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 ERROL
LINTON'The Greatest British Blues Performing Artist...Catch him while you can.' Cerys Matthews. Errol Linton's live shows are legendary, his band exceptional, expect to dance. As Joe Bonamassa said of him recently, when he joined him on stage at a London pub; 'The most authentic Chicago Blues I've heard in a long time.' 30 years a musician, Errol signed to Bra$$dog Records in 2016, releasing 2 studio albums so far. 'Packing My Bags' described as 'Chess Records meets Studio One,' continues to receive much critical acclaim & radio play and won Errol a 2019 Jazz fm nomination for Best International Blues Act. His new album, recorded at the iconic ToeRag Studios is already a favourite with radio stations and music reviewers. 'No Entry' with it's unique mix of blues & ska & funk & soul is fast becoming the best UK Blues album of all time. Come along and see why!  To
an artist without the creative energy and laser-focused
determination of Elles Bailey, it could all have been very
different. But when you're the hardest-working woman in blues,
rock and roots music, not even the tumultuous world events of
the past two years were going to stop you from writing several
new chapters in a remarkable story.The Bristol-based singer, songwriter and bandleader, who has powered her way to the forefront of the British blues and roots scene in recent years, is excited to unveil her eagerly-awaited third album Shining in the Half Light. Crammed with vibrant originals brought to life with her A-list band, it's yet another significant step forward in a career already feted with awards and acclaim generated by her two previous studio sets, 2017's Wildfire and 2019's Road I Call Home. Shining in the Half Light arrives on the heels of Bailey's typically extensive autumn tour of the UK and such preview tracks as 'Cheats and Liars' and 'Sunshine City.' For anyone who loves their combination of thought-provoking bluesiness and sassy rock, there is so much more where they come from. These are ten new tracks by an artist who, as she sings in 'The Game,' always dances to the beat of her own blues. She co-wrote the entire album with a variety of collaborators and recorded it in Devon, with her band and producer Dan Weller. Tracking was completed just weeks before Elles gave birth to her first child and she sat in the hospital waiting room listening to mixes on the big day! The height of the pandemic also gave rise to her series of cover version livestreams, Ain't Nothing But. The ensuing record was nominated as Blues Album of the Year at the UKBlues Awards 2021, where Elles was named UK Blues Artist of the Year for the 2nd year running. Let's also remember that Road I Call Home, recorded in Nashville, had been crowned Album of the Year at those awards, and its song 'Little Piece of Heaven' (written with American greats Bobby Wood and Dan Auerbach) was UK Song of the Year at the UK Americana Awards 2020. For the new listeners that Elles attracts with every play, that voice was the silver lining of a potentially grave illness, when at just three years old, she contracted viral and bacterial pneumonia, and had to breathe through a tube for 17 days. “Only with the real heavy touring did I start to really understand that it's such a big part of me,” she reflects. “I know how fortunate I am that I walked away with a husky voice. And my life.” After residencies on the Bristol scene, her first EP Who I Am To Me came out in 2015, followed two years later by that full Wildfire debut. It was an exhilarating confirmation of a unique talent already marking her card with passionate, visceral live shows. Two more years of touring and writing later, Road I Call Home arrived as a remarkable companion with all the fire of the first set, plus maturity, perspective and downright soulfulness. Now back to the future, and the title of the new album. “It's called Shining in the Half Light because there we all were, in this time of complete uncertainty, worry and isolation, and yet artists were still putting themselves on a screen, warts and all, and that brought people together,” says Elles. “I was so inspired by all the musicians, poets, artists and everyone who were like, 'I don't quite know how to do me in this time, but I'm going to try anyway.' That to me is what the album is about. It is a record inspired by those who spread love in a time of heartbreak, happiness in a time of fear & connection in a time of loneliness. Lyrically, Bailey has never pulled punches, and this time she's delivering knockout blows. Take 'Cheats and Liars.' “It's about the people in their ivory towers who made us feel like the arts don't really matter, and to go and retrain,” she says. “Thirty-eight percent of musicians, including myself, didn't get any kind of government funding, and some people lost everything. It's been so hard watching how arts has been undervalued at a time when that was what was bringing people together.” For an artist who lives for live performance, lockdown brought its share of challenges, of course. Suddenly and unavoidably, after gigging her way to prominence over several years, the road she called home was home. But as ever, she turned it into a positive. “It's the first full album I've made here in the UK, I was 6 months pregnant when I made it, and it was made right in the middle of lockdown,” she exclaims. “It still sounds like an Elles Bailey record, but it does feel like it's expanded and been given a new perspective.” The record was made throughout December 2020, doing a week of pre-production followed by nine days in Middle Farm in Devon. “It was a very different, yet exceedingly fulfilling experience,” she admits. “I've made records in Nashville and I was going to make this album there in May 2020, but obviously that couldn't happen. But I knew I had an amazing band here that could do an incredible job on this record, I just needed to find the right producer. The search for a like-minded collaborator led her to rock producer Dan Weller, best known for his long working relationship with Enter Shikari. “He's not in my musical world at all, so that in itself was a huge step into