March 2019

Charlie Dore and Julian Littman Twickfolk, The Cabbage Patch Pub, London 24th February 2019 Charlie Dore and Julian Littman have played music and written songs together since they met at the Arts Educational School in London in the early 1970s. Their biggest commercial success was in 1979 with Pilot of the Airwaves, a bigger hit in the USA (No.13) and Canada (No. 5) than in the UK where it gained considerable airplay but lingered in the mid ’60s as regards chart position. Dore has also produced hits for a number of other successful artists including Lisa Stansfield, UB40, Paul Carrack, Status Quo and Celine Dion. Their Twickfolk appearance drew a large crowd for the duo’s 14-song set on a cool late February evening at the Cabbage Patch pub. They chose to play from the eight albums they have worked on together since ‘Where to Now’ launched Dore’s career in 1979. As well as fine songwriters, they have a wide range of instruments on stage at their disposal, including guitar, mandolin, ukulele, electric piano and harmonium. Dore and Littman started the gig with Firewater, a song from her 2014 album, ‘Milk Roulette’, describing the burning emotion of a love on the verge of losing control. A strong opener, Dore provided acoustic guitar accompaniment to her own lead vocals with Littman playing harmonium and singing backing vocals. Liontamer, from 2011’s ’Cheapskate Lullabyes’, relates the tale of someone searching for love and needing the confidence of a strong helping hand, with incisive lyrics such as “Need a soul mate, not a cell mate/Want a soothsayer, need a guardian/I was thinking that you might apply.” Dore’s current album, ‘Dark Matter’ is partly based on scientific conundrums, picked up through regular reading of her partner’s ‘New Scientist’ magazine. The opening track, Breakfast of Neutrinos, begins autobiographically as Dore confesses her childhood disinterest in school science lessons, “In 1969 I slept all through my science class, dreaming of the summer and the boy who cut the grass.” Through the perceived dullness, Dore hung on to one word, A neutrino is a tiny particle that passes through us without ever interacting. Dore built a love song based on this principle. With Littman on ukulele and Dore on guitar, she lightly prefaced the song with “It does sound a bit like some kind of breakfast cereal!” Nothing To Be Scared Of, another song from 2017’s ‘Dark Matter’, is a gentle song fantasy about death and immortality where Dore confesses she would like to live indefinitely and not die. The melody is delicate with Littman again on harmonium and Dore accompanying her vocals on electric piano. The theme continues with Personal Hell, a mid-tempo piece that explores the unusual idea that before you die you have to watch back a film of your life in real time, potentially a tough call! The dark themes here are mollified by sharply intelligent lyrics and beautiful melodies. After the interval, the duo changed direction with a humorous Italian-styled folk tune, Cleaning Up My House. An eccentric and comic courtship is outlined in the gentle tale of Dennis and Rose, a story of a painfully shy man who visits and buys from a greetings card shop, to get close to his much-admired shop assistant.Fortunately, it’s a tale with a happy ending! Maximum Bob is very different. Based on an Elmore Leonard crime novel, it features a crooked lawman and the equally inept crooks out to get him. Dore plays harmonium and Littman is on electric mandolin for this, the final song from their main set. By way of encore, they couldn’t leave the highly enthusiastic Twickenham audience without playing their eternally popular and chart making hit, Pilot of the Airwaves. The chorus was taken up with gusto by the Twickfolk crowd, who were word perfect. This was a very fine concert of lyrically astute songs, great tunes and multi-faceted musicianship. ‘Dark Matter’, their latest album, shows that Dore and Littman have lost none of their skills at creating memorable music. Simon Beards

Patty Griffin PATTY GRIFFIN Thirty Tigers ***** Guiding listeners with warm imagery and human emotion The loveable and free-spirited Patty Griffin has released her highly anticipated album and delivers pure gold. Her fiery, rustic vocals are empowering and soulful – she guides listeners with warm imagery and human emotion and gives a sense of home and comfort. Griffin’s powerful track River is a definite highlight as she provokes liberation with a sense of pride and compassion with simple, sombre chords underneath haunting vocals. Additionally, Luminous Placesis full of luscious images as well as striking piano chords that are sure to tug on heart strings. Griffin’s dynamic, wide-ranging canon is poignant and whimsical. She brings a new level of country diversity with a real sense of charm and produces an echo of Stevie Nicks with her dream-like sound. Very nostalgic and extremely moving as it was written during a personal crisis in her life, Griffin has shaped a musical miracle from a tragic experience and does this with sincerity and grace. Effortlessly indulgent to listen to – Patty Griffin’s latest album is truly masterful. Zoe Deighton-Smythe www.pattygriffin.com

Dale Watson CALL ME LUCKY Compass Records **** One for the traditionalists  For 30 years now, Dale Watson has been in and around the country music scene and his latest offering, ‘Call Me Lucky’, is one that will certainly appease his legion of fans that he’s collected along the way. Very much inspired by the more traditional elements of country, Watson covers a lot of ground with this release ranging from honky tonk to straight up country to rockabilly. The core subject for the album is Watson’s affection for his girlfriend – and singer – Celine Lee and the majority of the tracks are under three minutes, making for a very quickfire listen. Tracks like Restless and Johnny And June are sure to go down very well amongst his fans and while there isn’t a great deal here for fans of newer country/country pop, those who are purists will be lapping this up from both a lyrical and an instrumental point of view. Rob Ramsey www.dalewatson.com  

