Marnhull Acoustic Session - Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin

This is an important update on my previous post concerning Marnhull Acoustic Sessions and the event this coming Sunday (23 February). Ninebarrow are still supporting and Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are still headlining but the big change is that the latter have just been awarded the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for 'Best Duo'. That was in The Royal Albert Hall this evening but, if you are quick, you could see them play live in Marnhull Village Hall (capacity ~100) this coming Sunday evening. Litotes is self-defining.
Tickets, while they last, are £6 + £0.60 booking fee on-line and delivered by e-mail. I wouldn't bet on getting one on the door (£7). See you there!
Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin the first time that I saw them live...

Acoustic+, Frome, Cheese and Grain, 25 March 2011.
This an older song, Queen Gwendolen, but none the worse for that.

Phillip on dobro and Hannah on fiddle and vocals here.

New Music 2014 - Part 7- Hurray For The Riff Raff

Hurray For the Riff Raff has been around for a few years now, with once-itinerant Alynda Segarra at their steady helm. The third LP, Small Town Heroes, has recently been released by ATO Records in the US.

The UK release is the end of March but it is too good to wait for.

I'm expecting that I will see them at a festival in the UK at least once this summer and I can't wait...

Hurray For The Riff Raff live at End of The Road Festival 2012.
   

A track from the new album is 'Blue Ridge Mountain'.

This is another one to watch in 2014.

Record Store Day 2014 - old favourites

I thought I'd go back to the future with my thoughts on the forthcoming Record Store Day 2014. What are your thoughts, perhaps from RSD past, and what you would like to see in 2014?
To take it all back a step, what are the possibly unusual records from years ago that you own and treasure? There is no need for these to be rare or valuable... I own 5 copies of Thin Lizzy's - Black Rose (A Rock Legend) on vinyl but the one I am listening to right now is Vertigo 60 63 169. It sounds just the same as any other but is, in fact, the original Spanish release (1979).
To own a few curiosities, even if they have no particular pecuniary value, is appealing for some of us.
Rather soon after I went away to university, in the autumn of 1983, I was exposed to much new music some of which I liked and some not. Some of both still always reminds me of that time. Another factor is that time more or less coincided with the renaissance of Radio Caroline. As I was in North Kent and MV Ross Revenge was not that far away the station was almost receivable with the radio turned off! 
It also had, and still does, the tendency to play albums. It is arguably, along with my decision to go to festivals from 2007, one of the defining moments of my music-listening life. I credit it with, amongst others some of which I did not appreciate at the time, introducing me to the work of Bob Dylan.

I don't recall this album from that time, maybe it was deemed old even then, but I doubt that was the reason as I certainly remember the station playing Free, which was again largely new to me but just as old.
I actually have some rather strange memory-evidence for this assertion. Another artist that Radio Caroline introduced me to was Jimi Hendrix and while I well remember hearing his version of 'All Along The Watchtower' back then it was probably twenty-five years before I actually realized that it was a Dylan cover, from the aforementioned album of course. How naïve was I?
You could reasonably pin a great deal of my musical taste on that which I heard in my time at University. I still hate Phil Collins' music, for example.

This is becoming rather more "Thoughts On Music" than I planned (because I didn't actually do any planning for this post) but I'm rather enjoying it. None of this endeavour was planned anyway, and I did say that in the event that I reached 100 posts I would retire.
I'm sorry. I changed my mind: this is the 838th.

Record Store Day 2014 - A Prelude

It is now just a couple of months until Record Store Day 2014, an event that seems to be gathering momentum with each passing year. To set your mind thinking about the changes, in both the music industry and the marketing strategies involved, here is an inner sleeve from forty-six years ago and of which I took a photograph just now.

It is interesting to consider what were the perceived threats back in 1968.
Equally so, what the marketing people would have thought about vinyl in 2014.

Marnhull Acoustic Session - Tom James & Pip Mountjoy

The new season of Marnhull Acoustic Sessions kicked of this evening in fine style with a double headline bill of Pip Mountjoy and Tom James. I have quite literally just returned home and downloaded my pictures and there seemed no reason not to write while it is still fresh on my mind.
Both artists indicated that new releases are in the pipeline - a third EP from Pip and Tom's first album and the follow up to his Green + White EP (2011).
Both artists played solo sets and then collaborated busking-style for a few tracks to finish off the evening in an interesting and very successful fashion so I shall start with that.

Oh Carolina.

The contrast in their respective song writing and acoustic styles was fascinating and just the kind of thing that an intimate gig  such as this shows to best effect.
   

    

Whilst Tom laid aside his acoustic for electric guitar on a number of songs Pip down-sized to ukelele, something that I do not recall from the time that I saw her at Deer Shed Festival 2012.

    

Marnhull Acoustic Sessions returns on 23 February with a celebration of its first anniversary. Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin will be headlining with Dorset-based Ninebarrow as support. The former are nominated for 'best duo' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2014, that take place earlier the same week and so a double celebration is to be hoped for.