New Music 2017 - Part 8 - Ags Connolly - Nothin' Unexpected

The second full-length from West Oxfordshire native and resident Ags Connolly has been a while in the making, quite deliberately so it would seem.
The first was 'How About Now' and  it appeared back in 2014. That was around the time that the blossoming of the indigenous UK Americana scene was starting to be noticed as the real change it was, rather than just the preoccupation of die-hard fans and would-be journalists.

Nothin' Unexpected - Ags Connolly (At The Helm Records, 3 February 2017).

The title of this latest is 'Nothin' Unexpected' and might sound almost underwhelming but that is quite deliberate too as the music is no such thing. The point here is that it is not flash or crass in any way at all. It is however very well done indeed - from the ten songs (nine originals and a cover of the Loudon Wainwright III song 'I Suppose'), to the instrumentation that accompanies them and the carefully balanced production values. It ticks boxes.

• I Hope You’re Unhappy
• Do You Realise That Now
• When The Loner Gets Lonely
• Neon Jail
• I Suppose
• Nothin’ Unexpected
• Haunts Like This
• Fifteen Years
• Slow Burner
• I Should’ve Closed The Book

It is certainly often wistful and resolutely stoical, especially about times spent alone and this applies as much to the honky-tonk influenced numbers as to the others; there's both a time and mood for that.  I happen to be listening sat in front of the fire on a dark and wet winter's evening but it would be just as good heard in the early hours around the dying embers of a summer campfire, with the last few burnt BBQ ribs and a beer to go with it.

One thing even better would be to see him play live, preferably in one of the old small-town bars that are mentioned in a couple of songs. Rather like this...

Ags Connolly, Saloon Bar stage, Truck Festival 2015.

Truck Festival 2015 - Part 5

One last post about Truck Festival 2015 and of course that will feature the Saloon Stage again. It was expertly curated by At The Helm Records on Friday and Clubhouse Records on Saturday except that they swapped one act each between the days.

The watching and the watched are not so far apart. About 10 seconds and 3 metres in this case.

Ags Connolly. His 2014 LP 'How About Now' is quite some statement of intent.

On Saturday the At The Helm act to play was Porchlight Smoker.

Porchlight Smoker's latest LP is 'Water Into Sand', released in January 2015.

If you have been wondering about the owners of the drum-kit that has appeared in several pictures, it of course belongs to The Rosellys but had seen service as-and-when-required on this stage. The Rosellys' forthcoming LP 'The Granary Sessions' will be their third but the first recorded with a full band and also their first for Clubhouse Records, to which they recently signed.

This is The Rosellys, live at Truck Festival 2015.

All of this is what makes the 'Saloon Stage' at Truck Festival unique.

It is time to start anticipating Cambridge Folk Festival now and that is something new for me. One big problem I have is that whenever I go to Cambridge it always rains and it is usually unseasonably cold.

Truck Festival 2015 - Part 4

This is no secret; I've been working up to it all week. The real reason that I go to Truck Festival time and again is the Saloon Bar stage. It is a microcosm of a festival in its own right; and all in a space of about 8 x 16 metres. This is what it looks like from outside.

That fuzzy blob is a rain drop on the lens filter, not some alien thing...

This is the view from the front porch, with the Market Stage on the left. Let's go inside.

You will find an audience of all ages and the music will be Americana or some such in its many guises.

I'm not sure what Paul McClure (who hails from the back-woods of Rutland) would make of this but, as previously at Truck, he was wonderful. He played solo and also played a few songs with band backing - mostly members of other acts performing that day.

This is very much a trend on this stage and is definitely to be applauded.

Don Gallardo does hail from the USA, and he has his latest and very arresting LP 'Hickory' in tow.

Don Gallardo and friends.  Just the drummer and bassist for company here. As it turned out that didn't last long...

In almost no time this swelled to six-piece backing. OMG this was good.

That folks is probably not even the half of the goodness on this little stage last weekend. You have been warned.

Truck Festival 2015 - Part 3

I wrote on Monday, in the first instalment, that I wasn't going to do this by stage. So far I haven't but now I shall. The "new stage" at Truck 2015 was the Palm City Stage but its greatest attraction was that from start until early evening on both days it was home to Gorwelion - Horizons, a joint project by The Arts Council and BBC6 Music, that seeks to promote music of all genres that comes from Wales. It is nothing specifically about traditional music, although that can of course be included, and although I didn't hear all of it the variety on offer was wide. I have a soft spot for music from Wales and therefore I have mentioned plenty of it over the years in these posts.
This first artist I mentioned recently and was therefore delighted to see that, when the line-up was revealed, she was part of it.

Hannah Grace, who hails from Cardiff.

Her powerful voice makes me think of North Wales' Casi Wyn, although the latter predominantly writes songs in Welsh. I'm not quite sure where she is with new music other than to say that she played the Gorwelion-Horizons stage at Brighton's Great Escape 2015 back in May.
This next artist, with his acoustic Americana, would not have been at all out of place at the nearby Saloon Bar stage (of which much more soon!).

Dan Bettridge, described here in the words of Gorwelion-Horizons.

