Monthly Archives: August 2019

‘Jack Harris is a priest of song who holds himself to a rigorous, ancient code of beauty most of us have forgotten exists.’ Anais Mitchell / ‘[Elaine Palmer].. incredible songs that stand-up to repeated listenings’ ★★★★ MAVERICK MAGAZINE

The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS

£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.30 pm sharp.

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, and 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.

Originally hailing from the North Yorkshire Moors, singer-songwriter Elaine Palmer’s distinguished career has seen her share stages with Ryan Adams, KT Tunstall, Paolo Nutini, Joanna Newsom, Jessica Hoop and David Gray amongst many other distinguished artists. After seeing her in concert, Inspiral Carpets’ Clint Boon invited Elaine to record at his home studio, culminating in the recording of her debut album, Into the Spotlight. She has released a further three albums since to widespread press and radio acclaim, with her current album ‘Still Life’ reaching the Indie Top 10 and garnering extensive US and UK airplay

A night of lyricists, poets, songs and spoken word in the Harrison Basement.

The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS

£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
Doors open 7.30 pm. Event begins  8.00 pm sharp.

LUKE KENNARD is the author of numerous works of poetry and short fiction. His first collection of poems, The Solex Brothers, was published in 2005, and won him one of that year’s Eric Gregory Awards. His second collection, The Harbour Beyond the Movie, made him the youngest writer to be nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. He has since published two further full collections, and two pamphlets, one of which, The Necropolis Boat, was the Poetry Book Society’s Pamphlet Choice in 2012. In addition to poetry, he writes criticism, short fiction, and is currently working on his first novel. He currently teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham

LOUIS BRENNAN is a singer-songwriter in the folk tradition. His folk however are not 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 Magazine

RACHEL LONG is a writer, poet and spoken word artist from London. She has performed at the Royal Festival Hall and the Olympic Stadium. Published by Forward Poetry, The Emma Press and Goldfish Magazine, and has previously been commissioned by Apples and Snakes, SPOKE and Cape Farewell. Rachel is a member of the ‘Burn After Reading’ Collective, and is currently studying an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths University, London. Rachel was a Young Producer for both the Southbank Centre and the Poetry Society National Poetry Day Live 2014.

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. He plays solo this evening- you’ll also find him elsewhere alongside The Quivering Poets, his wonderful backing band with Basia Bartz, Pablo Campos, Pablo Yupton, Adam Beattie and Adria Faurra.

‘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

The Green Note
106 Parkway, Camden Town, NW1 7AN
Ph 020 7485 9899
10.00 adv BUY NOW  / 12.00 Door
Nearest tube Camden, 2 mins walk DIRECTIONS
Doors open 7.30 pm, music form 8.00 pm sharp. 

New Roots presents a very special one-off concert of pre-50s country blues and folk and other inspirations and influences from Jack Harris, a hugely respected figure on the UK roots scene. Expect Big Bill Broonzy to Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson to early Muddy Waters and much much more from this brilliant guitarist and singer-songwriter.

Jack Harris was a SXSW showcasing artist at 17, and 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.

“This is fantastic” John Kennedy, Radio X /.”Beautiful”  Shaun Keaveny, BBC 6 Music

The Green Note
106 Parkway, Camden Town, NW1 7AN
Ph 020 7485 9899
10.00 adv BUY NOW  / 12.00 Door
Nearest tube Camden, 2 mins walk DIRECTIONS
Doors open 7.30 pm, music form 8.00 pm sharp. 

New Roots presents… THE RAIL ABANDON and ISAAC BIRITURO, featuring Sonny Johns (bass) Isaac Birituro (xylophone) Raph Clarkson (trombone) Yolanda Eyama (vocals) Yuval Wetzler (drums) Moussa Dembele (balaphone).

The Rail Abandon is the musical (dis)guise of Sonny Johns, Grammy, MOBO and Mercury Prize nominated producer, engineer, musician. Grounded in the 1960s folk revival of John Martyn, Nick Drake and Fairport Convention, The Rail Abandon’s “Afrolktronica” incorporates influences of electronic music as well as the sound of West Africa – inspired by the musicians Sonny has worked with, including Ali Farke Toure, Fatoumata Diawara, Orchestra Baobab and Tony Allen.

In 2016 Sonny went to Ghana and met master xylophone player Isaac Birituro. After an instant music connection, they spent 3 days in a church making the basis of the album Kalba. Sonny then called upon musician friends, such as Polar Bear’s Seb Rochford, Leafcutter John and Mark Lockheart as well as Laura Jurd, Elliot Galvin and Samantha Whates, to produce “one of the most exciting things I’ve worked on in the 20 years of the label,” – Dom Servini, Wah Wah 45s.

