2019

Brothers Osborne will be returning to London to play O2 Academy Islington on June 14 ahead of their debut appearance at Download Festival. The critically acclaimed duo were only in the UK as recently as December 2018 – with the group ending that tour with a sold-out show at O2 Kentish Town Forum in London – but will be returning to England’s capital before they become the first country rock band to play both Country to Country (C2C) and the nation’s biggest rock festival in Download. Speaking about returning to this side of the Atlantic, the Nashville based duo stressed the importance of the UK and that they are humbled to be appreciated so much on these shores. “The UK is quickly becoming our second touring home,” Brothers Osborne said in a joint statement. “So much of our favourite music comes from there, so it’s an honour to be embraced by such great music lovers.” Tickets go on sale at 9:00am on March 29, though there is a Live Nation presale that is on March 28 at 9:00am. The link for both is here.

Country in the Afternoon has announced that their TBA slot is Robert Vincent, with the singer-songwriter to take to the stage on June 1. Vincent, who won the inaugural Bob Harris Emerging Artist Award at The UK Americana Awards in 2016, completes a line-up that also has Jesse Dayton, Morganway, Russ Tolman, Zoee, Katee Kross, The Blue Highways and Two Ways Home on the bill. The Liverpool based artist has also won UK Album of the Year at The Americana Awards in 2018 for ‘I’ll Make The Most of My Sins’ and is currently working on his third studio album. Vincent has also supported the likes of Beth Nielsen Chapman, Duane Eddy and Roger Waters amongst others. Country in the Afternoon is a new two-day mini-festival that is ran by Cumbrae Promotions, who organise Millport Country Music Festival in Scotland. The event is to take place on June 1-2 at The Half Moon in Putney, London. Saturday and Weekend tickets are available here, while Sunday and Weekend tickets are available here.

Grammy nominated artist Cassadee Pope will be embarking on her first UK headline tour in May as part of the ‘CMT Next Women of Country’ tour. Pope – who released her second album ‘Stages’ in February this year – was last in the UK for Country Music Week in London in 2018 and the five dates are an extension to her 11-date headline US tour, which start on April 11. The dates mark the very first time that the CMT Next Women of Country initiative has branched out from America and a support act for Pope will be revealed closer to the time. Tickets are on general sale at 9:00am GMT on March 29 here, but there will be an O2 presale at 9:00am GMT on March 27 and a Live Nation presale at 9:00am GMT on March 28. Cassadee Pope will be playing: May 9 – The Fleece, Bristol, England May 10 – Arts Club, Liverpool, England May 12 – O2 Institute 3, Birmingham, England May 13 – O2 Academy Islington, London, England May 15 – King Tut’s, Glasgow, Scotland

Elles Bailey has released the video for Little Piece of Heaven, which is the latest single from her second album ‘Road I Call Home’. You can watch the video here. For the single, Bailey worked with Dan Auerbach – perhaps best known for being the frontman of The Black Keys – having been introduced to the musician by Bobby Wood. Speaking about the track and how everything came together, Bailey explains how Wood put herself and Auerbach into contact and that the song is something that everyone can relate to, as it’s about leaving meaningful people at home. “Bobby Wood was one of first guys I met when I touched down in Tennessee,” Bailey states. “He took me under his wing and introduced me to so many folks in the Nashville Music Industry, one being Dan Auerbach. “The opportunity to work with Dan as well as Bobby on ‘Little Piece of Heaven’ was awesome as I love The Black Keys! Dan has such a talent for creating incredibly cool yet commercial songs. Little Piece of Heaven is a very honest song, as we have all been touring musicians at points in our lives, with significant others left at home.“ Currently, the Bristol based artist is on tour to support her second album and has a very extensive UK leg pencilled in, with some dates in Europe sandwiched in-between. Elles Bailey will be playing: March 21 – Bar Brunel, Bridgwater, England March 22 – Jazz and Blues Festival, Bristol, England March 24 – 1865, Southampton, England March 29 – The Rec Rooms, Horsham, England March 30 – Chapel Arts Centre, Bath, England March 31 –Madding Crowd, Bournemouth, England May 10 – Old Clee Social Club, Grimsby, England May 11 – Lincoln Drill Hall, Lincoln, England May 23 – Ropetackle Arts Centre (special guest w/Jo Harman), Shoreham By Sea, England May 30 – Arts for Hungerford, Hungerford, England June 1 – Sodfest, Belfast, Northern Ireland June 14 – Boogaloo Blues In Torquay, Torquay, England June 15 – Blues On The Farm, Canterbury, England July 21 – Ramblin’ Man Fair (Blues Stage), Maidstone, England

Megan O’Neill was incredibly busy at C2C 2019 with a number of sets, but she took time out of her schedule to speak with Maverick about how the weekend went for her and her new music How was C2C for you, Megan? Amazing. Oh my God, it was so great on every level.  C2C is always great to connect with other people and other artists in the industry – both from America and here in the UK – so that part of it has been really nice. The shows have gone down great too, so I can’t complain. The crowds were certainly very receptive to your sets, how was that for you? The crowds were amazing. It’s difficult to play new songs because you’re a bit scared of what the audience reaction is going to be, or whether they are going to like them and just generally how are they going to go down, but we played some new songs and they were the main things everyone was talking about, so that’s great. Two of those new songs were Rootless and Ireland – both of which went down well! Everyone’s response to Rootless was that it and Ireland were the two favourites and everyone’s saying that Rootless was still in their head the day after, so that’s amazing. It’s a really, really nice feeling and it makes me feel confident in putting out the new music. The new songs are part of a new album that you’re working on, how is that coming along? Yeah, great – I’m really excited about where it is going. I feel like the music is more mature than it’s ever been before and I’m really proud of it and really happy about it. It’s one of those things as an artist where you are like, ‘can I just put it out now? I want to play the new songs!’ It’s not that I’m sick of the old songs, but you just want to get the new stuff out. The first single should be out in about two months. When do you think we’ll get the full album? I think it will be a year away, it’s not finished yet. I want to do quite a few singles. I could do like five or six singles from it and just have that constant content coming out for a while, but I could get really impatient and just drop the whole thing by the end of the year! We will just have to wait and see. You’ve moved back to Ireland now, but what made you go back? It was a mix of very many things. There was some stuff going on personally for me that kind of made me feel like I needed to be back in Ireland, but also I’d lived in London for five years and America before then, so I’d been away for a very long time. I was just ready to breathe in that fresh air again and be surrounded by hills and rivers and I also wanted to have my own studio space, which I could never have in London. It’s been great on so many levels for me. Also, thank god for Ryan Air because I fly into London twice a month, so I do feel like I’ve got the best of both worlds.  

American singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux has been announced for two festivals this summer, both of which coincide with her upcoming UK tour. Peyroux will be performing at both the Cheltenham Jazz Festival on May 5 and Love Supreme Festival in Lewes on July 7, with the two appearances allowing Peyroux to further extend the UK leg of her spell on the road. The singer-songwriter – who is a very versatile artist and has dipped into jazz, blues and country across her career – will be playing songs from her latest record ‘Anthem’, which was released in August 2018. Madeleine Peyroux will be playing: May 4 – St Mary’s Church, Rye, England May 5 – Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Cheltenham, England May 6 – St George’s, Bristol, England July 7 – Love Supreme Festival, Lewes, England July 8 – Sage, Gateshead, England

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