Monthly Archives: November 2018

New Roots presents THE NEW ROOTS SESSIONS, A series of Friday and Saturday night events at the Harrison in Kings Cross featuring three superb headline solo artists on a triple-bill. Fully seated, tickets limited to 40 only- advance purchase advised!

Venue: The Harrison

28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8JF, Ph  020 7278 3966

Doors open 7.30 pm, nearest tube Kings Cross, 6 mins walk.

£8.50 Adv BUY NOW  / £10.00 Door

Dublin troubadour Rob Corcoran has sailed the high seas of love, heartbreak and excess, and (so far) lives to tell through his gripping, visceral persona. His lyrically compelling, beautifully observed songs are drenched in Celtic soul, drawing from the same deep wells that serve Van Morrison, Mike Scott and Liam O’Maonlai so well. One of Corcoran’s recent compositions ‘Ringing That Bell’ is being performed by the legendary Christy Moore as part of his current touring set.

“I implore you check him out, don’t let me down… this guy is rather special.” Americana UK 9/10

“From the moment he steps on stage, Corcoran perspires authenticity in that fluent way that a hundred record execs have tried and failed to manufacture”. Anne Frankenstein: Jazz FM (UK)

Allison Sleator is a contemporary folk singer. Across her career she has performed and collaborated with many legendary figures in the Irish folk world , from Donal Lunny (Moving Hearts, Planxty, The Bothy Band), to songwriter Declan O’Rourke, and giants of Irish music The Chieftains amongst many more. In addition, she has spent the last three years exploring South American folklore and music, and currently blends strands of contemporary songwriting, traditional folk and Peruvian musical magic into her set. She is a strikingly unique artist with a singular vision, a true musical original – definitely not to be missed.

London based Dubliner Louis Brennan is a singer-songwriter in the folk tradition. His folk however aren’t the field hands and travelling minstrels of yore but the repressed middle managers and ennui-ridden urbanites of late stage capitalism. They populate tales of bad sex, half-drunk commutes and interpersonal claustrophobia delivered in Brennan’s cracked baritone, at times intensely intimate, at times broad, peppered with pitch-black humour.

“A master storyteller with a voice like rolling thunder” GQ

“His ability to twist and turn a simple phrase can render the most innocent line into something utterly heartbreaking” CLASH

fRoots Album of the Year Winners 2016, Editor’s Choice.

Venue: The Green Note, Camden NW1 7AN Ph 020 7485 9899

Doors open 7.00 pm, nearest tube Camden, three mins walk.

Tickets £10.00 adv  BUY NOW / £12.00 door

New Roots presents… fRoots Album Of The Year Editors Choice winners and Folk By The Oak stars Alden Patterson & Dashwood.

Taking inspiration from the twin pillars of American bluegrass and English folk, Alden Patterson & Dashwood weave rich harmonies with fiddle, dobro and mandolin around a combination of finely crafted original compositions and traditional songs, all the while maintaining a thoroughly contemporary cutting edge. Their debut album, Call Me Home, was fRoots 2016 Album of the Year Editor’s Choice – the album is a joy to behold, as was their debut performance at the prestigious Folk by the Oak Festival in the summer of 2018. No museum pieces, A P & D feel equally at home alongside the likes of Fleet Foxes and Old Crow Medicine Show as they do the stalwarts of US & UK trad folk. The trio features members of much respected Norwich folk bands Murphy’s Lore, Woodland Creatures and Dumbfoundus.

The band are currently on a UK tour supporting Show of Hands.

“When we saw this Folk / Americana trio live we were completely captivated, and knew we had to bring them to Folk by the Oak and share them with our audience” Adam Slough – Folk By The Oak Festival Director

“Haunting and enigmatic” (The Times) / “Grace, skill and emotional intensity few singers can match” (Sabrinaflu Folk Magazine)

Venue: The Harrison

28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8JF, Ph  020 7278 3966

Doors open 7.30 pm, nearest tube Kings Cross, 6 mins walk.

£7.00 Adv  BUY NOW / £8.50 Door

With her extraordinary voice and strong Russian and Ingush heritage, Daria Kulesh has been making a name for herself as a bold, exotic, impressive performer. Mixing her Eastern roots with Western folk influences, she creates a sound full of passion and magic. Her recently released second album Long Lost Home has enjoyed rave reviews, national radio play and multiple awards in the UK and Russia, including LCM Album of the Year.