the unknown” she confides. “But we chatted on the phone a lot through the summer, and just clicked. We both seemed to be on the same page with what we wanted to achieve from the album, and how best to go about it. I had about 40 songs, probably, and it was a case of really shaking the tree until we got these ten tracks. Then we just got in a room, played live and let the musicians do their thing, and built it that way.” The musicians that feature are Joe Wilkins on guitar, Jonny Henderson on ivories, Matthew Waer on bass duties and Matthew Jones on drums. The finishing touches were then added by artist Izo Fitzroy who brought Andrusilla Mosely and Jade Elliot on board to immerse the album in their stunning, gospel-inspired backing vocals. An exciting team of co-writers came on board, too, with three credits for Ash Tucker & Will Edmunds, who also wrote with Elles for Road I Call Home. She teamed with longtime guitarist Joe Wilkins to write the slow-flowing, philosophical 'Riding Out The Storm.' Other kindred spirits include guitar maestro Martin Harley, for the gentle and romantic 'Different Kind Of Love,' and Matt Owens, co-founder of the hugely successful indie-folk outfit Noah and the Whale, on the aforementioned 'Sunshine City'. Alex Maile, Tamara Stewart and Brett Boyett also have one each. The album comes to a striking conclusion with its title track, co-written with Nashvilles, Craig Lackey, over zoom in May 2020. Its message, and its description of the time in which it was made, are delivered with restrained power. “Feel like we’re living where we can’t be seen,” sings Elles. “Here we are lost in the in-between, reaching out to each other through a cold glass screen, losing our grip on a dystopian dream.” As she says: “That's probably the only time that I was as direct as that. It's an album inspired and made in ‘lockdowns’, but I'm quite glad that it doesn't give that away too much.” Shining In The Half Light is an album of self-realisation, but one that lets everyone share in its sense of realism and, ultimately, positivity. “It's a new perspective for me,” says Elles. “I have no idea what it would have taken to get me off the road. I think I would have found it really tough, taking time off to have a baby and watching everyone else still doing their thing. So the fact that there was this forced stop, gave me the time to shift my perspective, and that’s what this record is all about. “This album has been about getting to know who I am without the show, the stage and the splendour,” she concludes. “unraveling the layers and being ok with them, and learning to love each and every version of myself, and of course getting to know this new version, being a mum! This whole record has been about finding a new way to do things, and seeing the blessings I have right in front of me. That's been really weight-lifting and refreshing.”  When
explosive natural ability collides with fiery, emotionally
charged compositions, the result is Aynsley Lister; an
incredible guitarist whose brand of blues-based rock delivers
contemporary song writing fuelled with the kind of heart and
soul that’s missing from so much modern music. Whether
passionately writing and recording his own material or
mesmerising audiences at his live shows one thing is abundantly
clear: music is hard-wired to his DNA and flows from his
fingertips like sonic bolts of lightning. With over 100,000
albums sold, lashings of critical acclaim and years of high
profile touring, Lister’s resumé speaks for itself and firmly
secures his position as a leading light in the esurgence of
British blues-infused music. In hindsight, it's clear Aynsley
was born to be a musician. As a child he was hypnotised by his
dad's old guitar and at the age of eight was finally gifted his
very own. The moment he held that first six-string the outcome
was inevitable; he was going to be a guitarist. Blessed with the
coolest dad in town, regularly spinning Hendrix, Cream,
Fleetwood Mac and a whole host of bewitching blues for his
spellbound son, Aynsley taught himself to play with relentless
dedication and a precociously attuned ear, spending hours
copying his favourite records note for note. Peter Green, Albert
King, Clapton and Kossoff weren't just his heroes; they became
his teachers. Blazing a trail in a bar band from the age of 13
honed his skills and in 1998 Thomas Ruf signed Aynsley to his
label, hooking him up with Stevie Ray Vaughan's producer Jim
Gaines to record his self titled debut disc, kicking off a
successful relationship with Ruf Records that saw him release 7
albums and 2 DVD's in ten years. Their influence, coupled with
his dynamite live shows and intense touring schedule, earned
high profile support slots with established artists like Walter
Trout, John Mayall and Robert Cray, whilst rousing festival
appearances alongside artists like the Fun Lovin' Criminals
cemented his standing as an artist whose work, although rooted
in blues, transcended the genre with a fiery modern sound. In
2007 Aynsley was the only British artist to be named in Classic
Rock magazine's "Top 10 Contemporary Blues Artists", alongside
John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa. In 2008 Aynsley's huge crossover
potential saw him sign to Manhaton Records and the following
year released 'Equilibrium', an album that exposed Lister in his
best ever form and stormed into Classic Rock’s Top 50 Albums of
2009. The subsequent tour saw Aynsley playing to sold out shows
to over 16,000 people whilst opening for the legendary Lynyrd
Skynyrd, after which he and his band relocated to the Tower Arts
Centre and with the tape rolling, nailed a cracking rendition of
their high-octane live set to produce the storming 'Tower
Sessions' record, which was consequently voted ‘Best Live Album’
in the 2011 Blues Matters Writers Poll. Aynsley is currently
touring his latest album, Home, which is out now on his own
label, Straight Talkin’ Records. The album has featured in
recent issues of Guitarist Magazine, Classic Rock, Blues Matters
and HiFi Magazines among many others and has received some of
his greatest reviews yet! Jack
J Hutchinson is a London based guitarist and singer songwriter.
