Americana UK

  • News
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Live Reviews
    • Book Reviews
  • Features
    • Archive
      • Americana Bedrock
      • Americana Roots
      • AmericanA to Z
      • A Night to Remember
      • Dirty Dozens
      • Home Life
      • I Write the Songs
      • Lost Albums
      • Political Pops
      • Shuffle
      • Small Venue Heroes
      • Studio Life
      • The Other Side of Me
      • The Twang Factor
      • Top 10 Americana Albums Ever
      • Top 10 Americana Albums of the 21st Century
      • Top 10 Greatest Ever Americana Artists
      • Unsung Heroes
      • Van Life
      • Whatever Happened To…
      • What Should I Do…
      • WITATA
    • Anniversary Cheers
    • AUK Mini-Gigs
    • Can’t Live with it, Can’t Live without it
    • Classic Americana Albums
    • Classic Clips
    • Essentials
    • Fiction
    • For The Sake Of The Song
    • More People Really Should Know About
    • Obituaries
    • Top 10 Americana Songs of All Time
    • VERSIONS
  • Interviews
  • Videos
  • Tracks
  • Columns
    • Sounds from the Shed
    • Vox Continental
  • Podcast
  • Info
    • Contact Us!
    • Review submission FAQ
    • Support Americana UK
    • Want to write for Americana UK?
    • Daily Digest Sign-Up
    • Advertise on Americana UK
    • Privacy Policy
Our latest posts
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music Features
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find” Album Reviews
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time” Features
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Genre changing Buena Vista Social Club album 30th Anniversary Edition out now Previews
  • [ September 21, 2026 ] Paper Verses “Windstill” Album Reviews
HomeAuthorsSophie Wenban

Articles by Sophie Wenban

The Truffle Boys live at the Kitchen Garden Café, Birmingham - 21st July 2026
Live Reviews

Live Review: The Truffle Valley Boys, The Kitchen Garden Café, Birmingham – 21st July 2026

July 30, 2026 Sophie Wenban 0
There is a particular kind of pleasure in listening to crackly vinyl, hearing the ghosts of bluegrass and honky-tonk pioneers through layers of hiss and surface noise. But those records can sometimes leave you wondering what […]
Brennan Leigh, live at St. Mary's Creative Space, Chester - 32d July 2026
Live Reviews

Live Review: Brennen Leigh + Jackson Ward, St. Mary’s Creative Space, Chester – 3rd July 2026

July 20, 2026 Sophie Wenban 0
There was an appealing symmetry to this double bill at St Mary’s Creative Space. Brennen Leigh has spent the last decade demonstrating that traditional country music can remain a living form rather than a museum exhibit, […]
Live Reviews

Live Review: Eric Bibb + Janileigh Cohen, St. Leonard’s Church, Bridgnorth – 25th March 2026

April 30, 2026 Sophie Wenban 0
You probably wouldn’t immediately think of St. Leonard’s Church in Bridgnorth as a likely venue if someone were to mention a roof-raising indie-folk and blues double bill. Yet on a storm-lashed March evening, the old sandstone […]
Live Reviews

Live Review: Beans On Toast + Ruth Lyon + Bassie Gracie, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham – 11th March 2026

March 24, 2026 Sophie Wenban 0
The night opened with Bassie Gracie, a bold spoken word poet grounded in hope, proclaiming that making art can be the remedy to worry. This Celtic-and-proud waif delivered rhythmic anti-racism with barely veiled anger at the […]

Support Americana UK!

