For Over The Hill’s inaugural festival you couldn’t hope for a more bucolic setting than Cogges Manor Farm. Set in the outskirts of Witney in Oxfordshire, its grounds comprise a beautiful manor house made of Cotswold stone, surrounded by common land and with farmyard animals in situ. The festival is simply but elegantly accommodated in two tithe barns, with the musical turns alternating between the two stages. Continue reading “Over the Hill Festival, Witney, Oxfordshire, 26th August, 2019”
Jim Walker is managing director of Brighthelmstone Promotions. In 2017 he started a festival in his hometown of Hassocks, West Sussex featuring two of our greatest loves – Americana music and good beer. The Mid-Sussex Americana beer festival is running for a third year at the Hassocks hotel in East Sussex on the 24th of August and involves a range of established and emerging talent such as William The Conqueror, Danny George Wilson (of Danny and the Champions of the World), Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou, Lucas & King, Jamie Freeman, Loud Mountains, Noble Jacks, Porchlight Smoker and Ben Featherstone. Mark Underwood of Americana-UK caught up with Jim to talk about plans for the festival and the promotions business. Continue reading “Interview: Jim Walker, Brighthelmstone Promotions”
Back for a third time is one of Americana UK’s favourite summertime events – the Mid Sussex Americana and Ale festival. Hosted by James Walker (managing director of Brighthelmstone Promotions and At The Helm records), a number of acts announced for the festival last Friday were Noble Jacks, Danny George Wilson of Danny and the Champions of the World (performing a solo set), Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou, Porchlight Smoker and Ben Featherstone. Today, in an AUK exclusive we can announce that the second wave of acts to appear, include headliners William The Conqueror, alongside Lucas & King and Loud Mountains.
Continue reading “Mid Sussex Americana & Ale Festival returns for third year”
One novel way to spend the August Bank Holiday Monday is to head to the inaugural ‘Over the Hill’ festival at Cogges Manor farm. With a very strong focus on UK Americana and roots music, Over the Hill will host two stages in tithe barns on the day. Acts booked to appear at the festival are Danny & The Champions of the World, William the Conqueror, Ags Connolly, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, The Niall Kelly Band, Paul McClure and Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds (The Men They Couldn’t Hang) with The Ramshackle Band. Continue reading “Head Over the Hill this August Bank Holiday”
“What’s up London?” Out on a 21 date tour to promote the second of his autobiographical trio of albums under the moniker of his alter ego, “William the Conqueror,” the praise continues to pour in for Ruarri Joseph’s three piece band, on a roll after a series of sold out shows at Ireland’s Kilkenny Roots festival recently. The second of the trilogy, ‘Bleeding on the Soundtrack’, marks a metaphorical journey from childhood into adolescence – with loose themes related to addiction, separation and life’s upheavals – and the battle between his older more subdued persona and his younger, more gregarious self, the band’s name a form of disguise which brings its own kind of freedom to stretch out both musically and creatively. There’s also something of a step change in terms of the musical development and confidence which exudes from this triumvirate, who appear to have an almost telepathic understanding of one another on stage. Continue reading “William The Conqueror, the Lexington, London, 21st May 2019”
As it heads towards its 6th year in May of this year, the Red Rooster festival has announced a new collaboration with the Americana Music Association UK and New York singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, who will be curating, as well as headlining, a female-led acoustic AMA UK stage on Friday the 31st of May. Continue reading “Red Rooster Festival announce female-led acoustic stage line-up”
William the Conqueror are set to head out on the road for a 21 date stint, including 4 festival appearances. The trio of Ruarri Joseph (vocals/guitar), Harry Harding (drums) and Naomi Holmes (bass) will feature songs from their second album, ‘Bleeding on the Soundtrack,’ which follows the release of debut ‘Proud Disturber of the Peace’ back in 2017. Both albums are intended to form parts of a trilogy of autobiographical records capturing different periods in Joseph’s life. Whilst ‘Proud Disturber..’ celebrated Ruarri Joseph’s free and easy childhood spent in Cornwall, sophomore release ‘Bleeding on the Soundtrack’ tells a darker tale of addiction and divorce. Continue reading “William the Conqueror announce extensive UK tour”
West country trio William The Conqueror have been making steady inroads on the Americana scene for a few years now with their latest album ‘Bleeding On The Soundtrack’ just released on Loose Music. Headed by singer-songwriter Ruarri Joseph, who released a number of albums ten years ago under his own name and was quite a favourite on the folk scene, William The Conqueror are altogether a different beast. Blues-driven riffs, building beautifully to full-on glorious crescendos, this is a band that utilises all three musicians to their full potential. Their sound is simple yet completely mesmeric. There is a certain bond between these guys that has clearly been built on the road. Americana UK asks Joseph how things shape up as the miles pass. Continue reading “Van Life – William the Conqueror”
The multiple award-winning songwriter Patty Griffin, legendary Texan roots rocker Alejandro Escovedo and former Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle are heading up what can only be described as a fairly stellar line-up for the 2019 Kilkenny Roots Festival which takes place over the first Bank Holiday weekend in May (3rd – 6th) at numerous venues around the marble city. Continue reading “Kilkenny Roots Festival announces line-up for 2019”
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”
