Now in their third year, The Ramblin’ Roots Revue, one of the UK’s biggest weekends of Americana, roots and alt-country music (and there are a few of them now) have announced their line up which includes 40 acts from the across UK, USA, Canada, Ireland and mainland Europe. The full line up which takes place in Bucks from 12th-14th April 2019 is listed below but includes UK americana luminaries including William the Conqueror (much nicer than the historical figure), Curse of Lono (a curse you would actually want to be afflicted with) and Peter Bruntnell’s band featuring the superb BJ Cole. Continue reading “Ramblin’ Roots Revue returns! Here’s the full line up”
This year’s Maverick Festival was held under glorious sunshine at Easton Park Farm in the deepest part of rural Suffolk. As usual, Director Paul Spencer had pulled together a tremendous range of polished multinational talent which all just about falls within what we consider Americana. The timing of the event, smack dab in the middle of the footie world cup, meant however that the balance of music vs. football in the conversational strands was slightly different from the July norm. 
Most fans of Americana music should by now be familiar with the works of Felix Bechtolsheimer, whether that be from his groundbreaking British country blues revivalists Hey Negrita or the more recent murky window into his soul that is his latest venture, the dramatic rock’nroll caravan that is Curse Of Lono.
Curse of Lono’s show at The Water Rats was a launch for their anticipated debut album Severed. The venue has a rich history, Marx and Lenin are both reputed to have frequented the place during their respective times in London and Bob Dylan played his first UK show here in 1962. This, coupled with the band sharing their name with a Hunter S Thompson book, led me to wonder whether to expect something unusual, intellectual, dangerous or deranged. What I got was a bit of each from Curse of Lono, a London based five-piece band consisting of Felix Bechtolsheimer and Neil Findlay both from Felix’s former band Hey Negrita, plus Joe Hazell, Charis Anderson and Dani Ruiz Hernadez. 
On first hearing this record without reading anything about it I thought that Steven Adams (Broken Family Band) had adopted a back to basics approach and formed a new band. It’s a thought that stuck with me every time I listen to the record and it’s certainly meant as a compliment – there’s the voice of Felix Bechtolsheimer (Hey Negrita) which is a dead ringer for Adams and then there’s the lyrics which explore the same melancholic self-deprecating squalor. CofL have an admirably broad palate, the songs spreading out across a range of styles – the opener cheekily references the Byrds with both the title and the bass line of Five Miles (add three and some altitude and you’re there). 
New London five-piece Curse Of Lono who we’ve become big fans of here at UK will release their debut album Severed on Submarine Cat Records on April 7th. Described as a “sumptuously cinematic record that combines harmony-laden Americana with driving, gothic alt-rock”, the album was produced at Gun Factory studio by Oli Bayston. Curse Of Lono’s debut EP, released last October, forms the soundtrack to ‘Saturday Night’, a short film of inter-connected music videos directed by Alex Walker which we recently highlighted.