New Music 2015 - Part 35 - Jess Vincent & Devonport's Column Acoustic

This is something of a hybrid post shared between headline artist Jess Vincent, venue Devonport Guildhall and a new acoustic session Column Acoustic. All this became known to me simply because I picked up a flyer a couple of weeks back. Here it is.

I am, most unfortunately, unable to attend for reasons of prior engagement. It bothers me most because I know little about the three support acts and have never seen any of them live. What you do get is four acts playing a stunning Grade 1 listed venue, that also has a café and bar, for £4 entry (adult). I intend to come and see Column Acoustic for myself at the earliest available opportunity. Why wouldn't you, if you have any interest in music? 

I have seen Jess Vincent live, she supported Ward Thomas here in Frome on the opening date of their first headline tour in August 2014. Here is what I had to say about that and just for a good measure a picture of her playing then.

Her 2013 LP 'Seesaw Dreams' is more than accomplished and Reg Meuross is a major collaborator here.

I think that a new Jess Vincent album is soon to be released. Without any doubt there will be new songs to listen to.

A few recent (live) videos.

I never sure whether to make this sort of addendum a post on its own or to add the items to (recent) posts about the same act or artist. In this case I have avoided the issue as such and chosen a combination of the two concepts. These first two are added to recent posts (links included below):

• Sound of The Sirens - 'Faith in Fire' (live, Plymouth, 11 April 2015) here.
• Annabelle Chvostek - 'Be The Media' (live studio session) here.

I have a few more to share but they relate to earlier posts, some very much so, and I will therefore add the new content below but with links back to earlier posts or references as appropriate.
This next is in a sense a cover of a cover. The song 'Fields Of Gold' was written by Gordon Sumner, aka Sting, but the famous version is that by the late Eva Cassidy. This is a live version of that recorded by Hattie Briggs, and from her recent début album 'Red & Gold', that features violin and was also mixed by Eva Cassidy's brother Dan Cassidy. 

The rest of the album, and that comprises her self-written songs, is stunning too. It topped the iTunes folk chart yesterday. The next question is how soon we can get to see her play live in Frome - Rook Lane might be the ideal venue but The Grain Bar would be very good too.

This next is rather a different prospect and certainly a change of style and tempo. I have quite happily driven a total of four hundred miles to see Joanne Shaw Taylor live three times. Next time it is going to be a fifteen minute walk from home. 

Live - Mad Dog Mcrea and Sound of the Sirens

I have recently mentioned the various threats to live music venues and I shall come back to that sooner or later. There are equally some too-little known and this is one of them - The Lights, Andover - and I have mentioned it here before.
So here we are again, surrounded by the Tellytubby ambience that is worth a visit alone, and which headline act Mad Dog Mcrea immediately picked up on!
This was however far more than that --- for with a sizeable and enthusiastic audience this is really quite some treasure. I was unaware that there would be a support act until I arrived but I soon saw the signs -  as they flitted back and forth across the foyer - which happens to be between the Green Room and the venue itself.

Sound of the Sirens - The Lights, Andover - 20 March 2015.

Abbe Martin and Hannah Wood, from Exeter, played a quite extensive set of their variously interwoven brand of folk-rock with tinges of surf pop and country. Many were from the 2013 LP 'A Long Way To Fall' but others older and more recent too.

Following them was Plymouth-based folk-punk six-piece Mad Dog Mcrea, whom I mentioned just a week ago. I'm more than glad that I did post that; equally that I took my chance to see them live. Yes there were a few niggles with the sound, a tendency to feedback being the main one, but that did not detract to any real degree from a memorable gig. It was however a big photographic fail on my part and I have no excuses.  Looking on the bright side it is a very good excuse to go and see them live again and even if I had taken the most stunning photos I would be more than happy to do that in any case.
Here they are badly photographed and in apparently deserted Tellytubby-land...

This was pure fun, they got folks dancing, told silly stories and all.

Added 14 April 2015:

Sound of The Sirens performing 'Faith In Fire' at Annabel's, in Plymouth's Barbican, 11 April 2015.

New Music 2015 - Part 20 - Mad Dog McRea - Almost Home

At last I get to review a band from Plymouth.  I am going to see  Mad Dog McRea, trailing the latest album 'Almost Home', this coming week. More on that after the event.

It is released on d/l on 15 March and on CD 23 March 2013 in the UK.

