After its inaugural year in August 2017, the Mid-Sussex americana and ale festival returns next month to the Hassocks hotel. Last year the festival featured the likes of Danny and the Champs, Robert Vincent, Dean Owens and Stevie Ray Latham. This year has an equally good array of talent, including AUK favourites Bennett Wilson Poole … Continue reading “Mid-Sussex americana beer festival returns for second year”
There’s an old expression about dying with your boots on. Carson McHone certainly lives up to that. Interview ready in her dressing room, she’s attired in a raggedy white cotton t-shirt, with a pair of jogging bottoms tucked into her cowboy boots. A Texan from top to bottom, Carson undergoes something of a transformation later … Continue reading “Interview: Carson McHone”
‘Stay Around’ is a posthumous collection of previously unreleased JJ Cale tracks curated by longtime friend and manager Mike Kappus and Cale’s musician widow Christine Lakeland Cale. Rarely can there have been such a rich treasure trove of unreleased material to draw on. The album is jam-packed with familiar riffs, strum patterns, licks and lyrical … Continue reading “JJ Cale “Stay Around” (Because Records, 2019)”
Billard Blossom seem like a pretty okay group of fellas. They have a few videos posted on YouTube that feature the band playing out or working in their rehearsal room. From the available evidence, it seems like they’d be a good time if you stopped in for a beer and they just happened to be … Continue reading “Billard Blossom “Change Your Grip” (Independent, 2019)”
And to her green too apparently, or so her new album would have you believe. Renowned folk-americana singer-songwriter Jess Klein has announced details of her April-May UK & Ireland tour, in support of new album ‘Back to My Green’ – please see below for further information, tour itinerary and streaming link to the full album.
In ‘Riverland’ Mississippi serves as both a proper noun and a metaphor: there’s plenty waiting to be discovered beneath the current and along the muddy banks. Eric Brace, Peter Cooper, and Thomm Jutz are each, in their own right, accomplished singers, songwriters, musicians, and performers. There are long lists of awards, nominations, and chart-topping tunes … Continue reading “Eric Brace, Peter Cooper, and Thomm Jutz “Riverland” (Red Beet Records, 2018)”
Because Music have announced the release of ‘Stay Around’, the first posthumous album by beloved songwriter, guitarist, and singer JJ Cale, on 26th April in the UK. ‘Stay Around’ has been compiled by those closest to Cale, his widow and musician Christine Lakeland Cale and friend and longtime manager, Mike Kappus. You can watch the video below of the album’s debut single, ‘Chasing You’, featuring … Continue reading “New posthumous JJ Cale album announced for April”
AUK kicked off our Celtic Connections itinerary this year in the hallowed portals of an old church situated on the outskirts of The Barras, a once thriving open-air market place and home to the legendary Barrowlands Ballroom. St. Luke’s doesn’t have the cachet of The Barrowlands but it proved to be a fine venue for … Continue reading “The Mammals + May Erlewine @Celtic Connections. St Luke’s, Glasgow,18th January 2019”
The AMAUK conference is now into its fourth year and one of the highlights is the two nights of showcases which take place before the awards ceremony featuring the best of americana talent, both homegrown and from around the world. At five venues across Hackney, all within walking distance and for price of one wristband, … Continue reading “AmericanaFest UK 2019 Conference Showcase preview – part three”
So here we go again – the last day of term and it’s prize day at Americana UK Towers. It was a classic year for americana in the UK, a year in which you actually had a choice of festivals to go to rather than a niche tent at the back of a field, and … Continue reading “The 2018’s Americana UK readers’ poll results are here!”