Danni Nicholls THE MELTED MORNING Self-released ***** “An incredibly well-crafted album with depth and originality for each composition” Danni Nicholls is renowned for her grace and elegance in music and ‘The Melted Morning’ epitomises this beautiful style on a whole new level. An incredibly well-crafted album with depth and originality for each composition, Nicholls is delicate in delivery but fierce in spirit. Her vocals are similar to the talents of k.d. lang and Linda Ronstadt – equally gorgeous artists that provide poetry behind their buoyant vocals. With her echoing voice whimsically moving around each track, her imagery remains firmly planted within the world of Americana while also providing profundity in her outlook on love, fear and the power of human connection. Nicholls has written a stunning piece of work that does a remarkable job of merging light with dark. From a soothing but upbeat performance in Losing It to a passionate and poignant rendition in Unwanted, Nicholls captures the classic trope of country music by exposing real-life experiences and the complexities of human emotion and makes it into something wonderfully timeless. A really stunning piece of musical work – Danni Nicholls is an artist full of soul and wisdom. Zoe Deighton-Smythe www.danninicholls.com

The Long Road Festival have announced their second edition in emphatic style after revealing that Kip Moore and Josh Turner will be headlining. The three-day event, which runs from September 6-8, will mark the first ever time that Turner has played on UK soil and he will be closing the festival on the Sunday. Moore, who is very much at the forefront of the genre, will be headlining the Saturday. In addition to Moore and Turner in the first wave announcements, Asleep At The Wheel will be making their first full-band appearance in the UK for over a decade, while LANCO, Morgan Evans, Lainey Wilson, The Steel Woods and Rhiannon Giddens will also be appearing. There are a number of upcoming UK country and Americana artists on the bill as well, including the likes of Liv Austen, Katy Hurt, Jake Morrell and CoCo and The Butterfields. Tickets start at £40 for the day, £90 for a no camping weekend pass and £110 for a camping weekend pass. These can be purchased via The Long Road Festival website. The lineup so far is: Rhinestone County  Kip Moore Josh Turner LANCO Morgan Evans Eric Paslay Thompson Square Lainey Wilson Jaime Wyatt Liv Austen Crossroad County  Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi Asleep at the Wheel John Paul White Sam Outlaw The Steel Woods Sunny Ozell CoCo and The Butterfields The Cactus Blossoms Katy Hurt Matt the Electrician Leslie Stevens The Hanging Stars Robert Chaney Peter Bruntnell Fair Country  Charlie Crockett Sam Lewis Ags Connolly Jake Morrell Amy Speace

Fresh from another hugely successful weekend in the UK, Country to Country (C2C) have announced the dates for their eighth festival, which will be held between March 13-15. Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and Chris Stapleton headlined the 2019 edition of the festival, which took place at London’s O2 Arena, Glasgow’s SSE Hydro Arena and Dublin’s 3Arena. No names have been revealed as of yet and won’t be for some time, but early bird tickets will be available for purchase at 10am on March 15. 2019’s edition of C2C saw over 70,000 country music fans flock to the three cities, further proving that the UK’s affection for country music is growing at a rapid pace. Tickets will be available from AXS, Ticketmaster and Gigs and Tours.

Back to the UK after a three year spell, Brett Eldredge is ready to take C2C by storm ahead of his Main Stage appearances in London, Glasgow and Dublin So Brett, how are you feeling for C2C? Yeah, I feel great about this. It feels like my first day at school or something! I’ve never played to this level in the UK or the Europe – we’ve played some big clubs here, but it’s so good to see how big country’s grown here and to be a part of that and to be singing in front of 20,000 people with new fans and new energy is just so exciting. It’s been three years since you were last in the UK, what can we expect from the show? Well I’ve figured myself out a lot more since last time! Last night I walked by KOKO and thinking about how many miles I’ve travelled since the last time I was here and how many hundreds of shows I’ve played. I feel like my live shows were really special then, but I was really finding and honing in on my craft and I think that a place like this makes me inspired to try new things even more and to have different moments in the show because there’s a very high level of respect here for the music and I love that. I’m going to bring the biggest musical moments I possibly can up there out on stage. Are there any surprises we should look out for this weekend? That’s a good question…I’m always planning surprises! I don’t have a specific one yet, but I’ve actually surprised myself at shows recently as I’m going way more off the cuff than I used to and I try to feel the crowd out a little bit more. Sometimes I switch the song order up a little bit if I feel people want to be a bit more upbeat, or if everybody’s really feeling emotional, I’m gonna go deeper. I really like that. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I like that I don’t know where it’s going to go – I just know it’s going to be an incredible show as I’ve been waiting so long to play C2C.

Prior to a super busy few days for the group, Runaway June took time out of their schedule to let us know what they have in store for C2C How are you feeling about C2C? Naomi Cooke: We came over last year to write with some BMG writers here and that was such a fun experience, but we haven’t performed yet. We’ve been dying to! Hannah Mulholland: We’re excited to see the fans because we’ve heard the best things about the crowds here, so this will be the first time we’re experiencing the crowds. You’re playing five times over the weekend, which is remarkable – how did that come about? Hannah: I don’t know! There are some that I don’t even know if we’re going to be able to get there – we have one at 9 and one at 9:30 or something, so I hope we get to five shows, but we’ll see! Naomi: This is not a place that we’ll be able to come often so we want to take advantage of being here and do as much as we can. Hopefully we haven’t overstepped and hopefully we’ll make it to every show! Hannah: It’s exciting that we can play that many times, it’s a really good feeling. Were you shocked to be headlining the Spotlight Stage? Jennifer Wayne: Yeah!! We’re shocked to headline any stage, over the years you play so many types of stages and tents where there’s nobody in them and you just go through all of the rounds. To be at the point where we’re headlining any stage is just an amazing feeling. Naomi: It feels really good, we’ve really been on the grind for years – and we still are – but it’s always an honour to see that we’re headlining. We always feel like, ‘oh my God, are we ready for this? Like, this is a lot of responsibility!’ but it’s exciting. To be doing that here in the UK feels really kind of surreal.