Although Beans On Toast has just-this-minute wrapped up an extensive UK tour on the back of his newest album The Inevitable Train Wreck, today he is pleased to announce another….
The Coming To A Town Near You Tour will see Beans playing a string of shows through March and April, many of them off the beaten track. In his words, he’s doing the tour because he “loves it”.
Speaking about the new tour, he says: “turns out there’s still lots of towns in the country that I haven’t ever played.”
The dates are a mix of new ground for Beans, plus some old favourites (hello Bristol), plus also find him playing some slots opening for festival favourites Ferocious Dog.
14 March MILTON KEYNES MK11
19 March BOURNEMOUTH The Anvil
20 March BRISTOL The Attic
21 March FROME 23 Bath Street
26 March BARNSTAPLE The Factory
27 March WESTON-S-MARE Loves
28 March SHAUGH PRIOR The White Thorn Inn
29 March WORTH MATRAVERS Square & Compass
02 April LONDON Nells *
03 April SHOREHAM-BY-SEA Ropetackle Arts Centre *
04 April TUNBRIDGE WELLS The Forum *
09 April MARGATE Oolbys Soul Cafe
10 April CHELMSFORD Hot Box
11 April BOOTLE Little World Cafe
12 April STAINES The London Stone
16 April LEICESTER O2 Academy 2 *
17 April SETTLE Victoria Hall *
18 April SETTLE Victoria Hall*
23 April CARDIFF The Globe*
24 April BUCKLEY The Tivoli*
25 April SHEFFIELD The Leadmill *
30 April STOWMARKET John Peel Centre
He’s a hippy, a punk, a poet, a drunk, a die-hard romantic and an eternal optimist. Singing simple songs that tackle big issues. Political protest songs for the modern day, honest and open Love songs. Songs that will make you laugh, but also make you think with no holds barred honesty and quick wit.
The Beans On Toast live show is an odd and unpredictable experience. A singer, songwriter and storyteller his self-deprecating quality is not something you often see, but it breaks down the barrier between musician and audience, creating a sense of equality.
Suzanne Vega will release her new album, of An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories (Cooking Vinyl) on May 1 2020. In celebration of the release, she will play a series of UK and European dates and festivals.
On An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories, Vega revisits some of the most iconic songs in her repertoire as well as more hidden gems in a stunning live recording on which she is backed by longtime guitarist, Gerry Leonard, bassist Jeff Allen and keyboardist Jamie Edwards. The album was produced by Gerry Leonard, mixed by Grammy Award winning engineer Kevin Killen and mastered by Grammy Award winner, Bob Ludwig.
Recorded at New York City’s famed Café Carlyle in early 2019, An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories includes both familiar songs like ‘Luka’ and ‘Tom’s Diner’ and deep cuts from her catalogue like ‘Frank and Ava’ and ‘Ludlow Street’. The mix of repertoire also features ‘New York Is My Destination’ from Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson McCullers, Vega’s one woman play about the Southern gothic novelist Carson McCullers, and a cover of her late friend Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side.’
Of the album, Vega commented, “It is always a pleasure to play at the Café Carlyle in New York City, where this album was recorded. It is a small exclusive club that has hosted legends from Eartha Kitt to Judy Collins, and is also known to be the place where Jackie Kennedy met Audrey Hepburn. I love it for its bohemian old-world glamour! I decided it would be fun to perform a New York-themed show there. I included songs that were inspired by New York City or for which New York provided the backdrop, and also one by my late, great friend, Lou Reed, – “Walk On The Wild Side” – a song I rarely heard him sing himself.
Widely regarded as one of the foremost songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has written and recorded numerous songs that have become part of the contemporary music vernacular, including ‘Luka’, certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy, ‘Marlene On The Wall’, a surprise hit in the UK and ‘Tom’s Diner’, a strange little a cappella piece that was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo ‘DNA’ and became a major club hit. Her albums, including her self-titled debut, the follow up, Solitude Standing and 99.9F have sold millions of copies.
Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who “observes the world with a clinically poetic eye,” Suzanne’s songs have always tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, Suzanne Vega’s work is immediately recognizable, as utterly distinct and thoughtful as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio over 30 years ago
Suzanne Vega, joined by the band with which she recorded An Evening Of New York Songs And Stories, will take to the road over the coming months for a lengthy European tour, including the following UK dates:
May 12 LONDON EartH, Hackney
July 30 GLASGOW Kelvingrove Park – Summer Nights
July 31 CAMBRIDGE Cambridge Folk Festival
August 2 CAWTHORNE Underneath The Stars Festival
Weaving a musical dialogue between fiddle, guitar and voice, Kit Hawes and Aaron Catlow explore the rich musical heritage of the British Isles, and create original music inspired by the traditions they grew up in. In demand as musicians, writers and arrangers, Kit and Aaron have worked with many established artists including Grammy Award-nominated Yola, Seth Lakeman, Afro Celt Sound System and Roni Size. Since the release of their highly acclaimed debut album The Fox in 2016, the pair have built a reputation as one of the standout acts on the UK music circuit. Praise comes from music lovers and press alike, including Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2 – “reminiscent of Martin Carthy and the late Dave Swarbrick, I can give them no higher accolade”, Acoustic Magazine – “head and shoulders above the rest” and Living Tradition – “mightily impressive”.
Their follow up album, which draws its name from the title track ‘Pill Pilots’, is due for release in February 2020. The Pill Pilots were a group of highly-skilled mariners, who for over a thousand years guided tall ships through the treacherous waters of the Bristol Channel and the river Avon. The album was recorded live in a single room and celebrates the time-honoured relationship between the fiddle and guitar. The pair pay tribute to the past, whilst setting themselves apart with an unparalleled mastery of their instruments and dynamic range to create a musical conversation that wends its way through the album’s nine tracks. The album opens with I Know My Love, a song of unrequited love and longing which has its roots in Ireland. This rendition is inspired by the time the pair spent playing amongst Appalachian musicians whilst on tour in Nashville and serves an anglicised take of the vibrant musical vocabulary of this tradition.
For more information and the latest tour dates, please visit www.kitandaaron.com
Huam is the eagerly awaited new album from Salt House which sees them solidify their reputation as fine interpreters of words both old and new. ‘Huam’, (scots n the call of an owl) is their third collection of songs, and the second pairing with producer Andy Bell.
Songs are central to Salt House. New songs that sound as if they’ve always been here. Ancient ballads woken up. Poems given the tunes they’ve long deserved. Songs about place, politics, landscape and birds.
The trio continue their love of recording ‘on location’ with this album, taking themselves to rural Argyllshire to finish writing and recording the songs which were crafted between their homes of Inverness-shire and Shetland. The natural world plays a huge influence on the band’s writing, and in keeping with their love for nature they are supporting conservation charity Trees for Life (https://treesforlife.org.uk/) with this release, offering a chance to add a tree in their grove with the purchase of an album. They hope to build this up over the coming years in an effort to offset some of their touring carbon footprint.
On Huam you will hear echoes of Pentangle, a touch of Dick Gaughan, murmurs of Scandinavian and Scots, all woven into a music that’s traditional and new. The group’s meticulous attention to detail, shared passions and care for their craft sees Salt House soar.
Huam is released on Hudson Records on 20th March and will be toured throughout 2020, with a release tour in March.
13th – Leicester Guildhall
14th – West End Centre, Aldershot
15th – Storey’s Field Centre, Cambridge
18th – Cecil Sharp House, London
19th – Redruth Drapery
20th – Downend Folk Club
21st – Ruskin Mill, Gloucestershire
With her striking voice and strong Russian and Ingush heritage, Daria Kulesh is a unique and still-rising star on the UK folk scene. In 2015 her debut album, Eternal Child earned her plaudits from FolkWords and Laurel Canyon Music where she was nominated Favourite New Artist of 2015 but it was her second album, Long Lost Home when the folk world really started to take notice of her amazing story.
The album, launched on 23 February 2017 at Cecil Sharp House has won awards in the UK and in Russia, this time, Laurel Canyon Music’s Album of the Year as well as Dai Jeffries in R2 Magazine calling it ‘one of three great albums of the year’.
