‘UTTERLY COMPELLING’ NORTHERN SKY MAGAZINE ‘★★★★’ R2 MAGAZINE ‘★★★★★’ ROOTS MUSIC REPORT
£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
The Harrison, 28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF. Ph: 020 7278 3966
Doors open 7.30 pm. Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk.
Ma Polaine’s Great Decline play a highly potent mix of rhythm and blues and country soul with flavours of gypsy jazz, vaudeville and music hall, all performed with a focused intensity- think 40’s era Billie Holiday transplanted to Tom Waits ‘Sworfishtrombones’. Singer Beth Packer moves between double bass, accordion and harmonica, with partner Clinton Hough on electric or acoustic guitar (and an occasional percussive foot), all accompanying Packer’s extraordinary voice- at times powerful, poignant, sensitive and always deeply soulful.
★★★★★ ‘…the singer’s compelling and never overplayed delivery gives this set its sustained, just-under-the surface intensity’. Roots Music Report
★★★★ ‘….an intangible element peculiar to themselves’ R2 Magazine
‘The icing on the cake is their vocalist. Stunning singer Beth Packer is someone to get to know’ .8/10 Blues and Soul magazine
★★★★ ‘an utterly compelling soundscape’ Northern Sky Magazine
‘…like some new wonderful step in evolution, an album of great warmth and heroic concealment..the most complete and uniquely enjoyable [release] of the year so far‘. 9.5/10 Liverpool Sound And Vision
Jack Harris‘s songs take a compassionate look at things both common and uncommon, and see them differently. They are literate, curious, often in character, and always intriguing. His latest album, ‘The Wide Afternoon’, produced by UK folk giant Gerry Diver (Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp, Tom Robinson), was released in November 2016 to universal press acclaim. Jack was a SXSW showcasing artist at 17, as well as the youngest ever winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Award in 2005 (previous winners include Gillian Welch, Devon Sproule and Anais Mitchell). He has been the recipient of the PRS ATOM Award for new music creation, as well as an EFDSS creative bursary for songwriting.
‘Jack Harris is a priest of song who holds himself to a rigorous, ancient code of beauty most of us have forgotten exists.’ Anaïs Mitchell
‘A lyricist of great descriptive precision and a flair for revealing observation’ – Folk Radio UK
‘A unique lyrical mind’ – Q Magazine
‘A natural and captivating song writing talent, 5/5’ – The Telegraph
New Roots is committed to promoting events that shine a light on up and coming talent in the UK alt-folk scene. It’s committed to providing artists with an environment that is sympathetic to what they do, giving musicians the respect they and their music deserves – for this reason we ask for no talking and no use of mobile phones while artists are performing. Our music policy comes from the kitchen table, the roots of public performance- intimate, acoustic based, high quality musicianship with as little interference between performer and listener as possible.
Website: http://www.newrootsevents.com/
New Roots Radio: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNewRoots/
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