The Musician - May 2006

	MAY 2006	LISTINGS HOME

Mon 1

Tue 2		Persuasive Electric Blanket Lounge feat: The Junipers, Intermission To Saturn, Herbedacious. Free The Persuasive Electric Blanket Lounge is a monthly club night for live and recorded psychedelic, folk and experimental sounds. 3 bands per night, liquid wheel projections, and music from the likes of Six Organs Of Admittance, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Incredible String Band, Devendra Banhart, Espers, Spacemen 3, Red Krayola, United States of America, Fifty Foot Hose, PG Six, Wooden Wand, Cream, Soft Machine, Comus, Broadcast, Nico, and many more.

Wed 3		Her Name Is Celia plus With A Story and Behind Bars £3 www.bandbehindbars.co.uk

Thu 4		Steve Tilston & Chris Parkinson plus Hunter Moore £7 www.steve-tilston.co.uk Celebrated singer-songwriter Steve Tilston is winning as much praise for his superb guitar playing as his songwriting and vocal style. Born in Liverpool, Steve has been ploughing his own artistic furrow since the early ‘70s. As a guitarist he has toured with Ballet Rambert, Ship of Fools, John Renbourn and more recently WAZ! As a songwriter his best known songs include The Slip, Jigs & Reels, The Naked Highwayman and Here's To Tom Paine and have been recorded by Fairport Convention, Dolores Keane, The House Band and Bob Fox. "...that very rare combination of singer, songwriter and guitarist who actually excels in all departments..." - Folk Roots.

Fri 5		The Platforms £5 www.theplatforms.co.uk Glam rock: An English phenomenon between 1971 and 1973. Glam was distinguished by the glittery, sparkly costumes of the performers and its' bouncy rock ‘n’ roll songs which would often be oozing sexual energy. Lyrical emphasis was often on teenage revolution (T. Rex’s - Children of the Revolution, Sweet’s - Teenage Rampage) as well as a strong leaning towards sexuality, decadence and fame. Glam performers often dressed androgynously in make up and glittery, outrageous costumes. Perceived sexual ambiguity was briefly in vogue. – Wikipedia.com, the on-line encyclopedia . The Platforms: The U.K.’s ultimate glam rock party band!

Sat 6		Jewellers Eye plus Gren Bartley £5

Sun 7		Deadstring Brothers plus Stone Foundation £7adv £8door www.deadstringbrothers.com It may be surprising to hear Americana coming from Detroit, a city known for Iggy Pop, Motown and The MC5. But frustration and regret have always been present in great country music and from its bombed-out inner city to its sterile suburbs, Detroit has its share too. Not unlike Exile-era Stones, the band delivers a sound that draws on the melancholy of country and the abandon of rock and blues. Their songs are rooted in the storytelling traditions of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, whilst their melodies reveal the influence of The Band and Gram Parsons.

Mon 8

Tue 9		Closed Please Note - The Wire Daisies show has been cancelled.

Wed 10		Chatham County Line Tim Easton plus Emily Maguire £7adv £8door www.chathamcountyline.com www.timeaston.com www.emilymaguire.com Chatham County Line Based in Raleigh, N.C., Chatham County Line consists of flatpicker Dave Wilson, banjo picker Chandler Holt, upright bassist Greg Readling and multi-instrumentalist John Teer. Dubbing themselves "new traditionalists," CCL have toured America solidly since 2003, bringing home tales of wild, serendipitous adventures, such as their "guerilla bluegrass" escapades in Times Square and Grand Central Station. During a cross-country trip in July 2004, the band joined Arlo Guthrie at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Oklahoma, and then picked up the best new bluegrass band award at the RockyGrass bluegrass competition in Lyons, Colorado. Their excellent second album Route 23 was released last year on Yep Roc.
		Tim Easton Raised in Akron, Ohio, Tim Easton was influenced by a combination of pop icons (The Beatles, Kiss) and bluegrass/folk legends (Doc Watson, John Prine). Kosher Spears, his college band, performed their unique roots rock hybrid across the Midwest, and Easton eventually found himself busking in the streets of Paris, London, and Dublin. Returning to the States, his folk-based writing brought an earthy sound to The Haynes Boys who recruited him in the mid-'90s. His first solo album was released in ’98, his latest Ammunition is released in May on New West Records.

Thu 11		Lisa Black and Nicki Cartwright £3 Please note - The Tananahill Weavers are not now performing as previously advertised.

