Guildhall in Winchester was built at the height of the Victorian obsession with Gothic architecture, a feature of which is to draw the eye upwards. That made for an ideal venue for Scott Matthews, whose music, and particularly whose voice, […]
The UK’s Country to Country festival in March is usually about the big names in the main O2 arena but the nearby smaller stages are very fertile ground for discovering new bands. This year’s pick of that new spring crop […]
Country Music has spawned so many sub genres that there surely cannot be any left. Not true, here’s a new one, “Country and West Yorkshire”. This is how Tony Wright and Ryan Hamilton describe their collaboration. To make the point […]
Kate Ellis released her first album, Carve Me Out, nearly a year ago since when its deserved initial acclaim has broadened steadily. Part of the album’s appeal is that it transcends the usual musical classifications as Ellis weaves strands of […]
A feeling that has frequently dominated Mary Chapin Carpenter’s shows is reflection. An artist who bares her soul through her songs sends audiences home musing over the emotions she so lucidly expressed. Reflection was the theme of Carpenter’s London appearance, […]
Having tasted the delights of the peripheral venues it was time for the main arena events of my day at Country to Country, the UK’s largest country music festival at London’s O2. The main arena is not a place to […]
Country To Country (C2C) has established itself as the UK’s heavyweight country music festival. It is held annually over three days at London’s cavernous O2 venue. The headline acts start in the main arena late afternoon and there is no […]
Scottish singer-songwriter Dean Owens has made a deserved name for himself on either side of the Atlantic. Over here he is highly rated by Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) and broadcaster Bob Harris. Over there the company he keeps says enough: Will […]
The Wandering Hearts may be an unfamiliar name outside the UK Americana scene. That’s not surprising, the London based band formed less than two years ago, have released only a single then an EP towards the end of last year. […]
A highlight of my musical year for nearly a decade has been the Transatlantic Sessions, the series of shows put together by Jerry Douglas and Aly Bain. Each year they and their house band are joined by a select group […]
