Great new gigs on the way! Weds 18 Sept to Thurs 26 Sept- tickets, details, videos…
Hiya folks – here’s what we’ve got coming up over the next fortnight! There’s something for everyone here- contemporary classical and chamber folk from Balladeste and Victoria Hume at The Harrison on Sept 18th, blistering Americana from Smith & Brewer at the Green Note on Thurs 19th, cutting-edge new English folk from Bird In The Belly at The Harrison on Sat 20th, spoken word and first class songwriting from poets Luke Kennard and Rachel Long and musicians/ lyricists Gabriel Moreno and Louis Brennan at The Harrison on Sunday the 21st, raw roots rock’n’roll from Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations at The Slaughtered Lamb on Tues the 24th, and we wind it all up with a brand new night, The New Roots Boutique, at The Betsey Trotwood on Thursday the 26th, featuring Forty Elephant Gang, Fairhazel, and We Are All Fossils. Phew….All details, youtube videos, and ticket links below, dive in!
Visit the New Roots website for all Sept/ Oct/ Nov dates: www.newrootsevents.com
Listen to New Roots Radio: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNewRoots/
Weds 18 Sept: DOUBLE BILL Balladeste/ Victoria Hume
The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
8.50 adv BUY NOW / 10.00 door
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS
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 Maprecords, 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 in their explorations of territory similarly traversed by Phillip Glass and Steve Reich, 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 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
Thurs 19 Sept: Smith & Brewer
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 7.00 pm, music from 8.15 pm sharp.
Taking influence from the The Everly Brothers to Simon & Garfunkel, John Martyn to the countrified Grateful Dead, Smith & Brewer combine classic close harmony style with superbly honed songwriting craft and stunningly virtuosic guitar playing to produce a brilliantly accessible roots sound.
‘Jaw-dropping!’ Americana UK
‘Two beautifully blended voices…a modern-day Simon & Garfunkel’. Fatea Magazine
Ben Smith and Jimmy Brewer met at an event organised by Joan Armatrading for the acts she had chosen to support her on her 2015 tour. Although they originally planned to just write together, they soon realised that their playing styles and voices complemented each other and they started playing together after their inaugural gig supporting Joan Armatrading in front of a thousand-strong crowd.
Since then, they have played together all over the UK, notably as the support act to 10cc and Ralph McTell on their 2018 U.K tours, at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2018, the 2018 Cambridge Folk Festival and the UK Americana Awards Showcase in 2017 and 2019, as well as at theAmericanaFest in Nashville in 2017. They also contributed backing vocals to Ralph McTell’s most recent album, which was produced by Tony Visconti.
Fri 20 Sept: Bird In The Belly with support from Marissa Jack ‘n’ Davy
The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
8.50 adv BUY NOW / 10.00 door
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.
Bird in the Belly are a Brighton-based folk group consisting of folk-duo Hickory Signals (Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti), alt-folk singer-songwriter Jinnwoo (Ben Webb, Green Ribbons), and multi-instrumentalist and producer Tom Pryor. Together they have collected little known and forgotten lyrics, poems and stories from around the UK, and set them to their own “hypnotically original compositions” (fRoots).
Their sound is raw and bare-boned with “distinctively contemporary and earthy vocalising” (R2 Magazine) – and harks back to the 1960’s Folk Revival sound. Their debut album ‘The Crowing’ (March 2018, GF*M Records) was met with critical acclaim across the board from fRoots, R2, Songlines, Louder Than War, Northern Sky, Folk Radio UK, in addition to the Sunday Express giving the album a maximum 5 stars and hailing it Folk Album of the Year. The group are now gearing up to release their much anticipated second album “Neighbours and Sisters” (set for release in October) – they are performing the new album in full for the first time exclusively for The Harrison.
MarisaJack&Davy’s unconventional interpretation of traditional English folk song is shaped by the harmonic blend of their three unique voices, acoustic guitar styles and their musical backgrounds. Marisa Straccia is an illustrator and plaintive finger picking guitarist, Davy Willis a singer and artist from Tonbridge via L.A. and Jack Sharp is best known as singer for psych rock band Wolf People. Through their Mill Race Folk club they have shared the stage with Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick and The Askew Sisters.
Sat 21 Sept: BACK TO THE MACHINE GUN: Luke Kennard / Louis Brennan / Rachel Long / Gabriel Moreno
The Harrison,
28 Harrison Street, Kings Cross, WC1H 8JF.
Ph: 020 7278 3966
8.50 adv BUY NOW / 10.00 door
Nearest tube Kings Cross, 5 mins walk DIRECTIONS
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.
New Roots presents a special event in celebration of the word. Four artists, two poets and two singer-songwriters with a gift for narrative, come together to share the stage. Back To The Machine Gun is named in honour of the Bukowski poem, and the Bukowski spirit.
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 is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.
Dublin-born musician Louis Brennan is a singer-songwriter in the folk tradition. His folk however arent 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 Brennans 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 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.
Tues 24 Sept: Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations ‘The Discredited Language of Angels’ Album Launch
The Slaughtered Lamb
34-35 Great Sutton St, Clerkenwell, EC1V 0DX.
Ph: 020 7253 1516
8.50 adv BUY NOW / 10.00 door
Nearest tube Farringdon, 8 mins walk
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.
Special Guest Support Chris Brambley
Fresh off the back of their tour with Edwyn Collins, and just announced as guest support on The Libertines upcoming UK tour, Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations are celebrating the release of their debut album ‘The Discredited Language of Angels’, produced by Sean Read (Dexys Midnight Runners/ Beth Orton/ Chrissie Hynde) and recorded in part at Edwyn Collins’ Clashnarrow studio in Helmsdale.
Gabi Garbutt’s music combines a poetic edge with a visceral energy, inspired by the lyrical rock’n’roll of cultural giants Patti Smith and The Clash, and the speedy, multi-layered drive of Northern Soul. Her expressive, captivating performances are backed by the pulsating electric sounds and sweet harmonies of her band, The Illuminations.
Thurs 26 Sept Sept: THE NEW ROOTS BOUTIQUE – Forty Elephant Gang / Fairhaszel / We Are All Fossils
The Betsey Trotwood, (Upstairs Venue)
56 Farringdon Rd, Farringdon, London EC1R 3BL
Ph: 020 7253 4285
7.00 adv BUY NOW / 8.50 door
Nearest tube Farringdon, 5 mins walk
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.00 pm sharp.
New Roots presents THE NEW ROOTS BOUTIQUE, a brand new night upstairs in the legendary Betsey Trotwood celebrating the very best in new and upcoming contemporary roots and alt-folk artists and bands. With three acts on one superb triple bill, we ask that all attending stay for the full line-up – the ethos of the night is to introduce musicians and artists to each other’s audience , and to introduce the audience to great new artists. We’ll also be asking for no talking during performances, and for social media devices to be switched off so the music gets the full attention it deserves!
Blending genres from folk, acoustic, Americana, bluegrass, rock and pop, and tipping the cap to greats like Dylan, The Beatles, Radiohead, Punch Brothers et al, Forty Elephant Gang have been forging their own unique sound in the rich and diverse fields of the London roots, alt-folk and indie folk scene .The innovative guitar, bass and mandolin wielding four piece from East London come from diverse musical backgrounds, fusing their collective musical experiences and influences to create a joyously original and wonderfully accessible sound.
Fairhazel is the moniker for the hugely exciting young artist Hugh Macdonald. Despite his tender age he has been releasing music for several years under his own name, performing at TEDx, Ronnie Scott’s, Sofar, and countless gigs across the US and the UK. A citizen of the world, Hugh grew up in Paris and Cape Town, going on to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. There he experienced a whole new culture and with it experiences that would inspire a new sound-world for him; contemporary roots music drawing lyrical and melodic influence from jazz and psychedelia, rooted in a raw acoustic aesthetic. Equally arresting in solo or ensmble form, tonight Fairhazel play as a trio.
South African born singer songwriter Jakob Deist Oelofse, inspired by the likes of Gregory Alan Isakov, Nathaniel Rateliff, Damien Rice, and Sufjan Stevens, formed trio We Are All Fossils in London, releasing the act’s first 6 track EP, ‘Aether’ in 2015. Soon after they released ‘Songs For Strangers’, a unique concept whereby anyone could anonymously send in a story (fiction, non fiction, or unspecified) to inspire a song- out of these connections 8 tracks were created. June 2018 saw the release of the band’s debut long player, ‘The Optomist’. Expectly beautifully crafted songs supported by gorgeous harmonies and sharply observed lyrics.
That’s all from New Roots for now– if there’s anything more you’d like to know please drop me an email to newrootsevents@gmail.com. Cheers! Rory.
New Roots 