Three Chords and the Truth UK

Larkin Poe is a band who know how to stitch together an identity. They have gravitated from the roots-infused bluegrass-inspired Lovell sisters to a fully fledged electric outfit pile driving ornate-styled blues rock spiced with the organic tastes of the Deep South. Rebecca shreds a mean guitar and lifts the roof off venues with her soaring rock vocals. Megan plays a multitude of lap guitars with grit and guile applying posture and animation alongside backing and harmony vocals. The band’s growth from playing the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham’s Kings Heath suburb in 2014 to almost selling out the large room of the city centre-located Institute eleven years later is a testimony to a smart evolution. Along the way they have accrued a rock audience but if you spend an hour and half watching the stage show they weave in so many influences. Larkin Poe is a sharp band reaching out far from a barrage of amped up electrification.   The Birmingham show was the latest stop on the Bloom to...

Matt Owens Was it Hannah White shedding layers of country vulnerability in ‘ Car Crash’ ? Was it Danny and the Champs reminding us to ‘never stop building that old space rocket’? Was it Robert Vincent pleading for us ‘to find a better way'? You could look wider afield and lay it at the feet of Matt Owens for his vision, passion, craft and sense of community. The sweet spot of The 7 Hills Blues and Roots Festival spawned from countless moments, but ultimately coalesced around the power of grass roots music to bring people together.  There was a laudable motive of boosting the profile of UK Americana music in the good city of Bath. The knock on effect saw a multitude of folks from ‘out of town' descend on North Somerset’s regency gem to savour a line up right on the pulse of what’s happening at the back end of 2024. Keiron Marshall The evocative old cinema setting of the modern sounding Komedia proved an ideal location for this one day festival. The main auditorium hosted the big...

  www.helenrosemusic.com Within the canvas of Rugged Elegance, Helen Rose effortlessly eases between a smorgasbord of Americana sounds. A blues coating may have greeted this US bicoastal-raised artist with her debut release in 2018, but an array of palates get spoiled with the renewal. Nine co-written tracks host a voice elegant in effect full of songs primed for impact.  Stylishly presented opener ‘Raspberry Plain’ supported by pedal steel indicates the record may call at different landing places. This leads into ‘King of This Town’ where an earthier feel dominates as Rose edges into a bluesier midst with guitar riffs splicing a rougher sound. ‘Where Is My Home’ meanders into tamer waters melting those seduced by Rose in this mode as string-fuelled musings own the moment.  Vibes lower in ‘The Drakes’ where the lyrics drift in a coastal direction. There are early signs that ‘Wolf Tones’ was going to inject some harmonica and guitar driven power and the inklings became ful...

Larkin Poe are a band seemingly existentially embedded into their blues- rock phase. This signifies a major shift since the Lovell sisters first came to prominence overseas and the subsequent early years of the Larkin Poe incarnation. The last time they toured significantly away from their US base the evolution was underway, with the KIN album turning the dial up in terms of sound. Since then, heady times have swept along Rebecca and Megan leading to the release of two heavily blues biased records and plenty of vivid association with many major names of the electrified guitar world. However, you can primarily appear online to fans overseas for only a limited period and retain interest, therefore the time is right for Larkin Poe to once again reach out and expand the live performances. The Glee Club in Birmingham played host to the touring four-piece set up on the second date of a UK tour; a trip that will also take in continental Europe alongside plans to visit Australia and the Far ...

Before this album has its first play, the words: whiskey, Dakota, levee and Mississippi start to lay the ground for where the destination is likely to be. Yes, it is Americana to the core, although leaning heavily in a blues-infused direction. Helen Rose has equipped her impressive vocal and musical credentials with a comfort blanket of the traditional, borrowed tunes and themes rich in the culture of a genre. As a body of work, and indeed Rose’s debut, TROUBLE HOLDING BACK emerges as a commendable effort, stimulating interest, creating thought and settling down as a mighty fine unabated listening experience. One that will have few struggles fighting its way through a cluttered highway of new releases to be heard. It is hard to look past the second track ‘ Flatlands of North Dakota ’ as Rose assumes the mantle of a modern day Bobbie Gentry to spin a mystique tale, albeit set a couple of thousand miles north west from the dusty delta. An uncanny likeness to ‘ Ode to Billy Joe’ ...

Sometimes an artist visibly grows into a gig and this certainly applied to Chastity Brown upon her return to the Kings Heath area of Birmingham. There had been a lengthy wait for a decent run of dates since the music of Chastity Brown took an upwards turn overseas on the back of her 2013 album release BACK-ROADS HIGHWAYS. Now we have had back-back tours in consecutive years and double visits to the West Midlands area on each occasion. Last year the tour was in a duo format with the Birmingham date hosted by the Hare and Hounds in a double bill presentation alongside Otis Gibbs. This year it was a case of popping across York Road and a more intimate evening without the duo partner or a co-headliner to share proceedings. In light of this format and the absence of an opening artist, Chastity pitched up for a pair of sets armed only with a trusty acoustic guitar, a bucketful of songs and a voice anchored in the cradle of Midwest Americana. This is where the melting pot of country, blu...