These next two acts are as different to each other as they are to either of the aforementioned. That was the big appeal of this stage but also one that makes it difficult to write about. Saturday saw Haula perform a very well attended set, complete with enthusiastic audience participation. 

That is far from being something that can be taken for granted for it requires a almost indefinable empathy between artist and audience. Very well known artists can have epic fails with this kind of thing and yet she made it seem natural therefore oh-so-easy. Her heritage is Ugandan but Wales is now where she calls home.

Finally although it is actually from late Friday come the small, for it is a trio, but very determined crew of HMS Morris.

Heledd Watkins on guitar and lead vocals.

This is pop music, but not quite as you expected it. Another of the wonderful discoveries of last weekend. Some of this was sung in Welsh. 

The best discovery since the weekend is that Gwenno is indeed playing Green Man 2015. Result!

Truck Festival 2015 - Part 1

Since I got back from my fourth visit to Truck Festival yesterday I have been working through my thoughts and also the associated photographs.
Sometimes I tackle such things on a stage-by-stage basis or a chronological one, but this time I'm going to do it on an how-I-remember-it basis --- that is as a mixture of the different kinds of music I like all jumbled together. I did, however, start the way I always espouse, which is to see the opening act of the festival and also those on as many stages as possible.
That duty, for opening a festival is not easy, fell to Delora, an overtly cheerful indie-pop three-piece from London that is soon to release its first EP 'Superglue'.

Delora - Market Stage - Friday lunchtime

The strange colouring of this marquee always puts me in mind of that curious creation that is 'Neapolitan' ice cream (for those of a certain age in the UK at least). This kind of music is just the thing with which to start a festival in order to create the idea of a world-apart from the ordinary. The challenging stuff - full of contrasts - is best left until later.

Once I started writing [this post] I decided that it will have a theme of  a kind after all and that is of artists confirmed to release new LP/EPs shortly. The hardest thing is to actually start writing; thinking about it is very easy indeed.
The next is Delta Bell and an artist that I mentioned only recently. The début LP 'Bow Out Of The Fading Light' is released by At The Helm Records on 31 July. It is quite... well you'll just have to wait and see. Live she and her band, that includes pedal steel, were awesome.

Delta Bell - Saloon Bar stage - early Friday evening.

The final act in this, my opening salvo relating to Truck Festival 2015, is a duo pure and simple. So pure and simple that they only use one microphone, which is very old-time but it works wonderfully.

Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou - Virgins and Veterans stage - Saturday evening.

This is not the first time I have seen them live, not even the first time at a Truck Festival, but it was without doubt the most memorable by far. The new songs, and they played several, are memorable and the execution of all of it faultless. Their latest LP 'Expatriates' comes out late summer/early autumn. It is produced by Ethan Johns and to me that says a great deal.

Now it is time to think about 'Truck Festival 2015 - Part 2'.

New Music 2015 - Part 50 - The Delta Bell

Hot on the heels of my last post - I originally considered merely appending this to it, when I mentioned The Delta Bell.
I realised that this is worth far more than that. The current, limited release, 7" vinyl single 'Wasted' c/w 'The Back Of Your Mind' had already come to my attention. It is quite a long time since I have bought a newly released 7". It was just a case of waiting for one that I really wanted, I suppose. 'The Back Of Your Mind' does not appear on the forthcoming LP.

The label behind such releases is Random Acts Of Vinyl and this is RAOV013.

It is followed, on 31 July, by her début album 'Bow Out Of The Fading Light'.

Its beautiful pedal steel harmonies not withstanding, this is another astonishing example of where transatlanticism, at least in music, is at.  The Delta Bell is sometimes a solo act and at other times a five-piece with her band. Either way it is Kate Gerrard from Brighton. The album is released by At The Helm Records and this is the track list:

• Carry Us Home
• Phosphorus
• Wasted
• Of Mist
• Forever Yours
• Strings
• Every Tonight
• I've Seen The Way
• Lay Him Down
• Churches
• Until The Night

The Delta Bell plays The Great Western Saloon Bar at Truck Festival 2015.

New Music 2015 - Part 47 - Don Gallardo - Hickory

I can't promise that he is appearing here but unless I'm wrong he will be one of the artists at Truck Festival that I most look forward to seeing live.  This is the follow-up to 2012 LP 'Art of Troublesome Times'.

It was released in the UK by Clubhouse Records today.

It has its roots in Americana and indeed country but it spreads its wings rather more than that simplistic diagnosis might imply. I can see that having listened to it right through several times already, I'll be doing that plenty more over the coming weeks. I can honestly say that there isn't a track that I dislike on this - that there are keyboards and brass on some songs only shows evidence of a deft touch at work and are only there for the benefit that they bring at any particular moment.
As an interesting comparison I have also been listening to another album released today (in the UK by Sub Pop Records) and that is 'Carnation' and the latest release by Daughn Gibson; I have chosen to link the label's artist notes here quite deliberately. I haven't listened to the album or indeed his earlier ones enough as yet to venture more than to say that I rather like that which I have heard. There may well be more from me on this subject before too long.