilson’s calling from a Canadian upbringing to New Zealand settling. A fulfilling road trip of rediscovery is the fuel that powers the sweeping sound of a record echoing so much of a heritage songbook from soaring soulful songs to raucous barroom bangers sprinkled with the odd heartfelt ballad and sincere homage numbers. Neilson’s vocals crank into gear from the off with ‘ Borrow My Boots ’ raising the sass level in the vein of many a female country icon. The lavish overtones, complete with lush strings, launches ‘Foolish Heart’ into Orbison territory, pure self-admitted adulation from a young believer baptised in his music...

www.maverickfestival.co.uk Maverick: where hundreds of a pairs of eyes and ears embark on an individual path of music enjoyment. No two journeys are the same as the sights and sounds ferment to personally absorb what time spent at Easton Farm Park means. Festivals are unique and Maverick is no exception as witnessed from many years of winding around the lanes of rural Suffolk to the UK’s most established gathering of what we try to define as ‘Americana’. The printed programme introduction announced its coming of age eighteenth birthday, although Maverick reached a level of maturity a while back, most pertinently in 2020 with a timely You Tube reminder of what we were missing. Never taken for granted, the event powers on with 2025 showing what heights can be achieved with creative curation.   Maybe the general awareness-weighting of artists booked as a line up entity didn’t match the levels of previous years but extract the impact and quality of performance and you were left with a ...