The promtion behind Cambridge Folk Festival generated the MyFolkFest hashtag to coordinate online interaction in 2018, thus hitting home the assertion that festivals are very personal experiences. Large acts or smaller ones; Cash or First Aid Kit; Moreland or Smith were all questions to arise across the four days of this year’s renewal. First world dilemmas I know, but immersing yourself into a multi artist gathering, on a moderate scale to a degree, does require a thoughtful approach, even to the extent of the casual roam versus the meticulous planning. For this look back at four sun-drenched days in the packed confines of Cherry Hinton Park, a project titled 50:20 was born. The challenge to write fifty words about twenty sets has been modified slightly as the number witnessed in their entirety on the two main stages came to eighteen. However, and in pursuit of that round number, who can resist a little summary of what stood out in the Den and the Club Tent, alongside the most me...

Two weeks into their current UK tour and it was a case a finally catching some Arkansas Dave in a mode that best reflects a road band. A slight jolt from a late entry to the Maverick Festival a fortnight earlier swiftly ironed out and, as they entered the final furlong of this current trip, a drop off in the West Midlands presented an opportunity to see them away from the hustle and bustle of a fully blown festival line-up. This four-piece combo led by Dave Pennington lived up to reports, both from word of mouth and from published reviews, as they adapted well to surroundings not always conducive to live music. This lunchtime performance in West Bromwich was the first of two shows during a one-day visit to the area. Both initiated by the Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival; a celebration of genre driven music held for a 10 day period across multiple venues on an annual basis. The evening gig would present the band the opportunity to ramp up the volume, but this 50 minute midday set ...

Voice of the soil; voice of the street; voice of the soul, I’ll settle on the latter as the vocals are the first thing that knock you out when discovering the music of Charley Crockett. Their uniqueness coupled with the perfect fit for the style of songs is quite a find and set to acquire this Texan plenty of new admirers. LONESOME AS A SHADOW is the title of the latest release and tosses a virile mix of honky tonk country, blues and soul into the pan. Do not expect too much of your listening time taken as the album rattles through twelve tracks in thirty minutes, unless you succumb to the inevitable pull of repeat plays to double check what you have just heard is that good. Charley is the veteran of a few albums now, including a devoted recent honky tonk one, but this latest effort signals a more international approach in promoting the artist. Live shows introduced him to UK audiences as the opening act for the JD McPherson tour at the start of 2018 with headline dates planned ...

The second gig of the year proved a somewhat low-key affair, as Amy Wadge had to pull out of her nationwide duet tour with Luke Jackson at the last moment. Not one to sit in his Canterbury flat twiddling his thumbs, Luke decided to fulfil a number of these dates in solo mode, with the audience obviously notified of the change. Following a trip to the North West, the Birmingham date in the upstairs room of the city centre located Cherry Reds was an ideal stopping off point for this hastily rearranged format. Luke has frequently visited the Midlands area for shows in the past, including one at the Hare and Hounds when he toured with Amy in 2015. Just six months previously, the talent of this folk-blues singer-songwriter first alerted me via a gig at the Artrix in Bromsgrove. To this date, a casual eye has been kept on a promising career that now goes back quite a few years for one seemingly so young. During the two sets that Luke intimately delivered to a small gathering, you got a ...

Can the grass be greener? A twist on this time tested analogy that can also apply to whether the gigs you regularly frequent are better attended elsewhere in the country. The answer was clearly yes on a Monday night in Ashington where many folks can quite legitimately state that ‘they were there the night Joey Landreth came to town’. The White House Unique Social Club is located in this old Northumberland colliery town twenty miles north of Newcastle. It is not your usual domain of an award winning Canadian folk rock artist, who together with his brother had brought the delectable sibling harmonies to a wider world via the band The Bros. Landreth. Yet on this latest trip to the UK, during a period of Joey branching out on his own, circumstance and fate led to the sold out sticker being plastered right across the gig poster. For a bit more context, the event was organised by Ashington Town Council as part of its commemoration of the 150 th anniversary of the first mineshaft bein...

While the general SummerTyne main evening choice is between two ticketed shows, the afternoon offering pits a paid event in Sage 2 against the free outdoors and concourse stages. This year the festival organisers decided to wholly make these afternoon events the domain of the female artist with a double bill of Jo Harman and Lisa Mills following up a previous day scheduling of Angaleena Presley and Danni Nicholls. Whereas the Saturday show leaned heavily in a country direction, the corresponding Sunday event brought a slice of the blues with two powerhouse vocalists. It is always a welcoming touch when artists are matched with a plethora of contrasts and comparisons that make the art of complementation work well. Both Lisa Mills and Jo Harman draw on the magnitude of their vocal strength to form their work. For this twin show, Jo was afforded the slightly longer set, but both performances gave fascinating insights in how the voice can be utilised so well. Ultimately, it is pro...

It should never be taken for granted, but it is refreshing for these monthly Bewdley shows to be so well-attended. However the main success is people listening to live music which isn’t soaked in populist expression, yet delivered with such strength and skill to reward an open minded approach. It also helps that the organisers are tuned into an artist network that delivers an endless supply of performers so adept at making top quality organic music. The latest artist to be humbled by the surroundings of St. George’s Hall is American roots singer-songwriter Chastity Brown, who is basing her latest UK visit around the release of the new album SILHOUETTE OF SIRENS. A blended approach to making roots music has been a well used description for Chastity, especially when introducing her to UK audiences over the last couple of years. Essentially, she starts from a folk base and then branches out to wherever her feelings lead, frequently in a soul and blues direction. An earthy vocal charact...