News, reviews and more
Nashville Nights will return to West London to give fans an opportunity to see in 2018 with a Nearly New Year Party devoted to country music. The event takes place at Under The Bridge on December 29th and will feature live music from The Southern Companion. Full details about Nashville Nights and the evening follow:
Read MoreThe members of Belle Adair will need no introduction if you've been following the impressive run of releases on Single Lock Records as keyboardist Ben Tanner and drummer Reed Watson run the label. The band has effectively acted as the label house band in recent years backing label founder John Paul White and Donnie Fritts amongst others. Now Belle Adair are taking their place in the sun with the release of the Tom Schick (Wilco) produced 'Tuscumbia' which puts their personal spin on that rich Muscle Shoals musical heritage. More about Belle Adair follows including 'Get Away' the first single from the album:
Read MoreTom Waits has remastered his Anti- catalogue and the reissue of the albums will commence on November 10th. Waits has referred to the process as “Necessary but cursedly laborious” but I'm sure fans will be keen to check out the new remasters which will include a completely new mix for the 'Real Gone' album. More details about the upcoming albums including release dates follows:
Read MoreThe Country to Country festival today (October 16th) announced additional acts and day splits so you'll know who's playing when on the weekend of March 9 - 11th, 2018 at The O2 in London. The additional names include Old Dominion, Morgan Evans and Ashley Campbell who will present a tribute to her late father Glen Campbell, a true country legend. The C2C festival is now the essential weekend for country fans in the UK and beyond. More about C2C including ticket details follow:
Read MoreSouth Carolina's Susto released their second album '& I'm Fine Today' earlier this year to rave reviews in the USA. Fresh from touring with Band Of Horses they have now turned their attention to Europe and the record will get a very welcome UK release on November 10th. More about the history of Susto and the new album follows:
Read MoreOctober 2017 is looking like an amazing month for fans of country music as some of the biggest names in the genre will be playing shows in the UK. Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum have announced headline tours and the Little Big Town show at the Royal Albert Hall is part of Country Music Week which sees a host of established acts and newcomers performing around London including Drake White, Kip Moore, Jace Everett and Sarah Darling. Please read on for more about the acts and those tour dates:
Read MoreSian Chandler and Ray Hughes aka The Black Feathers have released a video for 'Holy Water' the first single from their upcoming second album due in the spring of 2018. 'Holy Water' will be released on October 13th and is a stunning track which will be familiar to those of us who've been lucky enough to catch the duo live. If 'Holy Water' is anything to go by then the new album can't come soon enough. In the meantime the duo are setting out on a UK tour which starts on September 13th in Nottingham. More about The Black Feathers, those tour dates and the new video for 'Holy Water' follows:
Read MoreFresh from huge success at the C2C 2017 Drake White & The Big Fire will return to the UK as special guests of Kip Moore. The London show with Moore and a further headline show at The Borderline form part of Country Music Week which finds some of the biggest artists of the genre performing live in London. To coincide with the UK visit a new single 'Livin' The Dream' from the 'Spark' album is due October 13th. More about Drake and those dates follow:
Read MoreRicky Ross has announced a new solo album 'Short Stories Vol.1' due September 15th via earMUSIC. Fresh from the success of the most recent Deacon Blue album 'Believers' and an extensive tour to support the album, which was immortalised on the 'Live at the Glasgow Barrowlands' DVD (The London show from the tour RGM reviewed here). Ricky will again be hitting the road for a string of European dates. More about the album and those tour dates follow:
Read MoreTexas country singer-songwriter Casey Donahue will be visiting the UK for the first time in October to play at the Texas Music Takeover festival which takes place from Oct 9th-16th in London. Much more about Casey including a video for 'Kiss Me' from his acclaimed 'All Night Party' album follows:
Read MoreBrighton based Josh McGovern has released a new single 'The Devil Below Me' which finds the singer-songwriter contemplating his life and past mistakes. The results are dark, brooding and introspective and will appeal to fans of Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen. Dig a little deeper though and the versatility of McGovern's voice matched with a darkly spiky arrangement, that utilizes some particularly effective backing vocals, is sure to win the listener over and bodes well for future releases. The stream for 'The Devil Below Me' and a little more about Josh McGovern follows:
Read MoreThese days there seems to be a new festival turning up every five minutes, but if you want to do things properly, then you can't go wrong with two festivals that effectively wrote the book on the festival experience. The Newport Folk Festival dates back to 1959 and would claim a place in musical/cultural history when Bob Dylan plugged in and switched on in 1965. Coincidentally 1965 would see the launch of the Cambridge Folk Festival so that was a pretty good year. The two festivals have announced plans for a historic twinning of the two festivals to form a unique transatlantic alliance. Please read on for more about Newport, Cambridge and their plans going forward:
Read MoreThe Cadillac Three have a new album 'Legacy' set for release August 25th via Big Machine Records. As a taster for the upcoming album the band today (07.07.2017) released a video for the impressive title cut, which finds the boys in a more reflective mood than we've been accustomed to in recent times. The band will return to the UK in November for a headline tour with support from Broken Witt Rebels and Brothers Osborne. This tour will. I'm sure, be one of the hottest tickets of the year. Much more about The Cadillac Three follows including tour dates and the video for 'Legacy'.