“One of the most refined and enjoyable voices around” (Folk All)

“Haunting and enigmatic” (The Times)

“Grace, skill and emotional intensity few singers can match” (Sabrinaflu Folk Magazine)

“One of the most beautiful new songs of the last 10 years” (The Mike Harding Folk Show)

“So vibrant… makes one feel glad to be alive” (Art of Jazz)

Marina Starastsenkava Osman, originally from Belarus, is a graduate of Belarussian State Conservatoire. An accomplished performer as well as teacher, she was awarded a badge “For contribution to the cultural evolution of Belarus” by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus in 2008. In 2007, she was a judging panel member at International Chamber Ensembles Competition ‘Nova music’ in Latvia. She has also performed in Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Russia,and has recorded several programmes for Russian music Radio ‘Orpheus’ and Russian national TV with the classical music expert Mikhail Kazinik. Since 2011, Marina has been based in London.

‘Extraordinary’ Mojo Magazine.  ‘Exquisite” The Observer. ‘Josienne Clarke sings like a haunted angel’ The Financial Times. BBC Folk Award Winner 2015 / BBC Folk Award Nominee 2017

Venue: The Green Note, Camden NW1 7AN Ph 020 7485 9899

Doors open 7.00 pm, nearest tube Camden, three mins walk.

Tickets £10.00 adv  BUY NOW / £12.00 door

When Josienne Clarke signed to the illustrious Rough Trade Records, its founder Geoff Travis told The Guardian that she writes, “songs that rearrange your internal emotional landscape… reinventing the popular song structure.” With a rare gift for poetic melancholy, the songs Josienne has recorded with the guitarist Ben Walker have also been described as “extraordinary” (Mojo), “gently exquisite” (The Observer) and “full of depth” (The Telegraph). In 2016 American Songwriter magazine named Josienne Clarke one of the best songwriters of the year.

Having been bowled over by Clarke & Walker’s live performance at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where the artists won the Best Duo prize, 6 Music presenter Cerys Matthews invited Josienne to act and sing in The National Theatre’s revival of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s ‘Our Country’s Good’. In addition to performing on the Olivier stage each night – in a role specially created for her – Clarke contributed two of her own songs to the play. In their review of the acclaimed production, The Financial Times said, “Josienne Clarke sings like a haunted angel.” It became the start of several ongoing theatrical collaborations to be staged in the near future.

With an elegant, nuanced and emotionally affecting singing style (Cerys Matthews described her as having ‘a voice that can trickle back over centuries”) she has frequently been compared to the great Sandy Denny, but present too are elements of Nina Simone and Gillian Welch; all three are important influences on her work.

With new records from Clarke & Walker on the way, new recordings from her Rough Trade-signed four piece project PicaPica, featuring Samantha Whates, Adam Beattie, and Grammy nominee Sonny Johns, and the confident beginnings of an exciting solo career, Josienne Clarke continues to be one of the most impressive, accomplished and downright heart-breaking singers, lyricists and composers of her generation.

Growing up in a small village in Wiltshire, Gus White began his career as a choir boy, discovering his passion for music at an early age. He studied Sonic Arts at Queen’s University Belfast and Popular Music at Goldsmiths University of London. He has been greatly influenced by folk artists such as Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, and by the countryside in which he grew up, contributing to his particularly English and pastoral sound

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: www.newrootsevents.com
New Roots Radio: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNewRoots/

Venue: The Green Note, Camden NW1 7AN Ph 020 7485 9899

Doors open 7.00 pm, nearest tube Camden, three mins walk.

Tickets £10.00 adv  BUY NOW / £12.00 door

Kat Drake‘s richly varied career has taken her to the stages of The Union Chapel, Glastonbury Festival and Secret Garden Party, amongst many others. Spanning a huge range of roots music, her recordings include a jazz album with Richard Hewson of the Rah Band, collaborations with Palestinian classical musicians in the West Bank, and singing with a live samba band in Argentina.

“The River Dart EP”, her first solo release, is a collection of songs that speak of her experiences of growing up in a big city, surviving the pain of heartbreak and loss, as well as her deep connection with nature. Rooted in traditional English folk music, with broader influence from the likes of Eva Cassidy to Joni Mitchell in the mix, it is the product of Drake’s longstanding collaboration with producer Stevan Krakovic and Tom Mansi & the Icebreakers.