Please help us support our running costs by making a one off donation – here.

our latest posts

Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music

Features
September 21, 2026 1

Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”

Album Reviews
September 21, 2026 0
Ad for American Beauty album 5th December 1970

For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”

Features
September 21, 2026 0

Genre changing Buena Vista Social Club album 30th Anniversary Edition out now

Previews
September 21, 2026 0
Album art for Paper Verses Windstill

Paper Verses “Windstill”

Album Reviews
September 21, 2026 0
Features

Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music

September 21, 2026 1
If a music writer opens ten press releases this month, they’ll spot something odd. They all sound like the same person wrote them. Not because the artists share a publicist, or because there’s a house style […]
Album Reviews

Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”

September 21, 2026 0
A cycle of Appalachian folk songs from writer and activist Si Kahn, subtitled Songs for Strong Kentucky Women The subtitle for this album is “Si Kahn’s Songs for Strong Kentucky Women”. Si Kahn is one of […]
Ad for American Beauty album 5th December 1970
Features

For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”

September 21, 2026 0
“You told me goodbye, how was I to know/You didn’t mean goodbye, you meant please don’t let me go?” Well. It’s the age of nostalgia, so it feels just about right to reminisce about an old […]

  • Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music
  • Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”
  • For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”
  • Genre changing Buena Vista Social Club album 30th Anniversary Edition out now
  • Paper Verses “Windstill”
  • Sounds from beyond the Shed 245 “Stop….thief…”
  • Brown Wimpenny “Shady Grove” – chugs like a fast train
  • Video: Ethan Setiawan & Fine Ground “Ships at Sea” – wonderfully-warm and woozy
  • Something for the weekend: Teenage Fanclub “Be With You Tonight”
  • Benjamin Tod “Country is Dead”
Billy Bragg Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen Chuck Prophet Courtney Marie Andrews Dean Owens Drive By Truckers Emmylou Harris Jason Isbell Johnny Cash John Prine Lucinda Williams Margo Price Neil Young Peter Bruntnell Robert Vincent Ryan Adams Steve Earle Sturgill Simpson The Band The Byrds The Delines Tom Petty Wilco Willie Nelson
  • keith hargreaves: Great article Tim
  • Patrick Hurley: A most unexpected list to kick things off with. It seems only reasonable to repeat here a definition I’ve come…
  • keith: Oh yes the whole album is great actually. If you want a deep dive, the best album for me is…

Latest interviews

Behind the Songs

Behind the Songs: Maya de Vitry – “All My Faith”

September 15, 2026 0
Behind the Songs: Maya de Vitry – “All My Faith”If you arrive at All My Faith looking for something that sounds like Gillian Welch, you might find your thirst briefly satiated by No Time to Rush, the final […]
Interviews

Interview: Adam Chaffins on what is great about flea markets, dive bars and trailer trash

August 28, 2026 1
As one of the most resourceful songwriters in americana, Adam Chaffins welcomes you to the latest from his wacky, witty world in Trailer Trash: Doublewide (Spirit Nashville Recordings, 2026), a collection of narratives about schemers, dive […]
Interviews

Video Interview: Richard Olson of the Hanging Stars and Tim Prottey-Johns of the First Time Flyers on the Long Road Festival

August 26, 2026 0
Why musicians love the Long Road Festival. In preparation for Americana UK’s David Jarman‘s preview of the Long Road Festival, he interviewed Richard Olson of the Hanging Stars and Tim Prottey-Jones of the First Time Flyers. […]

You may have missed…

Album Reviews

Philip Marino “Days Like These” (Independent, 2017)

June 14, 2017 0
Philip Marino is an American singer-songwriter living in England, Essex to be precise. Here is a simple case of our gain and their loss. Days Like These was recorded in New York’s Catskills Mountains, and produced […]
Album Reviews

The Lonesome Ace Stringband “Modern Old Time Sounds For The Bluegrass And Folksong Jamboree” (Independent, 2019)

December 13, 2019 0
Canadian trio The Lonesome Ace Stringband reveal new existence in their fourth and aptly titled album, ‘Modern Old Time Sounds For The Bluegrass And Folksong Jamboree’. It is unsurprising to hear after a full preview of […]
Tracks

Jolé “Let Go” – parting is the sweetest sorrow…

January 23, 2023 0
This is the title track of the new EP by Jolé (who was raised in Frome as Josh Oliver), and it is an understated lo-fi modern folk song about coming to terms with an ending.  As […]

© Americana UK 2026, a website based in the People's Republic of Liverpool