Brown Wimpenny “Shady Grove” – chugs like a fast train

Photo: Méabh McGovern

This latest single from Brown Wimpenny heralds the Autumn into Winter tour by the band alongside an ever-changing roster of artists from the same Broadside Hacks record label.  The song came into their repertoire in an organic way as Luke Morris (banjo, vocals, bodhran) explains: “Shady Grove’, for instance, came out of a gig where a handful of the band formed a small-scale bluegrass setup. The song was a standout of that set, combining Jean Ritchie’s droney and minor arrangement with the frenetic version by Bill Monroe. We taught it to the rest of the band and the weight of all 11 instruments really gave it something. It’s such a simple rendition; it was basically fully formed from the first time we ran it, without any rehearsal. It sounds like a runaway train and is really fun to play.

Those Broadside Hacks tour dates are

22 OCT // Lewis, Con Con Club (GB, SST)
24 OCT // London, ICA (BW, SG, SST, MUC)
29 OCT // Southampton, Heartbreakers (SG,SST)
31 OCT // London, Cecil Sharp House (Goblin Band Headline)

7 NOV // Carmarthen, CWRW (GB, SST)
11 NOV // Falmouth, Cornish Bank (SST, MUC)
17 NOV // Oxford, Fusion Arts (GB, SST)
18 NOV // Cambridge, NCI (GB, SST, SG)
19 NOV // Norwich, The Puppet Theatre (GB, SST, SG)
22 NOV // Hebden Bridge, Trades Club (GB, SST, SG, MUC)
23 NOV // Manchester, Gulliver’s (SST, SG, MUC)
24 NOV // Glasgow, Glad Cafe (SG, SST)
28 NOV // Chester, St. Mary’s (BW, SG, MUC)
5 DEC // Manchester, New Century Locker (BW headline)

BW = Brown Wimpenny, SG = Sam Grassie, GB = Goblin Band, SST = Spitzer Space Telescope, MUC = Myer U Clark

About Jonathan Aird 3427 Articles
Sure, I could climb high in a tree, or go to Skye on my holiday. I could be happy. All I really want is the excitement of first hearing The Byrds, the amazement of decades of Dylan's music, or the thrill of seeing a band like The Long Ryders live. That's not much to ask, is it?
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