Richey among an embarrassment of riches for us
IT is a case of many happy returns this week, as all of the featured acts have made sure that their respective touring schedules include this patch, with Americana acts Kim Richey and Hot Club of Cowtown leading the charge.
Tonight in the studio at Live Theatre, Ohio-born folk/country singer Kim Richey is the guest. The Grammy-nominated singer has collaborated with, and written songs for, many artists, from Trisha Yearwood and the Dixie Chicks to Jim Lauderdale and Patty Loveless.
Richey’s vocal work has graced dozens of albums for others, too, among them Rodney Crowell, Ryan Adams and Jason Isbell.
She put out her eighth solo album – Edgeland – last year, featuring three different bands and collaborations with Chuck Prophet and Robyn Hitchcock, among others.
The album’s musicians too are top-drawer and include ace sessioneers like Dan Dugmore (steel) and multi-instrumentalists Doug Lancio and Dan Cohen.
Young Nottingham musician Jimi Mack, is Richey’s show opener for this evening.
On Sunday night in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2, Hot Club of Cowtown will show how cleverly they merge the two strands of Django Reinhardt’s proud gypsy – jazz heritage (jazz Manouche to the French) and the hillbilly country/folk traditions of American settlers. The mix is a scintillating dish rustled up by three superb exponents. Elana James (fiddle), Whit Smith (guitars) and bassist Jake Erwin supply voices and instrumental prowess of the highest standard.
It is no wonder that they have been recruited as touring partners by the likes of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Roxy Music.
This trio can switch between barn-burning hoe-downs to Western swing/hot jazz invention in a trice, and they give one live-show favourite, the old steam-driven locomotive classic Orange Blossom Special – a turbocharged, rail-melting makeover.
Their all-covers debut album, Swingin’ Stampede (1998), included contributions from one of Elana’s inspirations: Texas fiddle maestro, Johnny Gimble. She made the transition from her classical training to the Texas tradition by immersing herself in it in order to master the entirely different technique required.
The multi-award-winning band’s current album (their 11th studio offering) reflects their growth as 11 of the tracks are band originals. Whatever this virtuoso trio play is always worth hearing.
Two musicians with a lifelong blues heritage (and much more besides), Ian Siegal and Martin Simpson, are also back in the region this week. Siegal, who played a solo show in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2 in the spring, arrives at a sold-out Old Cinema Laundrette in Durham tomorrow night.
Siegal recorded his last album, All The Rage, with his cracking band but decided to tour the songs in “solo and unadorned” fashion for his spring/autumn tours.
His work straddles the full roots music spectrum, with blues merely one component. His writing is always sharp, witty and acerbic by turn, and he has that authentic vocal work which sets him apart from the herd.
His body of work – over a dozen albums – has seen him amass awards galore, placing him comfortably at the top of his class.
Martin Simpson, another awards collector of Olympian standard, had a new album, Rooted, released in August to the usual level of critical praise. Over the course of a fourdecade career – with a couple of dozen albums (collaborations aside) to his name – Simpson has burnished an international reputation, primarily for his acoustic slide guitar work.
Blending blues, folk and an uncanny knack of finding obscure songs/tunes from both sides of the Atlantic, Simpson is both interpreter and custodian of a voluminous repertoire.
From his early recordings like Golden Vanity and Special Agent around 40 years ago, he has immersed himself in the music of the USA and UK/Ireland. Born in Scunthorpe, he lived in New York, Santa Cruz and New Orleans before returning to the UK to be close to his family roots. Simpson recorded with the Albion Band June Tabor early in his career, but developed his connections beyond folk by working with David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and David Lindley, drawing endorsements from the likes of Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Steve Miller.
More recently he recorded with Dom Flemons (Carolina Chocolate Drops) on an album called A Selection of Ever Popular Favourites. (Tongue-incheek, one assumes.) He is a musician, roots music repository, tutor, accompanist, a long-time blues fan and one of the UK’s foremost roots music performers. Catch him in fullflow in Sage Gateshead’s Hall 2 next Thursday night for all the proof you will need.
The same venue has a sold-out show on Monday night when Northern Ireland singer/songwriter Foy Vance is here. It took six years for Vance to follow-up his debut album, Hope (2007), with the Joy Of Nothing.
By this time he was known to a wide range of artists from Ed Sheeran to Bonnie Raitt, Snow Patrol and Elton John, and he was offered the chance to tour with each of them.
Vance signed to Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records (the second artist, after Jamie Lawson, to do so) and released The Wild Swan (2016) album which had Sir Elton John as executive producer. He followed up
that with four tracks on Sheeran’s third album – Galway Girl included – and he also worked alongside country-related artists such as Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert, but also with Rudimental and Plan B. Country superstar Keith Urban recently covered Vance’s song Burden.
Finally, Jon Spencer brings a night of rough-edged rock and roll, blues, rockabilly and raucous mayhem to Cluny 2 next Thursday night. The much-travelled Spencer has had a variety of bands over the years, but he started out, musically speaking, while attending Brown University in Rhode Island.
He was instrumental in bringing the sadly overlooked hill country bluesman RL Burnside to public attention some 20 years ago.
In those days it was the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, but over the past two or three decades he has been involved with bands like Pussy Galore, Boss Hog and Heavy Trash.
On this occasion it is Jon Spencer & the Hitmakers who will be ready to blow the tattoo off your arm! Also on the bill are The Noise and The Naive.