Described by Classic Rock Magazine as “Southern-smoked
blues-rock with hooks, choruses, the lot”, his most recent album
‘Who Feeds The Wolf?‘ reached #1 in the Amazon Blues Chart and
the iTunes Blues Chart Top 5. To date, he has released two solo
albums, including the critically acclaimed ‘Paint No Fiction‘.Hutchinson has toured internationally, including headlining tours of Brazil, Spain, Russia, France and Germany. He has also played various high profile festivals across the world, sharing stages with acts such as ZZ Top, Bad Company, Rival Sons and Blackberry Smoke. In 2020 he featured on the Earache Records album ‘New Wave Of Rock N Roll’, which hit the Official UK Vinyl Chart Top 10. In 2022 he returns with a hard hitting, guitar driven new album, ‘The Hammer Falls’. What the press have been saying… “Tough, immediate and rockin’. Hutchinson was born to sing soul and blues.” (Classic Rock Magazine) “Growling vocals combine with raunch ‘n’ roll acoustic and electric guitars. It’s a heck of a debut and definitely a name to watch out for.” (Guitarist Magazine) “One of the strongest debuts from a British artist this year.” (Planet Rock)  The
Kendall Connection is a Blues-Rock band from London UK,
spearheaded by frontman guitarist, singer / songwriter Nick
Kendall. Kendall, along with band members Steve Holness (Keyboards), Greg Hagger (bass), and Tom Clare (Drums), are some of the UK's finest session musicians who have over the last decade performed with some of the biggest names in music, such as 10cc, Adele, Tony Hadley, Paul Weller, Brian May and Alice Cooper to name a few. They have also held chairs on numerous shows in London's West End and worked on TV shows the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. The four joined forces in late 2016 and launched onto the scene with the release of their debut single Staring Back at Me in May 2017. The band decided to embrace the digital age and rather than release albums in the traditional way, release songs on a continual basis, which they feel gives them the stylistic and creative freedom they desire. Kendall's songwriting has a grounding in Blues-Rock with Country and Jazz ingredients thrown in. His songs connect with the emotions of the everyday man while being a vehicle for the musicians in the band to express their musicianship through improvised solos. The band’s latest offering is a full length album which features nine previously released singles along with three brand new tracks. The self titled album was released January 2020 to positive reviews. Rock Chic music blog said, "It has an ageless quality that blends genres so seamlessly".
‘Nothing less than a Tour de Force” - Fabrications HQ  "Big
Joe Bone" (A.K.A. Danny Wilson) plays what he calls
"Blues-Grass" music.....a mix of Delta Blues, Bluegrass,
Oldtime, Gospel and Hillbilly music utilizing his raspy vocals,
hard driving harmonica rhythms, sublime bottleneck slide guitar
playing (on steel bodied resonator guitars) and lightning
finger-picking skills on 5 string banjos.....all held together
by a very heavy stomping boot! Originally from London and now
living on the Mid-Wales coast, Danny started playing guitar as a
schoolboy and has now been travelling all around the UK playing
his fast, furious Roots music to eager audiences since 2012. As
well as playing songs from great Roots musicians like Son House,
Dock Boggs, Bukka White, Flatt and Scruggs, Mississippi Fred
McDowell, Charlie Parr, Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, Robert
Johnson .....the list goes on and on!, Danny also plays his own
songs, which fit right in to his eclectic set.....which shows
that when it comes to roots music, he really "gets it". Although
"Big Joe Bone" is a relatively young act compared to some, Danny
has a lifetime of music behind him and has thrown himself into
what has become a very busy schedule of gigs since he hit the
road in 2012. "Big Joe Bone" is an act not to be missed! |
| SOLID ENTERTAINMENTS Presents... WHITBY BLUES FESTIVAL |
Contemporary
UK blues-rock band, Albany Down, came together with some
classic rock and Brit blues-rock influences, but with their
2011 debut album, ‘South of the City, they found their own
sound.