Read MoreHowling Bells singer Juanita Stein will release her debut solo album 'America' on July 28th via the Nude Records label. The Australian born, UK based songwriter will also be playing plenty of UK shows this year with dates booked through into October. As a taster for the new record 'I'll Cry' has been released as a single and very good it is too. The single wears its Phil Spector and Roy Orbison influences well and would be an ideal fit for a David Lynch movie. Those tour dates and the video for 'I'll Cry' follow:
Read MoreFerris & Sylvester are gearing up for the release of their 'The Yellow Line' EP on June 23rd 2017. The duo recently signed to Youth's new publishing company Painted Word Music. Killing Joke bassist Youth will be most familiar for his impressive string of production credits that include The Verve, Crowded House, Paul McCartney and a terrific album by Howie Day. With this heavyweight support things are looking bright for Ferris & Sylvester and the EP shows immense promise for the future. You can catch the duo live in London on July 12th 2017 at the famed Half Moon in Putney. You can catch the duo live in London on July 12th 2017 at the famed Half Moon in Putney. The press release about the EP and the video for 'Berlin' follows:
Read MoreWill Hoge will release his new album 'Anchors' August 17th, 2017 via Thirty Tigers. The album includes the single 'Little Bit Of Rust' featuring Sheryl Crow. Will Hoge will introduce the album with a run of solo UK shows in July prior to the album release. More about Will Hoge and those tour dates follow:
Read MoreThe Maverick Festival today announced their final additions to the line-up with Nashville duo American Young and Alabama songwriter Sonia Leigh added to an already impressive artist list. Leigh has songwriting credits on that guilty pleasure that is the Nashville TV series while American Young performed recently at C2C in London. The Maverick Festival runs from June 30th - July 2nd and with so many excellent acts in just three days some inventive clock watching, or a flux capacitor, might be required to catch that not-to-be-missed set. We have all the info you'll need so please read on for more about Maverick and those stage times.
Read MoreLondon based alt-country duo Two Ways Home aka Isabella Mariee and Lewis Fowler will release their new EP 'Closest Stranger' on June 2nd. The EP features four new songs including co-writes with Logan Brill. Demi Marriner and Adam James. More about Two Ways Home and the new EP follows:
Read MoreMay 5th 2017 is the date for the latest album from Madison Violet via Big Lake Music which finds the duo of Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac creating new music and looking back at songs from earlier in their career from a more organic, acoustic viewpoint. Madison Violet will embark on a run of shows, as a duo, in the UK and Ireland dubbed 'Back To The Roots' to coincide with the album release. More about the album, Madison Violet and those all important dates follows:
Read MoreThe London based duo Steepways aka Blair Chadwick and Charlie Bateson will release their debut album physically on May 7th via Mansion House Records. To support the release they've lined up a string of shows including an album launch event on April 29th at The Fiddler's Elbow in Camden, London. A stream / more about the album and additional tour dates follows:
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