It is perhaps appropriate to start with an introduction. Mad Dog Mcrea is a six-piece comprising the following artists:

Michael Mathieson  ---  guitar and lead vocals

Dan Crimp  ---  whistle and flute

Nicki Powell  ---  fiddle

Podmore  ---  bouzouki, banjo

Jimi Galvin  ---  bass

Pete Chart  ---  percussion

With much garnered from the ranks of the folk-punks that have come before, comparisons with the likes of The Pogues, the Levellers and others come all too easily but that they are indeed worthy of such comparisons does not necessarily follow.
The former is certainly no criticism and that they are worthy is certainly not the only thing to admire. What I like as much as the foregoing is that, with the flute and fiddle, one or two of the softer songs made me recall the very best of Jethro Tull.
I don't say that lightly. It may not be a fashionable comparison, to be fair, but it is a complement nevertheless.

Almost Home

• Almost Home
• Talking Through The Walls
• I've Seen Things
• You Can't Find Me
• Cher
• The Sound
• The Devonside
• Heart of Stone
• Whiskey Man
• The Juggler

That is the track list of the album.
Buy. Listen. Enjoy.

New Music 2014 - Part 42 - The Leylines - Let It Go

The problem with this time of year is that amongst all the others I get to discover some of the things that, due to inattention or oversight, I have managed to miss over the previous eleven months. This is one of them and only made worse by the fact that the band is fairly local and the influence of another although not local, The Levellers, of whom I was writing praises in June, is clearly important but not overbearing.

The Leylines is a five-piece, based around-and-about Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. The first release was an EP Let It Go at the start of 2014. Better still have a listen now and then buy it.

The Leylines are most certainly on my list of acts to see live in 2015 as are another, somewhat better known and longer-established one. Mad Dog Mcrea, to pursue the above analogy, might just be Plymouth's answer to (the early days of) The Pogues.
The recent song 'Am I Drinking Enough?' certainly suggests a kindred spirit. More importantly, so does their reputation and especially that for live performance.
Simply because such a thing is possible, here it is - recorded live in a very special shed in Somerset!

New Music 2014 - Part 38 - Elise Yuill and Hattie Briggs

As I know that I shall be busy listening to live music this coming weekend and I shall write about that in due course. I thought that I would try and sneak this post in before then.
This really is new music; two unconnected artists that don't have a released LP between them - yet.
Hattie Briggs, based in Gloucestershire, released EP 'My Shepherd's Hut' all the way back in 2013. It does I strongly suspect suggest the angle that her début LP 'Red and Gold', which is to be released in 2015, will take. Don't fear if you read that that one of the album's producers is Peter Waterman - he is not the same as Pete Waterman, the maestro of pre-millennial UK pop and preserved railways! The other producer is Dan Cassidy and he is, truth be told, brother of the late lamented Eva Cassidy.
For some reason I am in a mood for watching songs with video this evening. So, while it totally recommend the above mentioned EP this is a track that is not on it!

Elise Yuill is based in Plymouth but originally from Somerset. Her music is folk/roots but, as it is in the following song sometimes firmly lodged in the Americana mould. I can find no trace of released recordings but if this, a song called ' The Five Regrets', is anything on which to base judgement that should change if only by popular demand.
  Five Regrets from Elise Yuill on Vimeo.
I have spent much of the evening listening and watching these.

New Music 2014 - Part 6 - Harriet Jones

Barely a week after I discovered one new act from Plymouth (WHOANOWS) as I was listening to Kathryn Tickell's show, on Amazing Radio this evening, along came this statement of intent from 20-year-old singer-songwriter Harriet Jones also from Plymouth.

The track Dealin' Man Blues is released as a single today and is as good a slice of soul-blues as I have heard in some time. It is remarkable for, amongst other things, the minimal accompaniment to her vocal and that works because it simply doesn't need more. Another one to watch in 2014 and I would love to see her play live.

If I were to meet her I should be very wary: If I am reminded by this of any one other song in particular then it is a cautionary tale, with a moral ending - 'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest' and I'm not convinced that I would come out on the right side of this.
It may seem a curious comparison but it works for me. What she might conjure up next is anyone's guess but hers. I'm fascinated by the possibilities.

New Music - Part 18 - PJP Band - ...and so it goes

I can honestly say that, whilst most of my family live there, in the more than six years of writing this blog I have never once mentioned a band that is based in Plymouth.
Until today...
... and so it goes - PJP Band. I certainly didn't see this coming, so thanks to Amazing Radio for alerting me this evening. It is a fine album, indeed I have since spent too much time listening to it streamed. Better still it is available now either as download or as 2 x 12" LP contained in a gate-fold sleeve (limited to 250 copies).
It is not cheap but their bargaining chip is good...
"This is a deluxe run, and a beautiful product to own, even if you don't have a record player... yet." 
Well, at least that is not a problem for me and both have very recently been treated to a new stylus too. It is, as far as I can tell, the first release by Plymouth-based independent label OUF Records.
I hope to hear more music out of Plymouth, in any genre, sooner rather than later. To state it another way - Plymouth has a population broadly similar to the whole of Iceland...