Three Chords and the Truth UK

Having made an all-to-brief visit to Austin, Texas a few years ago, it wasn’t too difficult to absorb yourself into the psyche which made this alternative oasis ‘the live music capital of the world’. So whenever exports from the capital of the Lone Star State hit your town, it’s best to expect the unexpected albeit usually with a high quality guarantee. Upon their return from a six month stint in Austin, Birmingham based The Toy Hearts have wasted no time in extending  the invitation to share the talents of the Jitterbug Vipers with a UK audience. In line with several previous evenings over the past year, the band played host to their guests and shared a bill at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. For the record, the Jitterbug Vipers are a four piece band specialising in creating a sound that swept through the jazz rooms of prohibition era America but the challenge is how to put into words the ambience and mesmeric atmosphere which emanated from their interaction during the ho...

If you can close your eyes and visualise a bygone age of juke joints, box car hopping hobos and an air filled with roots inspired travelling music, there might just be a character in the corner mythically known as Woody Pines plying his trade with a solitary resonator and harmonica. This bout of imagery will be enhanced by lending your ear for half an hour to the unashamedly retro sound of RABBITS’ MOTEL, the fourth album by that very person central to your imagination. The delightful Twitter bio for Woody succinctly states ‘American Boogie, Halloween, Viper Jazz and Indi-folk – Nashville, Tennessee’. Well you can add a host of other old time genre classifications to this record, although perhaps the place of residence should just simply state ‘the highways, byways and rail tracks of quintessential USA’. Woody Pines has teamed up with, playing and writing companion, Felix Hatfield to compose eight original numbers leaving two songs the source of that most prolific songwriter ...