Rhiannon Giddens has had a busy time of late. In February, she led the ‘Our Native Daughters’ project, collaborating with US musicians Allison Russell (Birds of Chicago), Amythyst Kiah, and Leyla McCalla to recover and highlight some of the African American histories buried in folk music. Their album, ‘Songs of Our Native Daughters’, was inspired by … Continue reading “Rhiannon Giddens set for autumn tour with Francesco Turrisi”
Sometimes the frequent gig goer gets lucky and catches a big performance with a full band in a smaller, more intimate venue that results in a truly fabulous night. Rhiannon Giddens, on her latest tour, was clearly playing to 1000+ venues with a 7 piece big name band which must have made very little economic … Continue reading “Rhiannon Giddens + Kaia Kater, The Stables, Milton Keynes, 21st November 2017”
The AMAUKs are only 2 weeks away and there are still a handful of tickets left if you haven’t got yours yet. It’s the fifth annual shindig which forms part of AmericanFest which returns to Hackney for 3 days at the end of this month. The theme of the event is “Collaborate and Cross Pollinate” … Continue reading “UK Americana Awards 2020 adds Shingai to its line-up”
What a night, and what a list. In the upstairs music room at the surprisingly hard to find Old Queens Head (“It’s just down from the Angel Tube, man, what do you mean you’re lost?“) and one day shy of bonfire night, the Americana Music Association UK (AMAUK) launched the glorious rockets that are the … Continue reading “Americana Music Association UK announce award nominees”
For Americana UK, this year’s Nashville experience ended where it pretty much started – at Robert’s Western World on Lower Broadway. Hotfoot from arriving in the city around 7pm our assembled scribes headed straight downtown to see Joshua Hedley and the Hedliners. These showcases at Robert’s are something of a Nashville institution for both discerning … Continue reading “AmericanaFest, Nashville, September 10th-15th, 2019”
Steve Martin – he’s a wild and crazy guy! No, wait a minute – or should we say “excuuuuuuuse me!” – Steve Martin he’s a serious musician and philanthropist. Just a few years ago Steve Martin finally figured out how he could get to spend more time with Bela Fleck. No, hang on that’s not…. … Continue reading “Steve Martin Banjo Award goes to Victor Furtado”
AmericanaFest 2019 is taking place in Nashville at the moment – our intrepid reporter Mark Underwood is there if you’ve been following our social media – and last night their annual Honors and Awards ceremony took place where there were wins for Brandi Carlile (AGAIN), the War and Treaty and John Prine. In fact Prine’s … Continue reading “Americana Honors and Awards 2019 – Here are all the winners”
The 18th annual Americana Honors & Awards is happening next month over in Nashville and they have announced the performing lineup for their big ceremony which takes place on the 11th. The list includes (deep breath…)
A name that’s likely to be relatively new to readers of Americana UK is Amythyst Kiah, who has recently collaborated as part of a feted supergroup of four banjo players under the moniker, Our Native Daughters.
One has to be grateful that Irish folk veterans Dervish have not gone down the Rod Stewart route with this collection of thirteen classic folk songs, choosing instead to rope in an impressive list of guests instead. The twin pitfalls of recording such an album though are over-familiarity (if we’re going to get the umpteenth … Continue reading “Dervish “The Great Irish Songbook” (Concord Records, 2019)”
