Monthly Archives: February 2020

‘A master storyteller with a voice like rolling thunder’ – GQ Magazine / ‘His ability to twist and turn a simple phrase can render the most innocent line into something utterly heartbreaking’ – Clash Magazine

 

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.

 

 

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 Brennans cracked baritone, at times embarrassingly intimate, at times spuriously broad, peppered with pitch-black humour.

His debut album Dead Capital was recorded at Berlin’s Candybomber Studio, located in the now-defunct Tempelhof Airport. Produced alongside acclaimed Irish songwriter A.S. Fanning and legendary engineer Into Krauss, whose credits run from noise-merchants Einsturzende Neubauten to tango pioneer Astor Piazolla, Dead Capital brings together a body of work shaped through dozens of live shows in London and further afield. It was released to critical acclaim in February 2018 with For Folks Sake remarking ‘Dead Capital is an overwhelmingly beautiful album forged from hopelessness’. He plays this evening accompanied by a full band of drums, bass, pedal steel, guitar and keys.

 

‘A master storyteller with a voice like rolling thunder’ – GQ Magazine

‘His ability to twist and turn a simple phrase can render the most innocent line into something utterly heartbreaking’ – Clash Magazine

‘Someone capable of turning the bleak into beautiful and relatable’ – Gigwise

‘His wry tales manage to make that which is moribund sound full of life’ – R2

 

 

‘Beth has a voice of rare beauty; dynamic, vibrant, sultry and, at times, pulsating”…” The Outsider is an album to be relished, the aural delights proffered are plentiful and compelling, with a mark of individuality that is refreshing” FATEA MAGAZINE / “haunting and compelling” BLUES IN BRITAIN

 

The Betsey Trotwood, (Upstairs Venue)
56 Farringdon Rd, Farringdon, London EC1R 3BL
Ph: 020 7253 4285
10.00 adv BUY NOW / 12.00 door
Nearest tube Farringdon, 5 mins walk
Doors open 7.30 pm. Music from 8.15 pm sharp.

 

 

New Roots presents Ma Polaine’s Great Decline at the Betsey Trotwood (upstairs venue). The band will play two sets, with a 30 minute interval.

Described as “like a young Billie Holiday gate-crashing a Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones recording session”, or “a moody Mary Margaret O’Hara” (fRoots Magazine), blues and roots duo Ma Polaine’s Great Decline continue to build a reputation as an intriguing and startlingly original act. From the very beginning Beth Packer and Clinton Hough sought to keep their song-writing influences open, and have cultivated a sound rich with otherworldly oddness, sparsity and a subtle quality that is uniquely their own.

Their most recent album, 2018’s ‘The Outsider’, has had wide-spread radio play, including notable outings on Tom Robinson’s BBC 6 show, Verity Sharp’s Late Junction on BBC Radio 2 & 3, and was the subject of a feature on the band in the hugely respected fRoots magazine..

2016’s EP release Small Town Talk gained rave media reviews, building on 2015’s nomination as an emerging artist in the British Blues Awards for the album “Got Me Out Of Hell”. The album also won the duo a Reveal Records ‘Emerging Act’ competition, and earned an international song-writing semi-final spot for their song ‘Suffer It Well’ from their 2013 EP of the same name.

Throughout 2019 & 2020 Ma Polaine’s Great Decline have toured the country, taking in the best of the UK’s folk & roots venues, and have enjoyed a busy festival season, including shows at the prestigious Green Man and Purbeck Valley Folk Festivals.

“…a record of profound maturity”…” Beth has a voice of rare beauty; dynamic, vibrant, sultry and, at times, pulsating”…” The Outsider is an album to be relished, the aural delights proffered are plentiful and compelling, with a mark of individuality that is refreshing” FATEA MAGAZINE

“haunting and compelling” BLUES IN BRITAIN

“The Outsider is a series of continuing brilliance to which cannot be contained or pigeon holed”. LIVERPOOL SOUND & VISION

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 8.15 pm sharp.

 

 

Sincere Deceivers are Matt Glover (vocals, acoustic guitar), Tim Davies (electric guitar, vocals), and Dom Main (cello, vocals). A long way from the rolling hills of home, the Yorkshire natives have developed a folk driven sound, rooted in the storytelling tradition, drawing on a variety of contemporary influences. In 2015 they released their first EP, Autumnal Dreams, launching it at St Pancras Old Church, and followed it with notable shows for Songwriting Magazine, Sofar Sounds and Folkroom Records. In 2019 Sincere Deceivers released two singles, ‘Gladness’ and ‘Hot Handed’. Their music has been described by Tom Robinson (BBC Radio 6) as displaying“perfect poise [and] understated intelligence”, and has received local and national airplay, including support from BBC 6 Music .

 

 

 

 

Two compelling musicians drawn together by an expansive approach to song and interpretation, guitar-vocal duo James Kitchman (UK) and Sylvia Schmidt (DE) share an affinity for the Anglo-American folk songs of the Appalachian mountains. The debut album ‘As Long As Songbirds Sing’ is due for release in June 2020, and includes the track ‘I Wonder As I Wander’ which was selected by BBC Radio 3 to be aired on the Christmas eve ‘Breakfast Show’, 2019.