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.

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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.

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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.

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Megafaun – Gather, Form and Fly

Megafaun - Gather, Form and Fly

Someone nearby is chopping onions which is causing my tear ducts to prickle, though I suppose this might have been caused by Megafaun’s ‘The Fade’, a song which deals with the tragedy of forgetting the face of a deceased family member (the Cook brother’s Granddad in this case). As a macho Muso’s man, I’m sticking with the onions excuse.

Gather, Form and Fly is perfectly book ended by the welcoming hug of ‘Bella Marie’, a short intro of gently plucked guitar and sweet strings and ‘Tides’, a sparse, hushed lullaby goodbye. In between, Megafaun treat the listener to a tapestry of traditional Americana, centered around folk but doffing the cap to country, blues, jazz, pop and rock. It’s a rich, intriguing and diverse album where radio friendly soft rock like ‘The Fade’ sits comfortably next to the ever metamorphosing, semi instrumental, ‘Impressions of the Past’.

There is a touch of past band mate Justin Vernon in ‘Kaufman’s Ballad’, a harmony drenched, banjo backed, campfire bedtime jam but elsewhere, the Megafaun trio never step on Bon Iver’s toes and I only really mention the name in the hope of bringing extra deserved attention to this album. … Continue Reading

Peggy Seeger/Norma & Mike Waterson/Martin Carthy, London Blackheath Halls

Peggy Seeger

November 13, 2009

The support act outshines the star here so completely that this is a gig of two halves.

Reclusive Mike Waterson’s rare appearance, in baggy jumper and cloth cap, holds us spellbound with ballads, tales and rhymes of fishing and dockers and lads loving lasses. Martin and Norma (his sister and brother-in-law) chime in with ancient and modern folk. They sing sad songs to remember their dead sister Lal, the troubled singer- songwriter. Norma sings a calypso from Montserrat, where the black slaves rejoice when their sister dies but sing dirges whenever another new baby is born into bondage. … Continue Reading

Rain Machine – Rain Machine

Rain Machine

Since his band (TV On The Radio, if you didn’t know) is currently on hiatus for a short spell Kyp Malone has decided to venture solo under the moniker Rain Machine. The album is a sophisticated form of art folk, designed for hip smoky basement bars where the whiskey is strong enough to put hairs on your chest. What sets this album apart from most other one man and his guitar albums are the subtle changes in Malone’s vocals, his voice becomes an instrument and tells the story of the song in a more concise way than the lyrics, swiftly changing from sorrow, to anger after lust and jubilation.

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Frank Turner, Oxford o2 Academy

Frank Turner

October 20th 2009

Tonight’s gig marks the halfway point of Frank Turner’s sixteen-date headline tour, and despite my expectations and friends’ best forewarnings, the type of local-boy-makes-good reception that Turner receives takes catches me by surprise. From the moment Turner takes the stage, the venue formerly known as the Zodiac echoes with the sort of frenzied girlish screams you’d associate with a ‘90s boy band comeback show. Obviously any Frank Turner appearance also comes complete with a large contingent of man-crush laden lad-fans, but regardless of his demographic, the dedicated following Turner has built over his years seems almost unparalleled.
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Muso’s Guide introduces… Magpie Wedding

Magpie Wedding - image by Sonia Piedad Marinangeli

Well, to be honest, they introduce themselves. Like all good folk should!

We’re an indie folk quartet from Bologna who play enough instruments to supply a small orchestra. I sing, play guitar and accordion, and Magpie Wedding is my first ever band. It started in May 2007 with fellow songwriter Paolo (guitars, piano). I’d been writing songs for a few months having failed to find interesting songwriters to play with. My idea was to find folks to sing and play the guitar parts, then go back to playing accordion accompaniments, which was far more fun.

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