Taken from the album, ‘The Moon And The Pilot’ is a song based on her Ingush Grandmother’s stories which Daria performed live on BBC World Service prompting Mike Harding to describe it as ‘one of the most beautiful new songs of the last 10 years’. Hundreds of people subsequently contacted Daria to express their gratitude for the song and for speaking out about the events of February 1944, when the Ingush and the Chechens were brutally deported from their homes on the orders of dictator Joseph Stalin. Any mention of Ingushetia and the Ingush people was erased from history books, dictionaries, encyclopaedias. Despite the deportees being allowed to return in 1957 and their national identity restored (the Ingush Republic was formed 25 years ago), the pain lingers and justice hasn’t been fully served to this day.
The song has made Moscow-born Daria known in Ingushetia and in August 2016 she was invited to visit her Grandmother’s lost homeland for the first time. During her visit, she appeared on Ingush national TV & radio and performed public concerts. Daria also visited the breathtakingly beautiful mountains and their unique tower-studded fortified villages, including her Grandmother’s ancestral village of Fourtoug. She has met the President of Ingushetia, the Minister of Culture and other dignitaries as well as local musicians, dancers, poets, historians, actors, artists who have all shared their knowledge, passion and inspiration.
Earthly Delights, Daria’s third album, is a grateful and playful exploration of human nature: of love, desire, curiosity, ambition and other urges that drive us, both physical and spiritual. It retells and twists fairy tales, episodes from history, urban legends – rich old stories that are timeless, ever relevant and relatable. ‘Great battles of love and life’ (Mike Harding,) that we all live through, every day.
This year, Daria embarks upon an ambitious set of dates and on some, she will be joined by Tristan Seume, one of the UK’s leading acoustic guitarists.
‘Let Daria transport you to an enchanting fairytale world full of colour and flair, light and shade, passion and intrigue, where stories come to life and “songs aren’t just sung, but lived’ – FATEA Magazine
February 26 – with Marina Osman, The Carpenters Arms, Miserden, Stroud, GL6 7JA
February 28 – The Stable, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1JY
March
March 9 – Waltham Abbey Folk Club, EN9 1EJ
March 19 – Ewanrigg Community Centre, Maryport, CA15 8HN
March 20 – The Hill Village Hall, Millom, LA18 5HF
March 21 – with Tristan Seume, Florence Nightingale Memorial Hall, Matlock, DE4 5BD
October 7 – Nova Scotia Folk Club, Glasgow, Scotland, G64 2DW
October 11 – with Tristan Seume, Braemar Gallery, Scotland, AB35 5YL
October 12 – with Tristan Seume, Stirling Folk Club, Scotland, FK9 5AP
October 13 – with Tristan Seume, Star Folk Club, Glasgow, Scotland, G2 7DA
Widely considered to be one of the best and most original guitarists of his generation, Ian Carr has worked with many acclaimed artists including Kathryn Tickell, Kate Rusby, Eddi Reader, Kris Drever and others.
Following on from his critically acclaimed album Who He?, released in 2015, February 2020 will see the release of I Like Your Taste In Music, another eclectic mix of musical styles that features Maria Jonsson, Steph Geremia and Gustaf Ljunggren among others.
Ian met Maria Jonsson in Falun, Sweden in 1995. She was making spaghetti for her dinner and he asked her, “Are you boiling cheese?” She replied “No I’m boiling spaghetti!” They eventually learned to communicate with each other and playing tunes and making up new ones proved very theraputic to them both. In 2008 they made a record featuring several of these recordings, together with their friend Mikael Marin from the brilliant Väsen, and not long after they started work on Who He?, along with bassist Staffan Lindfors. Ian met Laura Wilkie and Thomas Gibbs at a jam in Glasgow, Laura played a tune of Ian’s called ‘Gahn Blenk’ and they immediately sounded like the best band in the world. At the release concert for Who He? they played ‘I Like Your Taste In Music’. Ian had the riff for years, and couldn’t stop playing it, soon becoming the tune that he played to check the sound on his guitar before gigs. But it needed words and one day in a hotel room in Skellefteå in Norther Sweden a man appeared and said “Thou Shalt Sing I Trust Your Taste In Men” Ian said “I cannot sing that” and Maria, who was also in the room said “you could sing I Like Your Taste In Music” And thus it was!