The album is a collaboration between Ghanaian and UK songwriters, recorded by 28 musicians from around the world, a mixture of traditional Ghanaian xylophone music, British folk, Afrobeat, Highlife, electronica and a whole lot more. Incorporating new members on trombone/synth (Raph Clarkson), drums (Yuval Wetzler), vocalist Yolanda Eyama and master balaphone player Moussa Dembele, The Rail Abandon will be touring the music from Kalba as a six-piece recreating the sound of 28 musicians on the album.

★★★★  The Quietus / ★★★★ R2 / ‘Unique and brilliant…’ FATEA Magazine

The Slaughtered Lamb,
34-35 Great Sutton St, Clerkenwell, London EC1V 0DX
Ph: 020 7253 1516
10.00 adv BUY NOW / 12.00 door
Nearest tube Farringdon, 8 mins walk DIRECTIONS
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.15 pm sharp.

Riding high after the ground breaking folk opera ‘The Butcher’ ( ★★★★ The Quietus, ★★★★ R2 Magazine, ‘Album Of The Year’ Resonance.fm) Mosley’s plans for the follow up faltered when his personal life unexpectedly had to take priority for a year. Now he returns with his most personal and striking album to date – and what could have been a sad and contemplative album is in fact a life affirming kaleidoscope of joy and beauty!

This show is your one chance to hear these new songs live with the depth and resonance of the unique Red Meat Orchestra. Incorporating everything from strings and brass to bicycle wheels and cheese graters to accompany guest singers Jack Harris, Esther Dee, Catherine Earnshaw and Josienne Clarke this show promises to be a powerful and uplifting chance to see this ‘unique and brilliant’ (Fatea) artist at his best.

The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 7 mins walk DIRECTIONS

£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.

Sailing Stones’ (aka Jenny Lindfors) iminent debut album Polymnia is an honest exploration of learning to break free and let go existentially. Her husky vocals glide over the top of murky, layered synthesisers and softly rolling drums, each melody a guiding light puncturing through dusky fog. Contemporary touchpoints in Sailing Stones’ sound include Marissa Nadler, Weyes Blood and Julia Holter’s ‘Have You In My Wilderness’, with respectful backwards glances to Ry Cooder’s ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack that partly inspired her. The album also draws rich textures and production values from the late 1980s FM radio Lindfors listened to as a child.

Polymnia came together with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist TJ Allen (Bat For Lashes) on production and bass duties, Dan Moore (Moog Ensemble, Modulus III, Anna Calvi) on keys/ synths and Daisy Palmer (Mesadorm, Goldfrapp, Rae Morris) on drums and drum machines. Jake McCurchie and Pete Judge from Get The Blessing provided horn parts, and Drew Morgan (Modulus III) arranged strings on several songs.

Scottish singer-songwriter and Rough Trade Records recording artist Samantha Whates is a hugely respected figure on the London roots scene. Her beautifully crafted, poetic songs retain a strong affinity with her Scottish roots, cultivating a sound that is thoroughly contemporary, rooted in tradition, yet uniquely her own. She recently formed new Rough Trade Records signings Picapica with her long time friend and collaborator Josienne Clarke. Her debut album Dark Nights Make For Brighter Days has been enjoyed both critical acclaim and extensive radio play (BBC 6 Music, KCRW, Resonance FM).

The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS

£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.

Victoria Hume was born in Brighton, raised in Dorset, studied in Oxford and spent several years living and working in London before relocating to Johannesburg in 2014. She self-released her debut album Limbs & Digits in 2009 and its follow-up Landing in 2012, championed by Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music. In 2016 she signed with the hugely respected Lost Map records, home to the Pictish Trail and Rozi Plain, and recorded a session for Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music. Lauren Laverne picked her first EP with Lost Map, Closing, as one of her Best of 2016.

Victoria also writes about health and medicine, including pieces based on interviews and workshops with people with experience of hospital-induced delirium (Delirium parts I and II), voice-hearing (The Isle is full of Noises) and chronic respiratory disorders (Singing Hospital). These pieces have been performed at clinical conferences and music festivals in the UK and South Africa. She is releasing new music through Lost Map as a series of postcards in 2019.

A collaboration between Preetha Narayanan (violin) and Tara Franks (cello), string duo Balladeste explore the versatility and sound potential of just two stringed instruments. With elements of contemporary minimalism, Indian classical music and folk, the duo create original compositions that are vibrant and experimental yet melodic and cinematic in quality – songs without words with a contemporary alt-folk twist.

“gorgeous compositions and swooning melodies with warmth and fervour that demand attention” The Musician (Top Pick Album Spring 2018)

“Dazzling musicianship and transportive melodies. An utter privilege to have them on the show” The Nest Collective – Resonance FM

The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS

£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.30 pm sharp.

Sailing Stones’ (aka Jenny Lindfors) iminent debut album Polymnia is an honest exploration of learning to break free and let go existentially. Her husky vocals glide over the top of murky, layered synthesisers and softly rolling drums, each melody a guiding light puncturing through dusky fog. Contemporary touchpoints in Sailing Stones’ sound include Marissa Nadler, Weyes Blood and Julia Holter’s ‘Have You In My Wilderness’, with respectful backwards glances to Ry Cooder’s ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack that partly inspired her. The album also draws rich textures and production values from the late 1980s FM radio Lindfors listened to as a child.