Fri 12		Elana James & The Continental Two Alana Levandoski plus The Clarksville Mountain Band £9adv www.elanamusic.com www.alanalevandoski.com Elana James Formerly the driving force behind The Hot Club of Cowtown, violinist and singer Elana James is an internationally acclaimed performer who in the spring of 2005 teamed up with Bob Dylan as part of his touring band, the first female instrumentalist to do so in thirty years. Elana has been featured twice as a guest on Later With Jools Holland and is one of the youngest musicians ever to be inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame. Her new trio Elana James & The Continental Two features her cousins Luke Hill and Beau Sample and plays hot jazz, original songs, western swing, hoedowns, and gypsy music.
		Alana Levandoski You get the impression Canada's wide open spaces are chock full of folks like Alana: bright, sensitive, poetically alive young women with a song in their heart and dung on their shoes. And you can see why the word is that this one's got Nanci Griffith in her soul. Actually, Griffiths is mostly in her voice, which is hard, bright and rippling. And set to classily arranged and played folk 'n' country 'n' roll ('n' a hint o' Gospel) with a broad confessional streak. Attractive stuff. - The Independent.

Sat 13		Culture Clash: Rise Kagona (Bhundu Boys) vs. Champion Doug Veitch plus Cloud £8adv £10door www.medicinemusic.co.uk In the mid '80s, The Bhundu Boys almost single-handily turned a large swathe of the U.K. onto African music. Today, the band's members are either dead, in jail or broke. However guitarist and founding member Rise Kagona has hooked up with the man who discovered them on The Harare club scene all those years ago, Champion Doug Veitch. Forestry Expert Vieitch is a maverick talent who explores the roots of the world's music and did so before the term World Music was ever coined. With Culture Clash, Kagona's "Harare Jit" and Doug's " Caledonian Cajun Swing " merge into whole new glorious gumbo.

Sun 14		Sinner Boy £5door www.sinnerboy.co.uk

Mon 15

Tue 16		Jane Taylor Band plus Joel Owen and Rob Bray www.janetaylor.co.uk www.robertbray.info 'Sultry, smoky melodies and a razor sharp lyrical bite. Her bittersweet songs take on a sparkling new dimension that demands to be universally adored.' - Venue Magazine. 'Jane Taylor is no ordinary singer songwriter. She has this intangible magic in her voice...the kind that draws you in and holds you right there until the moment you notice that you've forgotten to breathe and then you hear her words that bizarrely seem to have been written for you and stand there transfixed like it's a bit of fate that brought you here and I'll defy anyone not to leave without a cd or at least humming one of her songs' - Get Rhythm

Wed 17		Th' Legendary ShackShakers 3 Daft Monkeys plus Sumladfromcov £8adv £10door www.cockadoodledont.com* www.3daftmonkeys.co.uk www.sumladfromcov.com *Th' Legendary ShackShakers** Last seen in the U.K. opening for Robert Plant, Th' Legendary ShackShakers are a four-man wrecking crew from the South, whose hell-for-leather, penta-caustic roadshow has turned legions of potential converts into true believers. Led by wildly charismatic frontman and blues-harpist J.D. Wilkes, Th' ShackShakers break American music down to its essentials, only to rebuild it into their own monstrous, agri-dustrial abomination. Simply put, this is the new American Gothic...Steely eyes, white knuckles, pitchforks... and a beginning to life as we need to know it! "The best damn front man and band in America." - Hank Williams III. "A young Yardbirds-meets-the Sex Pistols," - Jeff Beck. "The last great rock 'n' roll frontman" - Jello Biaffra (Dead Kennedys).
		Three Daft Monkeys This innovative band combine rousing vocals, frenetic fiddling, rhythmic 12-string guitar, dancing bass and foot drum. Whether it's Celtic, Balkan, Gypsy, Latino, Cornish or other World Music you are drawn to, you will hear its influences in their music. Add to this the band's varied backgrounds from Dance, Dub, Punk, Reggae and Traditional Folk and you have a stunning combination. It's quirky, it's groovy, it's fun... We dare you not to dance!! "A veritable melting pot of styles make a colourful carnival of sound" - Folk Roots. "...a sound that is rooted in the past but full of hope and celebration for the future" - Go Magazine.

