Tift Merritt announces 20th anniversary vinyl reissue of 'Tambourine' + UK dates

June 19, 2025 by David Vousden in Americana, Festivals, singer-songwriter, Tour Dates, Vinyl, Country, Reissue

Acclaimed songwriter Tift Merriff will return to the UK this month for two shows, including an appearance at the prestigious Glastonbury festival as part of a European tour. The dates coincide with news of a 20th Anniversary vinyl reissue of ‘Tambourine’. This in itself is great news, but the news that seals the deal for long-time fans is the release of ‘Time and Patience’, a new album that charts the evolution of the record via previously unheard material, including a selection of demos recorded in the singer’s kitchen. Both albums will be released on August 29th 2025, on One Riot Records. More about Tift, the records and a demo recording of fan favourite ‘Good Hearted Man’ follow:

Canada House brings the very best Canadian music to UK Americana Music Week 2023

January 10, 2023 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, News, Roots, singer-songwriter, Blues, Folk

Canada’s official Music Export platform, ‘Canada House’, returns to the UK for two days of music by 12 carefully curated Canadian artists at the UK Americana Music Week 2023, 23-26th January, in London. CIMA (Canadian Independent Music Association) in partnership with Music PEI will be putting down roots at Moth Club in Hackney on the 24/25th of January to showcase the very best in Canadian music. The impressive list of artists includes Tara McLean, William Prince, Andrew Waite and Julian Taylor, to name but four. More about the UK Americana Music Week 2023 and the Canadian contingent follows:

The Long Road Festival presents Hometown Sounds - A spotlight on UK Country

September 07, 2020 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Americana, Country, Festivals, News

The destination for many UK Country and Americana fans this weekend (September 12th, 2020) would have been The Long Road Festival but unfortunately, that was not to be and The Long Road will return in 2021. In the meantime it’ll be doing its bit to promote UK Country music with Hometown Sounds a new online event. Hometown Sounds will premiere on Facebook & YouTube Live at 8PM on 12th September, before airing as a special edition of ‘Country Hits Brits’ by Country Hits Radio at 7PM on Sunday 13th September. Content will then be available on-demand thereafter. The show will be presented by TLR's Creative Director and Country Hits Radio Host Baylen Leonard, and feature exclusive live performances and interviews filmed in Camden Town with Ward Thomas, The Adelaides and Ferris & Sylvester - plus a guest performance from Brandy Clark remote from LA. Full details about Hometown Sounds and much more about The Long Road Festival 2021 follows:

Dustbowl Revival curate Sway-At-Home virtual music festival April 17-19th 2020

April 16, 2020 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Americana, Bluegrass, Blues, Country, Festivals, Folk, News, Roots, singer-songwriter

Dustbowl Revival have been keeping busy curating their very own Sway-At-Home music festival. Eighteen acts over three days including Steve Poltz, Shook Twins, Luther Dickinson and Birds Of Chicago. The music commences at 10pm (UK Time) this Friday, April 17th. More about Dustbowl Revival, Sway-At-Home and the acts involved follows:

Maverick Festival July 3rd - July 5th 2020

January 08, 2020 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, Folk, News, Roots, singer-songwriter, Tour Dates

The Maverick Festival will return over the weekend of July 3rd - July 5th 2020 which, as I’m sure you all already know, is 4th of July weekend. This seems to be particularly fitting as Paul Spencer and the Maverick team have been bringing the very best in Americana to the leafy surrounds of Easton Farm Park, Suffolk for many years. The first names for 2020 have been announced with a nice mix of returning favorites and new names including Grammy winning singer-songwriter Steve Forbert and Canadian force-of-nature Terra Lightfoot. More info about the Maverick Festival including ticket prices follows:

Morganway release video for 'I Want No Other Love' single + tour dates

July 12, 2019 by David Vousden in Americana, Classic Rock, Festivals, New Single, News, Tour Dates

‘I Want No Other Love’ is the latest single from the eagerly anticipated debut album by Morganway set for release August 2nd 2019. The video for the single features footage from many of their recent shows including Black Deer Festival. C2C, Wood Festival, Folk In A Field and loads more. The band will continue to tour this year with headline shows and a string of dates supporting CC Smugglers. More about the single, the album and upcoming tour dates follows:

Maverick Festival tickets and CD bundles to be won

June 20, 2019 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, Folk, News, Roots, Competitions

Hello and welcome to the very first Red Guitar Music competition. For our first run at a giveaway, we wanted to start with a bang so we’ve got together with the good folk at Maverick Festival and some of the acts performing at the 2019 event to offer up a pair of weekend tickets plus two sets of CDs with a Maverick Festival 2019 connection. A prize guaranteed to leave even the relative Americana newbie able to hold their own over a pint in the pub. Please read on for full details of the prize and the various ways to enter the competition:

The Shires, Alabama 3 and The Magic Numbers among additions to Black Deer Festival 2019

May 09, 2019 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, News, Roots, Tour Dates

The latest list of additions to the 2019 Black Deer Festival include UK country duo The Shires returning to the UK for a Sunday night show at the festival. Other names added today (May 9th) include Alabama 3 performing an acoustic set, The Magic Numbers, Stephen Spender and The Breretons. They will join an already impressive list that includes The Mavericks, John Butler Trio, Band of Horses and Billy Bragg. The festival will also host a panel celebrating the history of AMA-UK with Stevie Freeman, Bob Harris OBE and Emily Barker among those set to participate. Much more about the festival, which takes place at Eridge Park, Kent on 21st-23rd June 2019, follows:

Black Deer Festival 21st - 23rd June 2019

April 09, 2019 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Blues, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, Folk, News, Roots, singer-songwriter, Tour Dates

The Black Deer Festival will return to the leafy confines of Eridge Park in Kent on June 21st - 23rd 2019. The festival recently won Best New UK Festival at the AIF Independent Festival Awards 2018 and is looking to build on that momentum in 2019. The lineup looks strong with Band of Horses, John Butler Trio, The Staves, The Mavericks and legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson already announced. Recent additions to the bill include Billy Bragg, Ethan Johns (solo), Yola, Treetop Flyers and Sam Morrow while a few of RGM’s personal favourites are also set to appear including The Sheepdogs, Ferris & Sylvester and Worry Dolls. Much more about the festival including ticket details follows:

Maverick Festival 5th - 7th July 2019

April 05, 2019 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Alt-Folk, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, News, Roots, Tour Dates

The Maverick Festival is celebrating its 12th anniversary by once again bringing the very best of the Americana scene to picturesque Easton Farm Park in Suffolk over the first weekend of July 2019. This year the festival will be throwing a little Cajun into the mix and shining a spotlight on the Bluegrass scene on Friday night. As usual, a wide variety of acts are set to appear including Ags Connolly, Chance McCoy, Amy Lott, Broken Bones Matilda, The Black Feathers, Dana Immanuel & The Stolen Band (terrific at the recent press launch for the festival) and many, many more. Loads more about the festival including ticket details follows:

Josh Turner and Kip Moore to headline The Long Road Festival 2019

March 13, 2019 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Country Rock, Festivals, News, singer-songwriter, Southern Rock, Tour Dates

The Long Road festival in Stanford Hall, Leicestershire launched in 2018 and will return to the venue in 2019 on September 6th - 8th for three days of the very best in country, Americana and roots music. The first wave of acts for 2019 include headliners Josh Turner (making his UK debut) and Kip Moore. The Steel Woods, John Paul White, Asleep At The Wheel. Rhiannon Giddens, Eric Paslay, Charley Crockett, Morgan Evans, LANCO and Lainey Wilson are among the impressive names confirmed for the festival. Tickets are on sale from 9am on Friday March 15th. A full list of the acts announced today and loads more about The Long Road festival follows:

Thin Lizzy to perform 'Black Rose' album at Steelhouse Festival

February 07, 2019 by David Vousden in Classic Rock, Festivals, Hard Rock, News

To mark the 40th anniversary of the classic ‘Black Rose’ album Scott Gorham will be bringing Thin Lizzy to the Steelhouse festival for an exclusive show on July 28th 2019 where they will perform the album in its entirety. Thin Lizzy will be joined at the festival by Uriah Heep, Living Colour, The Temperance Movement and a host of other acts. The festival runs from the 26th - 28th July and much more about the festival and the acts performing follows:

CMA Songwriters Series returns to UK for October tour

July 31, 2018 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Americana, Country, Festivals, News, singer-songwriter, Tour Dates

The CMA Songwriters Series will return to the UK in October 2018 for a run of shows with the London date part of Country Music Week. The tour, which will also include dates in Gateshead, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow will be hosted by Chris DeStefano with two other artists also making their UK debuts in Kassi Ashton and Tenille Townes alongside a name very familiar to UK audiences Ashley Campbell. The two hour seated show will find the artists performing and telling the stories behind their songs. Tickets are on sale from Friday, August 3rd. Ticket details, the full tour dates and more about the artists and the CMA follows:

Rain Perry and The Gourds highlight Austin Texas music scene @ London's SoundScreen Festival

