Birds Of Chicago

The Live Room is the brainchild of Ron Dukelow and Hilary Booth, both experienced music promoters, who, for ten years were the driving force behind the highly successful Live at the Talbot series at the Talbot Hotel in  West Wales.  It's their intention to bring the same ethos to their new venue at the Caroline Social Club to make it the best folk and roots music venue in the Bradford area. bIf you have a suggestion for an artist to play there get in touch. They can't promise that they'll be able to present them, but they'll consider all ideas.



After a previous gig featuring My Darling Clementine  this comment appeared on Twitter...  'The Live Room is the best thing that has happened music wise in this area in the 15 year I've lived here' (Adrian Gallagher).

Friday 5th April they feature Birds Of Chicago

Birds of Chicago, is a collective based around JT Nero and Allison Russell. Whether touring as a duo or with the full family band, Nero and Russell have emerged as two of the most compelling new voices in North American Roots music.

For several years Russell and Nero’s respective bands, Po' Girl (Vancouver, BC) and JT and the Clouds (Chicago, IL), have collaborated extensively, but on 2011’s Mountains/Forests, released under the JT Nero banner, they tapped into the true, bewitching power of their voices together on an entire record.  It also featured the full cast of characters that would round out the Birds of Chicago ensemble -- the Clouds and Michelle McGrath, the luminous singer and picker from the hidden hills of Southeast Ohio.

The record received critical raves and won them new fans on both side of the Atlantic, and created a great deal of excitement for the first official Birds of Chicago album, due for release in August, 2012. Nero’s fractured country-soul voice wrapped in Russell’s silver and gold tones, is a fine thing. You’ll hear echoes of mountain gospel, street corner doo-wop, and classic soul. 

Accompanied by just a banjo and a guitar, it's haunting.  Fired by the band, it's a full tilt revival!

Nero and Russell are most at home on the road - pick almost any night in the next two years and you can bet they will be in some festival, theater, pub, VFW hall, roller rink (they wish) or living room, dovetailing their voices, singing their songs of hope, despair, love.... and electric seahorses. And honey bee apocalypses. And ice cream.  It's familiar and strange stuff - the everyday and the magical. Come see ‘em, they won't be hard to find.

‘Achingly gorgeous. Slinky, vulnerable and reverent of the Memphis soul of yore’ 
-  Chicago Tribune

‘This is more or less perfect Americana, an utterly exceptional talent’ 
-  Americana UK 10/10

‘Roots music made in heaven...completely different than anything else you've heard’
 - No Depression





Support is Peter Mulvey

To Wisconsin-born Peter Mulvey, there is no such thing as a straight and narrow path. At least, not one that he has any interest in taking. 

A live-wire on any stage, Peter Mulvey is an acoustic singer/songwriter/guitarist who, in fact, defies this categorization. His ferocious guitar playing whisks him through more tunings than he has fingers in the course of an evening, as he winds his way from full-throated rockers to deceptively plain-spoken musings. 

'Mulvey spins out a rhythmically intriguing cascade of images and thoughts, influenced by poetry and spoken word. At his best, Mulvey’s like some Tin Pan Alley wit gone beatnik.' - Boston Herald

'The subtle power of his voice, a husky, hushed baritone... understated, at once sophisticated and intimate... as cover-worthy as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello and Dar Williams.' - Washington Post

Guy Davies

The Live Room is the brainchild of Ron Dukelow and Hilary Booth, both experienced music promoters, who, for ten years were the driving force behind the highly successful Live at the Talbot series at the Talbot Hotel in  West Wales.  It's their intention to bring the same ethos to their new venue at the Caroline Social Club to make it the best folk and roots music venue in the Bradford area. bIf you have a suggestion for an artist to play there get in touch. They can't promise that they'll be able to present them, but they'll consider all ideas.



After a previous gig featuring My Darling Clementine  this comment appeared on Twitter...  'The Live Room is the best thing that has happened music wise in this area in the 15 year I've lived here' (Adrian Gallagher).

Sunday 24th March they feature legendary US blues singer/songwriter Guy Davies supported by Preston's smooth blues singer/songwriter Mog Stanley.

Guy Davis is a musician, composer, actor, director, and writer.  But most importantly, Guy Davis is a bluesman.  The blues permeates every corner of Davis' creativity. 


Throughout his career, he has dedicated himself to reviving the traditions of acoustic blues and bringing them to as many ears as possible through the material of the great blues masters, African American stories, and his own original songs, stories and performance pieces. His writing and storytelling have been influenced by Zora Neale Hurston, Garrison Keillor, and by the late Laura Davis (his one hundred and five year-old grandmother).



Throughout his life, Davis has had overlapping interests in music and acting, inevitable considering that he is the son of famous acting and activist parents, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning Ossie Davis and his wife Ruby Dee.

Guy himself has performed on television and theatre, but over the past two decades has concentrated on his musical career, releasing some fourteen acclaimed albums, many produced by John Platania (Van Morrison guitarist) and appearing live on prime time TV shows such as Conan O’Brien.






Jackson Browne, Maya Angelou, and Jessica Lange (who had Guy perform his take on the Bob Dylan song, ‘What’s a Sweetheart Like You (Doing in a Dump Like This)’ for a special fundraiser she and her husband Sam Shepard organized for Tibetan Monks in Minnesota) all count themselves as Guy Davis fans.

