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Tom Russell Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay 27thMarch 2019 A stalwart of the Americana scene with 35 albums to his name, singer/songwriter, author, painter and troubadour Tom Russell has a hard core of devoted UK fans who are prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country for an evening of anecdotes and great music. A sell-out in the tiny 90 seat Norwegian Church Arts Centre was therefore guaranteed, although surprisingly, there were a few no-shows. Bouncing onto the stage displaying his usual brash persona, Russell pretended to be the opening act. Nobody was fooled as he launched into a medley of snatches from some of his favourite artists; Ian & Sylvia’s More Often Than Not, Townes’ Pancho and Lefty, Warren Zevon’s Carmelita, Guy Clark’s LA Freeway and Willie Nelson’s Whisky River. With his new five star album ‘October in the Railroad Earth’ prominent on the merchandise counter, things were off to a rip-roaring start with the Johnny Cash classic Wreck of the Old 97, the only cover on the album. With such an enormous back catalogue, Russell at times seemed unsure what to play next, often responding to requests although his promise to play Small Engine Repair never materialised. Hair Trigger Heart and Guadalupe satisfied the purists but not before we’d been treated to his Dylan Thomas medley with a couple from ‘Folk Hotel’. Eager to promote the new album, the Tex-Mex flavoured tale of Monterey cowboy Isadore Gonzales, his GPS love song Back Streets of Love and of course the title track, highlighting author Jack Kerouac’s time working as a Railroad brakeman, convinced many punters to pay a visit to the merch counter in the interval. The raucous Tonight We Ride closed the first set. Much dog howling accompanied The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence before Russell displayed his lighter side with Finding You, written for Swiss wife Nadine who inspired When the Road Gets Rough, recounting some pretty horrendous journeys when touring the UK. With five numbers from the new album covered, it was back catalogue all the way to the inevitable finale Who’s Gonna’ Build Your Wall? handed a new lease of life given the recent antics in the US. The usual somewhat contrived encore brought three more from the past; Stealing Electricity, Nina Simone and Navaho Rug, were all enthusiastically received by the audience who responded with a fully deserved standing ovation. Tonight, we had just Russell and his guitar so some of the ‘twang’ prevalent particularly on ‘October in the Railroad Earth’ could not be replicated, but nevertheless, this was a great evening of folk, country, Tex-Mex and country rock and few in the audience would have left without owning the new album. One enthusiastic devotee even eagerly parted with £100 for a piece of damaged Tom Russell artwork. Devotion indeed! John Roffey  Tom Russell played: Medley: More Often Than Not/Pancho and Lefty/Carmelita/LA Freeway/Whisky River Wreck of the Old 97 Medley: Up in the Old Hotel/The Sparrow of Swansea Hair Trigger Heart Guadalupe Isadore Gonzalez Back Streets of Love October in the Railroad Earth Tonight We Ride The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence When the Road Gets Rough Finding You East of Woodstock, West of Vietnam St. Olav’s Gate Blue Wing Who’s Gonna’ Build Your Wall? —————————————————————– Stealing Electricity Nina Simone Navaho Rug

Country pop duo Ward Thomas have been announced as one of the 10 new acts for Isle Of Wight Festival 2019, taking place between June 13-16. The twins, who recently released their third album ‘Restless Minds’, will be playing on the Big Top Stage and have been announced alongside Keane, Garbage, Dermot Kennedy, Cage The Elephant, Picture This, Wet Wet Wet, Björn Again, The Marcus King Band and Feet. The contemporary festival itself is being headlined by Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds, George Ezra and Biffy Clyro. At the Songwriter’s Series at C2C 2019, Ward Thomas were invited out by Cam and subsequently surprise presented with the CMA Jeff Walker Global Country Artist Award, before doing an impromptu performance of Cartwheels. The duo are currently on tour in the UK and have a date pencilled in for O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire to come, with The Wandering Hearts providing support across all dates. Ward Thomas will be playing: April  – Institute, Birmingham, England April 2 – O2 Guildhall, Southampton, England April 3 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, England April 5 – SWG3, Glasgow, Scotland April 6 – Sage, Gateshead, England  

Fresh from being announced as one of the headliners for The Long Road Festival, Kip Moore has also announced three full band dates in the UK for September. The US singer-songwriter will be performing in the UK for four dates in May to support his ‘Room to Spare’ acoustic tour, which sold out immediately, but has now announced a selection of full band shows for the second half of the year. In addition, Moore’s ‘Room to Spare: The Acoustic Sessions” EP will be released on vinyl for Record Store Day, with the vinyl featuring five additional tracks that weren’t on the initial release. Kip Moore will be playing: September 2 – Roundhouse, London, England September 4 – O2 Academy Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland September 5 – Ulster Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland

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