Live Reviews | 2011

Water Tower Bucket Boys, Buccleuch Centre, Langholm, Scotland, 5th March 2011

Written by Maurice Hope | 28 March 2011

 

It was the first visit to Scotland for the Oregon bluegrass quartet and one both audience and performers are going to remember for a long time. So good was the music and connection made with the audience by Cory Goldman (banjo, guitar), Josh Rabie (fiddle, guitar, harp), Kenny Feinstein (mandolin, guitar, banjo, harp and fiddle) and the ear to ear smiling upright bass act Kyle McGonegle neither party wanted the night to end.

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The Decemberists, Hammersmith Apollo, London, Wednesday 16th March 2011

Written by Jonathan Aird | 20 March 2011

 

At last, The Decemberists.  Somehow I've never managed to see them - clashing dates or not around, the usual reasons.  And a long time since I'd been along to the Apollo too.

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Marty Stuart The Sage, Gateshead Saturday 29th January 2011

Written by Maurice Hope | 20 March 2011

 

Nashville country music giant, Marty Stuart and his band, The Fabulous Superlatives pressed all the right buttons that ensured their North East debut was one to remember. Stuart, who is a staunch supporter of traditional country music, was one of the acts involved in the mid-1980s New Traditionalist movement and, although he did have much commercial success, his bloodlines run deeper than the direction Nashville country music followed. He could be nothing else seeing as he cut his teeth playing in the respective bands of bluegrass legend Lester Flatt when still in his early teens and Johnny Cash.

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Polly And The Billets Doux, The Wheelbarrow, London, Wednesday 23rd Feb 2011

Written by John Hawes | 03 March 2011

This was a gig that was going to be at the Lyttelton Arms which was changed to the Wheelbarrow, (which used to be Tommy Flynns) which is run by the folks who used to run the now closed Flowerpot (which used to be the Bullet Bar) who have moved the stage from next to the front window into the back corner.  In the middle of a UK tour (Nottingham the previous night, Deal the next), such changes meant not a thing to Polly Perry and her Billets Doux (Ben Perry- drums, Andrew Steen - guitars and Dan Everett – bass) as they than through a set that was a bit bluesy, a bit rocky and very soulful.

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Richard Thompson Band, Royal Festival Hall, London, Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Written by Jonathan Aird | 18 February 2011

We've had quite a lot of Richard Thompson in the last year or so - the 1,000 years of popular music show, All Star Fairport Convention, gigging at and curating Meltdown 2010, his early music project at the back end of last year.  Too much?  No chance!  And at last what we've all been secretly waiting for - The Richard Thompson Band, and rumour has it that it's a first set drawn from Dream Attic (the latest album) and a second set of career greats.   Sounds good - since Thompson seems to have entered an extended phase of excellent album following excellent album over the last decade or two.  Not that what went before was so poor, far from it.  Recent live performances have also been outstanding, all of which means that expectations are high for tonight.

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