‘If the earthy power of Guy Davis's sandpaper vocals doesn't grab your attention and the resonance of his acoustic-guitar strings doesn't turn your  head, you need to make sure you're still alive’                                               
- Robert Gordon

‘He has a power and authenticity which makes him sound as though he is in direct contact with the old masters’ – Sydney Morning Herald

The laid back, sharp dressed man that is Mog Stanley describes himself as a song singin', guitar playin', foot tappin', blues, folk, indie musician which sounds like he's got a sponsorship with Coca Cola but that really does sum up his stylee.

 

His crisp bluesy guitar playing is complimented by his super smooth vocals.  You only have to listen to 'Little Bag of Bones' to get hooked on his immaculate, ultra-hip laid back vibes and as you can hear (and see above) I'm tuned in as I write the blog.

A fine advert for the rockabilly quiff; a rollicking purveyor of old-school blues-rock; a doppleganger for the young Morrissey.

Manchester’s Mog Stanley has been described as many things, but ‘cutting edge’ is clearly not one of them.

There is, however, a first time for everything. Recently booked to appear at a Manchester unsigned bands showcase, the 31-year-old songwriter quickly realised what an incongruous presence he appeared.

Armed with only his vintage guitar and home-made percussion box to keep him company, Stanley’s old-school, DIY set-up made him stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. 

Yet, of all the acts who performed that night, it was Stanley who seemed to make the biggest, most eye-popping impression of all: his tub-thumping Midlake meets Black Keys blues-rock prompting choruses of delight and disbelief among the assembled audience.

Looking for a venue in or around Bradford that offers a mix of music, top artists from around the world in a friendly, intimate atmosphere?  Look no further than The Live Room at The Caroline Social Club in Saltaire.




The Live Room is the brainchild of Ron Dukelow and Hilary Booth, both experienced music promoters, who, for ten years were the driving force behind the highly successful Live at the Talbot series at the Talbot Hotel in  West Wales.  It's their intention to bring the same ethos to their new venue at the Caroline Social Club to make it the best folk and roots music venue in the Bradford area. 




If you have a suggestion for an artist to play there get in touch. They can't promise that they'll be able to present them, but they'll consider all ideas.



After a previous gig featuring My Darling Clementine  this comment appeared on Twitter.....'The Live Room is the best thing that has happened music wise in this area in the 15 years I've lived here' (Adrian Gallagher).



Next gig on the agenda.....Mawkin






Since their formation in 2002 Mawkin have grown into one of 'brit-folk's' brightest new guns - a blistering 5-piece band fusing folk, world, jazz, prog and rock, they are no strangers to the cutting edge of the music scene while still retaining all the verve and mystique of ancient folk music traditions from across the globe.






Forged out of the electric partnership of brothers Jamie and David Delarre, Mawkin are a concoction of brilliantly inventive musicianship and uninhibited carnal exuberance. Initially coming together as a 3-piece, the band has gradually evolved into a five-piece, with Nick Cooke on melodeon, Danny Crump on bass and Lee Richardson on drums. 




Tours and festivals followed the success of their debut album ‘The Fair Essex’ and the next two years proved to be a turning point for the band. Much of it was spent honing their skills and building on their energetic live shows in the UK and Europe. Mawkin also worked hard to gain the attention of new fans supporting a diverse selection of artists on tours; Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Show of Hands and Mr Scruff.





Their new album, ‘Crow’ signifies a real organic process – the band recorded, produced and designed everything themselves - that harks back to their critically acclaimed debut ‘The Fair Essex’ and looks set to be just as well received. They were also featured performing live on the recent BBC documentary, 'London Calling', presented by Jools Holland.

Two years in the making ‘Crow’ is another landmark in the band’s history, ancient instrumental folk tunes from around the globe are dragged delightfully into the modern age. Folk tunes are fused sublimely with jazz, rock and prog with a swagger and conviction that is thrillingly reassuring.

There's the jaw-dropping vocals of Eliza Carthy on the haunting and soulful ‘Bad Girls Lament’, one of England’s finest songwriters Steve Knightley delivers a pounding acoustic pop remake of his own ‘Its All Quiet’, Jim Causley is presented in full show on ‘The Bellringers’ and Mawkin’s own guitarist and singer David Delarre gives a raucous  cover of The Kinks ‘Harry Rag’.




There is a real sense that ‘Crow’ is landmark achievement in the bands history- not just the music but also in the approach to the record. Melodeon player Nick Cooke recently said.....


 "we really wanted to go away for a while and make a record that we would want to listen to" 

The band were also insistent on creating their own cottage industry; Drummer Lee Richardson explains.....

"we really wanted to bring together all the know-how the band has built over the years and we have the facility to record and produce it ourselves – so we did exactly that"

Together with Nick Cooke (who also works as Mastering Engineer for Extreme Music the Production Music arm of Sony/ATV)) the band could spend much more time developing their sound in the studio than ever before, even the artwork was produced by Becca Eastland – Lee’s partner and professional artist. ‘Crow’ signifies a real organic process that harks back to their critically acclaimed debut ‘The Fair Essex’ and looks set to be just as well received.

Support on the night is.....Louise Jordan

Louise Jordan is a young singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist rapidly making an impact on the UK acoustic music scene. She has a purity of voice which melts the toughest of hearts and a delivery which unsettles the most discerning critic. 

She has completed two UK tours with performances alongside Eliza Carthy, Phil Beer, Cara Dillon, Kris Drever and Richard Digance. Her music has been played on both local and national radio and she also appeared in UK Vogue

‘a stirring, lilting grace’ - The Telegraph

‘Absolutely, totally and completely brilliant’ - Mike Harding, BBC