March 16, 2018 by David Vousden in Americana, News, Film, Festivals, Alt-Country, Folk

From March 21st - 28th the SoundScreen Festival will bring music and film together at a range of venues throughout London. Many genres of music are represented with Dave & Ray Davies of The Kinks, Julian Temple, The Slits and Lee Scratch Perry amongst the featured artists. It was very pleasing to find the Austin Music scene featured at the festival with 'All The Labor - The Story of The Gourds' and Rain Perry's 'The Shopkeeper' amongst the films to be shown. Regular readers might remember we reviewed 'The Shopkeeper' here at RGM last year (review) so it's great to see both films receiving their International Premiers at SoundScreen. Please read on for more about 'All The Labor' and 'The Shopkeeper' including ticket details and screening times:

Southern Avenue and Bonnie Bishop among latest Maverick Festival additions

March 10, 2018 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Festivals, News, Tour Dates

The Maverick Festival has announced the latest additions to the 2018 bill for the eleventh staging of the acclaimed Americana festival. Those names include Memphis band Southern Avenue and Texas-raised singer Bonnie Bishop. Australia will also be represented at the festival by Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes, making a welcome return in 2018, with rising Aussie star Imogen Clark along for the ride. Closer to home The Mountain Firework Company and longtime friends of Maverick Hank Wangford and BJ Cole will also perform. Please read on for more about the latest Maverick additions:

Iron & Wine and Passenger to headline Black Deer Festival

February 23, 2018 by David Vousden in Alt-Country, Americana, Country, Festivals, News

Iron & Wine and Passenger have been announced as the first headline acts for the inaugural Black Deer Festival at Eridge Park on the Kent/Sussex border in the heart of the beautiful High Weald countryside. The festival is set for 22nd - 24th of June, 2018 and the bill for the festival is shaping up very nicely with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, John Moreland, Eric Bibb and Ward Thomas amongst those already announced. Many more acts are still to be announced + the festival will feature all manner of things to keep country and Americana fans busy with great food, craft beer and custom motorcycles. If you're attending Black Deer be sure to keep an eye open for the Supajam Education in Music & Media (SEMM) the educational provider who will be running their own stage at Black Deer. Everything you need to know about Black Deer including the acts, location, tickets etc follows:

Maverick Festival announces first names for 2018

February 14, 2018 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alt-Country, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Festivals, Folk, News, Tour Dates

The Maverick Festival has announced the first names for the 2018 event set for Friday 6th - 8th July. Now in its eleventh year, the Maverick Festival has become an integral part of the Americana scene in the UK and always hosts an impressive range of artists. This year will be no different with a mix of returning favourites and many performers new to Maverick including Jonathan Byrd, Terra Lightfoot, The Danberrys, Leeroy Stagger and Arkansas Dave. More details about the event and the acts scheduled to appear follows:

Mary Chapin Carpenter announces new album and UK tour dates

February 12, 2018 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Americana, Country, Festivals, News, singer-songwriter, Tour Dates

Mary Chapin Carpenter will release her new album via Thirty Tigers on March 30th. Produced by Ethan Johns the record finds the acclaimed singer-songwriter reinterpreting a track from each of her previous twelve albums. The album 'Sometimes Just The Sky' is titled after the one newly written song on the record. To support the release Carpenter will embark on a UK tour in May with special guest Emily Barker on the majority of the dates. Full details about the album and those tour dates follow:

Holloway Road Ticketmaster Session + Live Dates inc C2C shows

January 31, 2018 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Country, Festivals, News, Pop, Tour Dates, Video

UK country duo Holloway Road continue to go from strength to strength on the back of successful UK touring and recent singles 'If She Falls' and 'Under Cover.' The guys will continue their touring schedule with a run of stripped back acoustic dates to showcase another side of their music including shows at the C2C festival for the fourth year running. To give fans an idea of what to expect on the dates the boys recently visited Ticketmaster HQ to play a live acoustic session. Those all important dates and the Ticketmaster session follow:

Ramblin' Roots Revue returns to High Wycombe April 6th-8th

January 29, 2018 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Americana, Bluegrass, Country, Festivals, Folk, News, Roots, Tour Dates, Alt-Country

After a successful first event last year, the Ramblin' Roots Revue will return to Bucks Student Union in High Wycombe for three days of Americana, folk, country and roots music in 2018. The event is produced in association with respected UK Americana label Clubhouse Records and they're put together an impressive range of acts including The Magic Numbers, The Rails, Danny and the Champions of the World, Jess Klein, Robert Vincent and Bennett Wilson Poole (whose upcoming album has gone down well in the RGM office). All the info you'll need about the festival follows: