The Whiskey Priest – Wave And Cloud

The Whiskey Priest - Wave And Cloud

The Whiskey Priest is in fact Seth Austin, a singer songwriter with an impressive beard and a country outlook who makes his music in Austin, the San Francisco of Texas. As well as the beard, he has a fine moniker, culled from Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory (although the ‘e’ he adds to ‘whiskey’ brings in curious Irish overtones). His first album, begun in a church attic on a four-track, arrives weighed down by a high risk press release from record label, Rainboot.  It declares, “It’s probably fairly unusual that a record label can, with any real level of honesty at least, suggest that they’re about to release a truly ‘classic’ album – one that could actually affect its audience to the point where it deserves the tag ‘life-changing’ – but we have that record.” Support for your artists is laudable, but probably only Blood on the Tracks, Here Come the Warm Jets and Kimono My House could live up to a billing like that. Rainboot sets Wave and Cloud up to be sinus-clearingly, mind-warpingly good.  And although it’s not so bad, it falls some way short of the standards unhelpfully set by excitable marketing types. … Continue Reading

Jonah Maddox – Together We Are Taller

Jonah Maddox - Together We Are Taller

Oh deary dear. It seems Mumford & Sons have gone and upset a lot of people with their Mercury nomination. Though some saw the album as a whimsical folksy departure from the guitar-strewn indie that has dominated a large part of the awards of the last decade, some music purists (i.e. anyone with taste beyond pop laced with folk airs) saw Sigh No More as the equivalent of having a metal stake slowly worked into your temple – a situation not helped by the perpetual airtime ‘Little Lion Man’ still seems to get on 6Music. Unfortunately, it is this kind of divide that has split general opinion about the new era of folk. … Continue Reading

Laura Marling, London Palladium

Laura Marling

April 25, 2010

“Miss Laura’s coming and she’s going to knock your socks off” – that’s how Alessi of Alessi’s Ark introduces the headline act. And although the Royal Box at the Palladium is empty, in Laura Marling tonight we truly have a homecoming Queen. She even says herself how good it is to be back in her hometown after touring America and the UK. … Continue Reading

Beyond The Curve: April 4th, The Camden Head

Beyond The Curve

Beyond The Curve is coming up at London’s The Camden Head on April 4th, with a dashing bill of poetry, short film, theatre, live music, cabaret, spoken word and much more. You can monopolise on cheaper tickets by purchasing in advance, where we’re offering a special discount. Just visit Wegottickets’ Beyond The Curve page to purchase.

As a reminder, the bill has been put together by us and our good friends at Broken Glass and will preview the summer’s fringe festivals with a hand-picked programme starting at 3pm and taking its audience through until the early hours.

And what’s more: the day after is Bank Holiday Monday!

Tickets, once again are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/74842 … Continue Reading

The Tallest Man On Earth/Alessi’s Ark, London Bush Hall

March 15, 2010

A man and his guitar. A bearded man and his guitar. A Swedish bearded man and his guitar. A Swedish bearded man with a penchant for Bob Dylan and his guitar. A Swedish bearded man with a penchant for Bob Dylan and his guitar that I’m now head over heels in love with. The difference between all of its proceeding observations and the last one is its unlikeliness, in a world obliterated by folk musicians and their relative diluted incarnations. … Continue Reading

Next event: Muso’s Guide and Broken Glass present… Beyond The Curve

Together with the critically-acclaimed theatre company Broken Glass, we are bringing an all-day programme to The Camden Head (100 Camden High Street) on Sunday 4 April from 3pm, showcasing award-winning poetry, cutting-edge theatre, short film, found-sound DJing, dark theatre cabaret and acclaimed folk-noir.

The day’s hand-picked programme represents the shared ambition to bridge the gap between different types of performance and open up new audiences to an array of diverse talent.

It’s all at The Camden Head, Sunday April 4, from 3pm – late, and Beyond The Curve tickets can be bought from We Got Tickets for £8, or £6 if you’re quick enough. Here’s that link again: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/74842 … Continue Reading

Stornoway – Gateshead Sage

Stornoway

February 14th 2010

Presented by Twisted Folk, this tour juxtaposes the two very different entities of Beth Jeans Houghton and Stornoway. Although billed as headliners, it is the fine young gentlemen from Oxford that take to the Sage stage first and on whom we shall focus. The whole aura around Stornoway is carried in a very understated fashion, a minimalist approach signified by the apparent meekness of lead singer Brian Briggs. He ambles closer to the microphone in instalments before mustering a barely registering “hello”.

Once the band strike up, the facade of simplicity dissolves into the many layers of their thoughtfully constructed tunes. Each song is well-received by a crowd that needed some encouragement, even for a Sunday night outing, yet thankfully Stornoway’s charm does enough to win them over. It is plain that many are here to see them on the back of TV appearances on Jools Holland’s Later… alongside Jay-Z; Foo Fighters and Norah Jones, and a BBC Radio 1 session for Huw Stephens.

We manage to spot one lady in particular who seems to be growing in delirium as their set progresses, rocking backwards and forwards whilst clapping in a strangely afflicted manner, and can frequently be heard calling for various requests. Such fandom is something that is surely only to increase where Stornoway are concerned, with their debut album expected sometime later in 2010.

… Continue Reading

Adam Green – Minor Love

Adam Green - Minor Love

Adam Green is perhaps most famous for being the lead singer of anti-folk band, The Moldy Peaches, who are perhaps most famous for having a song in the hit film Juno. As a solo artist he has released five albums to modest critical and commercial success.

On sixth album Minor Love, Green doesn’t seem to have changed an awful lot since 2002. This is no bad thing. He sells his short and sweet indie-pop songs on his tender voice, which some people have described as an acquired taste. I don’t agree with this. There is something so classic and subtle about his vocal performance on this and all of his albums that I can’t help falling in love with his voice every time I hear it. … Continue Reading

Mumford and Sons – Winter Winds

Mumford and Sons

Mumford and Sons played a gig in New York a few months ago, at the legendary Mercury Lounge, as a warm up to their SXSW performances.  Foolishly, I didn’t go, despite all the hype I’d heard about them.

… Continue Reading

The Swell Season – Strict Joy

The Swell Season

In 2007 John Carney, armed with some handy cams and a fairly small budget, asked old band mate and The Frames front man Glen Hansard to contribute some songs to his independent Irish film called Once. The film at that time starred Cillian Murphy and a Czech musician called Marketa Irglova. After a few disputes, actor Cillian Murphy dropped out of the project and John Carney instead employed Glen Hansard to play the lead role.

… Continue Reading