Tom Mansi & The Icebreakers have spent the last 10 years honing their sound, playing countless shows across the UK and Europe. All three members are respected musicians in their own right, their careers ranging from collaborative work with legendary film director David Lynch to the British musical icon Donovan, and extensive time spent in the vibrant British Burlesque and alternative Cabaret scene. It is from these experiences that the band have forged their unique sound, channeling in equal measure the rock’n’roll spirit of Sam Phillips’ Sun, the electric blues of Howlin’ Wolf, the bass heavy jazz attitude of Charles Mingus, the noir themes of Tom Waits, and the electric energy of Captain Beefheart.

The three piece have performed at many of the best venues and festivals across the UK and Europe including Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, The Big Chill, The Scala and Hammersmith Palais, and have sheared the stage with Son of Dave, Imelda May, Florence & The Machine, The Sadies, Fat Freddie’s Drop and countless more across their career to date.

Gabriel Moreno is joined by Adam Beattie for an evening of solo and collaborative performance.

Venue: The Harrison

28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8JF, Ph  020 7278 3966

Doors open 7.30 pm, nearest tube Kings Cross, 6 mins walk.

£7.00 Adv BUY NOW / £8.50 Door

Gabriel Moreno is a Gibraltarian poet and singer songwriter who has been performing for the past 20 years in Gibrlatar, Peru, Italy, Spain, USA and the United Kingdom. His folk songs are both poetic and political, mining the same rich seams as Leonard Cohen, Fabrizio D’Andre and Georges Brassens. In 2015 he joined up with The Quivering Poets, Basha Bartz, Pablo Campos, Pablo Yupton, Adam Beattie and Sergio Contreras to create a wonderful new alt-folk band that push his poetry and song to new musical territories. Gabriel also hosts the legendary folk institution ‘The Lantern Society’, running for the last ten years at London’s Betsey Trotwood venue.

Scottish singer-songwriter Adam Beattie has released four albums of his own songs. Having roots in Scottish folk music, as well as a lifelong interest in old time jazz, blues and other folk styles, his genre-spanning music is tied together by his warmly soulful, distinctive voice and poetically narrative lyrics. A consumate performer, Beattie’s shows are as captivating with voice and guitar as they are in full band incarnation. He has performed to audiences across the UK and Europe alongside musicians such as the legendary Bert Jansch, Jolie Holland and Sean Hayes as well as collaborating on guitar and bass with Brooke Sharkey, Scott Hirsch and Michael Chapman. In addition, Beattie is part of 12-piece folk supergroup Band of Burns, contributing interpretations of Robert Burns songs as well as original compositions. In 2018 Band of Burns headlined London’s Union Chapel and played Celtic Connections in Glasgow on Burns Night at The Old Fruitmarket as part of their UK tour. Adam is currently working on a new album of original songs.

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: www.newrootsevents.com
New Roots Radio: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNewRoots/

‘[Mesadorm’s] Heterogaster is the best album of 2018 so far….quite remarkable’ – Rich Pitt, BBC Introducing

Venue:The Sewbright Arms

34 Coate St, London E2 9AG, Ph:020 7729 0937

Doors open 7.00 pm, nearest tube Bethnal Green, 10 mins walk.

£8.50 Adv BUY NOW / £10.00 Door

5-piece Bristol band Mesadorm is the collaborative project between Blythe Pepino (Vaults), Aaron Zahl, Daisy Palmer (Paloma Faith, Goldfrapp, MIKA), Jo Silverston (The Unthanks, Red Clay Halo, Frank Turner) and David Johnston (ZunZun Egui, Phil King, Chairfight!).

After a period testing the mainstream stage with a major record deal as part of London Art Pop trio Vaults, Blythe Pepino has moved back to her roots as a leftfield rock and electronica songwriter. Pulling on wide strands of influence, from the contemporary electronic sounds of Caribou, Grizzly Bear and Sylvan Esso, to the late 60s and early 70s folk and pop giants Carole King, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, the songs on Mesadorm’s brilliant debut album ‘Heterogaster’ are based around ideas of family, sex, trust and disconnection, and come drenched in rich vocal harmonies and beautifully layered textures. With critical acclaim from key tastemakers Lauren Laverne (BBC 6 Music), Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1) and Jon Kennedy (X FM), and the combined talents of superb musicianship married to startlingly original songwriting, all delivered with Pepino’s stunningly emotive voice, Mesadorm look set to deliver on the biggest stages in 2019.