Polymnia came together with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist TJ Allen (Bat For Lashes) on production and bass duties, Dan Moore (Moog Ensemble, Modulus III, Anna Calvi) on keys/ synths and Daisy Palmer (Mesadorm, Goldfrapp, Rae Morris) on drums and drum machines. Jake McCurchie and Pete Judge from Get The Blessing provided horn parts, and Drew Morgan (Modulus III) arranged strings on several songs.

Scottish singer-songwriter and Rough Trade Records recording artist Samantha Whates is a hugely respected figure on the London roots scene. Her beautifully crafted, poetic songs retain a strong affinity with her Scottish roots, cultivating a sound that is thoroughly contemporary, rooted in tradition, yet uniquely her own. She recently formed new Rough Trade Records signings PicaPica with her long time friend and collaborator Josienne Clarke. Her debut album Dark Nights Make For Brighter Days has been enjoyed both critical acclaim and extensive radio play (BBC 6 Music, KCRW, Resonance FM).

The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 7 mins walk DIRECTIONS

£8.50 adv BUY NOW / £10.00 door
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.

PLEASE NOTE WE ASK THAT YOU DO NOT USE CAMERAS AFTER THE FIRST TWO SONGS IN EACH SET AT THIS EVENT. 

Gus White offers something truly unique to the UK alt-folk and contemporary roots scene, combining his distinctive voice and considered songwriting approach with an accomplished guitar style that pays its respects to Nick Drake and John Martyn. With artfully observed lyrics, his distinctly English, pastoral sound is both timeless and resoundingly contemporary. Gus’s beautifully composed alt-folk songs are supported by fine close harmony accompaniment from singer Kristin McFadden, fleshed out by cello and clarinet. With five new tracks to be released across 2019 Gus White is very much one to watch for the future.

‘Warmly recommended for fans of Nick Drake, John Martyn… fresh minted for the 21st century’ – Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music

Laura Fell is a striking new voice in UK alt-folk, with a startling depth and a richly intense tone that instantly marks her out as one to watch. The unblinking honesty of her lyrics and unique vocal style is juxtaposed with lush, ambient beds of guitar, bass and drums, captivating and transporting the listener. Laura’s debut album is set for release in the summer of 2020, and she plays its songs tonight with a full 4-piece band.

______________________________________

New Roots is committed to promoting events that shine a light on up and coming talent in the UK alt-folk and contemporary roots 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/

“This is fantastic” John Kennedy, Radio X /  “Beautiful” Shaun Keaveny, BBC 6 Music / “A whole story in three minutes and a half” Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music

The Green Note
106 Parkway, Camden Town, NW1 7AN
Ph 020 7485 9899
10.00 adv BUY NOW  / 12.00 Door
Nearest tube Camden, 2 mins walk DIRECTIONS
Doors open 7.30 pm, music form 8.00 pm sharp. 

New Roots presents… THE RAIL ABANDON and ISAAC BIRITURO, featuring Sonny Johns (bass) Isaac Birituro (xylophone) Raph Clarkson (trombone) Yolanda Eyama (vocals) Yuval Wetzler (drums) Moussa Dembele (balaphone).

The Rail Abandon is the musical (dis)guise of Sonny Johns, Grammy, MOBO and Mercury nominated producer, engineer, musician. Grounded in the 1960s folk revival of John Martyn, Nick Drake and Fairport Convention, The Rail Abandon’s “Afrolktronica” incorporates influences of electronic music as well as the sound of West Africa – inspired by the musicians Sonny has worked with, including Ali Farke Toure, Fatoumata Diawara, Orchestra Baobab and Tony Allen.

In 2016 Sonny went to Ghana and met master xylophone player Isaac Birituro. After an instant music connection, they spent 3 days in a church making the basis of the album Kalba. Sonny then called upon musician friends, such as Polar Bear’s Seb Rochford, Leafcutter John and Mark Lockheart as well as Laura Jurd, Elliot Galvin and Samantha Whates, to produce “one of the most exciting things I’ve worked on in the 20 years of the label,” – Dom Servini, Wah Wah 45s.

The album is a collaboration between Ghanaian and UK songwriters, recorded by 28 musicians from around the world, a mixture of traditional Ghanaian xylophone music, British folk, Afrobeat, Highlife, electronica and a whole lot more.

Incorporating new members on trombone/synth (Raph Clarkson), drums (Yuval Wetzler), vocalist Yolanda Eyama and master balaphone player Moussa Dembele, The Rail Abandon will be touring the music from Kalba as a six-piece recreating the sound of 28 musicians on the album.

NEW ROOTS is committed to promoting events that shine a light on up and coming talent in the UK alt-folk and contemporary roots 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.