the UK home for americana music
What we’re learning this week is that there are quite a lot of americana festivals in the UK that feature the letter “R” – yesterday we had the Ramblin’ Roots Revue and today we have news that Red Rooster is returning at the end of May for its annual weekend-long celebration of contemporary American Roots music. Continue reading “Red Rooster returns! Full line-up for Suffolk festival is announced”
Israel Nash proved tonight that not only can he rock out with the best of them, but his big musical sound also draws from the desert folklore of that part of Dripping Springs in Texas where he currently resides that’s the inspiration for so much of his muse nowadays. Opening with ‘Rolling On,’ the first track from latest album, ‘Lifted,’ its appeal is as immediate as it is on the record – the swell of pedal steel growing throughout this singalong number, its warm harmony vocals leading to a stirring climax. It’s towards the end of this song that you realise why Israel Nash has been receiving glowing praise on this tour – the band immediately locking onto a groove that demonstrates the harmony at the heart of this outfit. Continue reading “Israel Nash + Treetop Flyers + Brent Cowles, Scala, London, 22nd November 2018”
This gig heralded the Treetop Flyers’ self-titled new – and third – album due out the very next day on Loose Records and recorded just a mile or two north of the venue in Stoke Newington. It’s a notably young audience which is good news for the growth of this musical niche, with your reviewer feeling decidedly in the upper quartile on the age chart. The venue is packed out as is the stage with the quintet and their expanding hoard of instruments – the original trio of Reid Morrison, Laurie Sherman and Sam Beer having been augmented by sax man Geoff Thomas Widdowson, doing a job share with Danny and the Champions of the World, and drummer Rupert Shreeve. Continue reading “Treetop Flyers, The Lexington, London, 23rd August 2018”
London soulful country-rock outfit Treetop Flyers are back with their eponymous third album which is due out on 24 August via Loose. Weaving 60s tinged West Coast Americana with a British rock’n’roll swagger, whereas previous albums had been recorded either at their own Soup studios in London or further afield in studios in Malibu and New York, this time round they headed to The Cube in Stoke Newington. A DIY studio and rehearsal space, it backs on to the sanding workshop of the London picture framers and fellow musicians Brider & Bull. Continue reading “Treetop Flyers announce new album, single”