Thu 18		Access To Music free

Fri 19		The Mick Pini Band £8 www.mickpini.com As well as touring Europe with B.B. King and supporting such blues greats as Buddy Guy, Freddie King and Jimmy Rogers, Mick Pini has earned himself a strong following in Europe and the UK. Eric Clapton described him in 1996 as “the legitimate successor to Peter Green’”. However, Mick is living legend in his own right ... the genuine article. His authentic voice and outstanding guitar work personifies the blues in an inimitable way. Mick has toured the world for thirty years and he lives, breathes, plays and sings the blues with genuine passion. Even his 1954 Fender Stratocaster smokes!

Sat 20		Chris Hunter presents El Machico plus Jack Of Hearts Band and The Hazey Janes £3

Sun 21		Robb Johnson plus Corazon £5 www.robbjohnson.co.uk

Mon 22

Tue 23		Magic Teapot presents The Handsome Family plus support £10adv www.handsomefamily.com The Handsome Family are Brett and Rennie Sparks who live in Alburque, New Mexico. They’ve been married for sixteen years. Brett, who writes the music, is proud of his ability to sing Schubert with Texas drawl intact. Rennie, who writes the lyrics, has been recognized internationally for her ability to sob for hours on end. “Music that mines the deep veins of fatalism in the Appalachian voice” — Greil Marcus. “This is music that moves forward by turning the clock back — haunting, primal and strangely heroic.” — The Times. “Where others retrace well-trodden paths and humdrum traditions, The Handsome Family go off-road to hunt down phantoms, to update forgotten myths and ancient black jokes.” — Uncut. “Dark, elemental, mischievous and mournful.” —Mojo.

Wed 24		Pink Angel presents ist plus Ugli and Steel State Circus £4 www.istianity.co.uk

Thu 25		Henry Martin's Ghost plus support £5 www.hmg-irishmusic.com Henry Marten's Ghost play traditional and modern Irish music with passion and attitude. Irish songs and original compositions feature on the bands three albums. Direct descendants of the ballad groups of yore which mixed "popular" songs with great tune sets, Henry Marten's Ghost turn their back on pretentiousness and thumb their nose at sophistication. Be it haunting Celtic ballads, dance tunes or modern Irish songs Henry Marten's Ghost deliver them with an insight and passion that few can match.

Fri 26		Kingsize £5 www.kingsize-ska.com

Sat 27		Chris Farlowe & The Norman Beaker Band www.chrisfarlowe.co.uk One-time amateur boxer Chris Farlowe’s musical career began with a skiffle group, before joining The Thunderbirds in the mid 1960s. He recorded five singles for Columbia before moving to Immediate where he recorded another eleven singles; five of them cover versions of Rolling Stones records. His most successful was 1966’s Out Of Time. His next four singles were also well received, Handbags And Gladrags, later being covered by Rod Stewart (and most recently The Stereophonics). As a British R’n’B star in the early 1960s, he released one single under the pseudonym, "Little Joe Cook", which helped perpetrate the myth that he was black. In the 1970s, he sang in the hard rock supergroup Atomic Rooster.

Sun 28		Jesse Dayton Band plus The Drugstore Cowboys £7adv www.jessedayton.com Raised in Beaumont, TX, near the childhood home of George Jones, Jesse Dayton grew up on the hardcore honky tonk of Jones, Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. Fronting two rockabilly bands The Roadkings and The Alamo Jets, during the late '80s and early '90s, his solo debut was released in 1995. Most recently Jesse was behind the music for Banjo & Sullivan the imaginary ‘70s country duo featured in the Rob Zombie slasher flick The Devils Rejects. "Dayton is the possessor of a tear-stained voice, a lost soul sensibility and probably a high degree of familiarity with the kinds of places your mama warned you about." - Austin American Statesman.

Mon 29

Tue 30		Joel Evans Band plus Mother Hubbard and Andrea Glass £3 www.joelevans.co.uk Joel Evans’ music has drawn comparisons with the likes of Paul Weller, Gin Blossoms, Neil Finn and The Eels. Joel’s first cd Different World was released in 2000. Despite a lack of promotion and a distinctly homemade feel it still managed to generate some very positive reviews. Work began on a follow-up in 2002. Two-and-a-half years later the completed album Wired finally arrived. During this time many of the original songs were ditched or re-written, parts re-recorded, lyrics and directions changed and on several occasions everything ground to a halt. However, there's no doubt that the ten tracks that survived were worth the wait as Wired loaded with infectious melodies, well-crafted arrangements, and apparently simple songs that gradually open up to reveal hidden depths.

Wed 31		The Acoustic Collective presents... Max Gilkes and Tom Hall £3