‘I’m absolutely addicted….really affecting and beautiful. One of my favourite tracks at the moment – I’m very excited to to hear more of them in 2018’ – Lauren Laverne BBC 6 Music

‘I love [it]… a beautiful record’ – Huw Stephens, BBC Radio 1

‘..absolutely fantastic!’ – John Kennedy, Radio X

‘..the best we’ve played on the show in 2018’ Sam Bonham, BBC Introducing

‘Melodies that originate in the left field… soothing, genuine, and perplexing… a real jewel’ – Clash Magazine

‘..sublime… we’re enthralled by Blythe’s words and Mesadorm’s intense sounds’ – Get In Her Ears

‘Mesadorm have that uncanny ability to find that perfect line between pop and experimentation. They achieve a rare and colourful psychedelic minimalism that is strikingly engaging’ – Folk Radio UK

George Boomsma is a progressive folk musician from Northallerton, North Yorkshire. George’s effortless vocals and sensitive guitar playing evoke an intimate atmosphere that silences even the rowdiest of crowds. He has supported artists such as ‘Natty’, ‘The Travelling Band’ and ‘Skinny Lister’, been played on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6 Music and performed at Latitude Festival 2016 on the BBC Introducing stage.

Venue: The Harrison

28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8JF, Ph  020 7278 3966

Doors open 7.30 pm, nearest tube Kings Cross, 6 mins walk.

£7.00 Adv BUY NOW / £8.50 Door

New Roots presents a superb alternative folk double bill, Gus White (full band) & Laura Frances Itrio). Doors open 7.30 pm, music from 8.00 pm. Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk.

Growing up in a small village in Wiltshire, Gus White began his career as a choir boy, discovering his passion for music at an early age. He studied Sonic Arts at Queen’s University Belfast and Popular Music at Goldsmiths University of London. He has been greatly influenced by folk artists such as Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, and by the countryside in which he grew up, contributing to his particularly English and pastoral sound.

Laura Frances is a haunting new voice in UK alt-folk, with a startling depth and a richly intense tone that instantly marks her out as one to watch, a unique new addition to the folk world . A dark, contralto Joni Mitchell, her songs are delivered with a refreshing brevity, wrapped in a cloak of misty melodies from a world rich in mystical imagery, where everything is half-hidden. She plays tonight with trio accompaniment.

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: www.newrootsevents.com
New Roots Radio: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNewRoots/

Special Christmas 2 set performance!

Venue: The Harrison

28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8JF, Ph  020 7278 3966

Doors open 7.30 pm, nearest tube Kings Cross, 6 mins walk.

£8.50 Adv BUY NOW / £10.00 Door

New Roots presents Whiskey Moonface at The Harrison. The band will play two sets with a thirty minute interval inbetween. Doors open 7.30 pm, music from 8.00 pm.

To describe Whiskey Moonface as an alternative folk group doesn’t even begin to do justice to the breadth of inspiration and style in their music. Based around double bass, accordian, and clarinet, they’re led by the superb vocals and hallucinatory lyrics of singer Louisa Jones. Capable of being both ear-to-ear-grinningly entertaining and profoundly moving, they combine elements of Eastern European traditional & klezmer music, old-time New Orleans jazz and the baroque/ chamber folk styles of Sufjan Stevens and Beirut with their own unique take on contemporary folk music to make for a superbly realised, truly beautiful, and utterly original sound. There is simply no-one in the UK making music like Whiskey Moonface.

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: www.newrootsevents.com
New Roots Radio: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNewRoots/

RW Hedges album ‘The Hunters In The Snow is a magical collection’ ★★★★★ Shindig Magazine

Venue: The Harrison

28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8JF, Ph  020 7278 3966

Doors open 7.30 pm, nearest tube Kings Cross, 6 mins walk.

£7.00 Adv BUY NOW / £8.50 Door

RW Hedges and Luca Nieri play highlights of their recent Hunters in the Snow album, interspersed with new material. Strong narrative themes and a fine crafted songwriting style pays respect to the days of Tin Pan Alley and the 50’s ballad form, with the duo spreading their foundations to include the sixties giants of folk and pop – expect Dylan and the Sherman brothers meet the Fleetwoods.

“The Hunters In The Snow is a magical collection” ★★★★★ Shindig Magazine

Nick Ellis is dedicated to the concept of song and melody. Some call it folk, some call it old fashioned song craft. Currently based in Liverpool, Ellis blends streetscape narrative-noir with a classic British acoustic approach. Using a blend of rhythmic attack and sharp finger-style, his sound has been described as a conversation between Elvis Costello and John Martyn.