Tag Archives: folk

Hayseed Dixie – Brooklyn Bowling London 06.02.15

Hayseed Dixie are a fantastic band to see live and I absolutely guarantee that their unique bluegrass cover versions of classic rock songs will have you grinning from ear to ear!

The musicianship between all four band members is impressive (unless you’re a complete git); acoustic bass guitar, mandolin, banjo, acoustic and (occasionally) violin vary the tunes out so well that things never sound repetitive.  In fact, banjo solos never get old do they!?

The arrangements are so damned clever that you can easily distinguish and identify songs that randomly find their way into others halfway through (‘War’ and ‘Lets get it on’ is a beautiful marriage!).

Quite frankly, you’d have to be some kind of massive prat not to enjoy the humour and atmosphere that saunters around a Hayseed Dixie gig, all the while they play up to their gimmick/cult band tag.

Folk music has taken over the UK music industry like the ‘blob’ and I find it repugnant how much the scene is up its own arse in faux intellectualism; so to hear a song about a poo in a jar about an ex girlfriend was incredibly righteous.

Favourite moments for me, hearing them belt out ‘War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath and ‘Ace Of Spades’ by Motorhead.  Fucking brilliant.

And now, some video that I recorded!

Spin Doctors – Croydon Fairfield Halls – 21st February 2014

I did a very surreal thing on Friday; I met the ORIGINAL Spin Doctors after their Croydon gig at the Fairfield Halls! Blimey?!?

The Spin Doctors came on after the very energetic and entertaining ‘Brothers of the Mothershovel’ support act; the brothers are a decent bunch of local lads who just about stomped the stage to pieces whilst going about their set.

The brothers in funky hats impressed me so much with their mixture of folk and ragtime swing, I bought their album (Nicely produced it is too!). Hopefully it’ll pay for new strings after the guitarist broke a few during his vigorous strumming!

I last saw the Spin Doctors at the Islington O2 academy on the 30th of January 2013; the main thing I love about seeing the band live is that you never experience the same gig twice! They are an exceptional jam band who love to improvise and it’s a privilege seeing them ply their trade at such small and intimate gigs.

They covered ‘Revolution’ by the Beatles this time which was very cool, before belting out the vast majority of their most excellent back catalogue along AND some tracks from their recent album ‘If The River Was Whiskey’. Oh yes, and the Goodies inspired ‘Everybody Loves String’ improv piece! Genius.

Waiting for my turn to meet the band afterwards, I was extremely nervous. What do you say to Gods? Do they like small talk?

I eventually stumped up the courage to walk over to Eric Schenkman and ask why they didn’t play the excellent ‘About a Train’ from their new album? The track absolutely grooves with lazy blues attitude and I was disappointed not to hear it “Yeah, we’ll do it tomorrow!” came his reply.

What?!? Are you for real?!? I thought it was just lip service, you know, banter?

So I cheekily asked if they’d play ‘Refrigerator Car’ as well (also absent from the Croydon gig) as it’s one of my favourites. “Yeah we’ll play that too!” said Eric. What a genuinely lovely fella he was though, chatting to anyone who popped over, trusting fans to hold his customised telecaster?!? A class act.

It’s one thing for a DJ to take requests, but a world class band? I think I was probably beaming so much, I’m surprised the smile didn’t cut my head in half.

I eventually made it to talk to lead singer Chris Barron after briefly ‘chatting’ to Mark White (bass supremo) about his love of BBC comedy ‘Are You Being Served’ which was very surreal; Chris and I chatted about the new album while he enjoyed a pint before reiterating that they would play the tracks I mentioned to Eric before we all went our separate ways around midnight. Huzzah!

It was an utterly, utterly, utterly bizzare experience that I’ll never forget; thankfully for my nerves, the band are extremely down to Earth and they genuinely seemed to enjoy chatting to everyone who stayed behind.

Good thing I had bought tickets for the following night at the Garage in Highbury and Islington eh?!

Give A Little Help (Ragtime version)

CLICK TO PLAY

This one is a reworking of pretty old song written quite literally just as I started hanging out with Al. The original is quite a rock driven effort (and one of my fave tracks to play) , however we decided to try and pull it to pieces and re-record it in a ragtime /bluegrass style which at the time I thought was pretty funny, and now in reflection even more so because it was all recorded in the space of 3 hours and by far and most the easiest recording we ever put down. Guitars and drums first, then lead guitar, mandolin, harmonica, vocals and bass. One after another, it was such a hoot, a hootananannny even.

Shake your fleas Grandpa!