Music Venue Properties was started by The Music Venue Trust and “focuses on removing venues from vulnerable leases by purchasing the freehold of the buildings and placing them into community ownership.” They recently acquired The Croft in Bristol, which while not especially associated with “our” sort of music does have a consistent programme of live music supporting artists at real grassroots level. Their work is essential for building the generation after next of new singers and bands.
Our Man In The Field, a band AUK has followed since 2020, highlight why venues like The Croft are so important. I first saw Alex Ellis play at Newport’s tiny Le Pub venue supporting Jerry Joseph, and have followed him and his ever-growing band through Folk Clubs and small venues across the South West. In November they played a showcase at Bath’s Ustinov Theatre after a year that has taken them to Hyde Park with Neil Young, Glastonbury and a recording an album at Mark Knopfler’s studio. With Matt Owens now a full-time member, they have on board someone not afraid of taking a punt on innovative events. His Nightjar series in Bath earlier this year brought some excellent artis, including Michelle Stodart and Elles Bailey to the town. His 7 Hills Festival returns in March, this time at Trowbridge Town Hall with The Delines headlining. With Our Man In The Field, Hannah White And Joseph Arthur also on the bill, bringing a show like that to a small Wiltshire town shows some serious entrepreneurial spirit. I’ll see you there.
In other unexpected live news, The Long Ryders Autumn 2026 tour goes off the beaten track, including The Blakehay Theatre in Weston-super-Mare. Yes, Sid Griffin and crew will play be playing in Weston, and several other places that don’t often see high grade Americana gigs. Emmylou Harris is playing in Bristol as well, so my regular complaint about the big tours not coming west is finally being silenced.
It’s hard to find accurate stats for how many albums are released in the UK each year. The best number I can find is that it peaked at around 5,700 in 2016. Bandcamp may offer the best current guide, with an estimated 3,000 added to its lists annually. The dreaded Spotify reports that nearly 100,000 songs are uploaded to it’s platform every day. That seems like a huge number but is reported widely enough that it seems to be true. Bandcamp’s focus is also on songs rather than albums, but again stats are hard to come by.
The album numbers are easy to explain. Music consumption has shifted towards the song as promotional tool in mainstream music land, while in the more independent minded world that AUK mostly inhabits the commitment to albums is as strong as ever. Just in the last month I’ve given 9/10 scores to Lucy Kitt and Jerry Joseph, both albums I firmly expect to be plying long into 2026. Andy Short discovered some brilliant albums in his Americana Down Under feature as well. The concern comes with where it may go next. While it may not become a thing in our world, or at least not yet, of those 100,000 songs uploaded to Spotify daily, almost 30% are reckoned to be AI generated, according to a Deezer report quoted in The Guardian. With my AUK Books Editor hat on I’ve been presented with at least three wholly or partially AI generated (I won’t call them written) books this year. The acoustic, emotive nature of our music makes it hard for AI to replicate. The authenticity of a group of artists who put effort close to their audience in person and on social media is another thing that is hard to fake.
Now I love AI and its possibilities. In my business life as a commercial copywriter it has made my research work so much simpler, and the narrative nature of the AI search results which we now see at the top of Google are opening up new avenues for human generated content. That will also apply to music where American UK regularly appears in the AI overview precisely because we have a talented team of writers able to communicate effectively our love for the artists and albums we write about.
The genre, or niche publications like AUK, and Fatea and RnR Magazine, are vital to getting the word out about the music we love. The increasing readership of all those and the decline of the newsstand press suggests that it’s what our readers want as well. The difficulty of finding places to buy physical magazines means that online publications like Americana UK driven by music lovers using their spare time to go to gigs, listen to albums, and then share their thoughts are the key conduit for artists, labels, promoters and PRs in future.
So, no AI here, or at least only to hunt out stats that may at first sight seem depressing, but in reality, suggest that our little musical enclave is one where Americana music, in all its varieties is celebrated by a bunch of people I’m proud to be associated with.
The Burrito Brothers Christmas album from a few years ago makes a decent antidote to a diet of Cliff and Wham…
