Run - Roxanne de Bastion

For our next LCM featured artist we turn to the very talented singer-songwriter Roxanne de Bastion. Roxanne has just released the first single from her upcoming second album 'Heirlooms & Hearsay', due in the Spring of next year. 'Run' is a very heartfelt, powerful and personal song inspired by Roxanne’s grandfather Stephen de Bastion (or Istvan Bastyai von Holzer).

Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay ‘Run’ is an ode to those forced to flee from their homes, due to circumstances beyond their control and become refugees. Roxanne draws parallels between then and the modern era, exploring how trauma gets passed on through generations and highlights society’s very short-term memory. The new album not only features Roxanne’s beautiful pure vocals, but also a full band with new piano and string arrangements. The new 'Run' video is animated by Graeme Maguire, who if you may remember also did Roxanne's 'Rerun' video. Watch out for the pictures of the three generations of Roxanne's family and the almost Beatlesque string arrangements. 

http://www.roxannedebastion.com

Pretty Fool - Cara Ludlow

Our worldwide journey to discover great new indie singer-songwriters takes us to Exeter, the current home of our next LCM featured artist Cara Ludlow Music. Cara is originally from South Wales and has of the best voices in the South West. Citing Bob Dylan, Suzanne Vega and Kate Bush as influences, Cara plays wherever she can from street corners to bars, theatres and churches, a tendency reflected in her songs, a powerful and personal view of life. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a sublime 'Pretty Fool' from a recent live Poltimore session. Huge thanks to Stephen Horrell for the recommendation. 

Godsend - Robbie Cavanagh

It's always exciting to find new very talented singer-songwriters and one we saw for the first time recently is our next LCM featured artist Manchester based Robbie Cavanag,. Robbie came down last week to London's Garage to support headliners Thorne Hill & Narn along with Liv Austen. If you enjoy Robbie's music he is heading back to London with his band on the 17th January at the Green Note....and he is bringing new music with him. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a very good live version of 'Godsend' from a recent Mahogany session. 

Robbie Cavanagh performs melodic, haunting yet beautiful music, combining his intricate guitar playing with powerful, emotive lyrics. Following the release of his critically acclaimed debut album, ‘The State Of Maine’ in April 2014, Robbie has made a big impact on the country/Americana scene. Developing a dedicated and loyal following around the UK. Robbie writes poetic and starkly honest songs, and performs them with a real passion and sincere honesty that other artists can only attempt to imitate.

http://www.robbiecavanagh.co.uk/

Streets Of London - Beth McCarthy

Our LCM featured artist today Beth McCarthy has just released a great new haunting cover of a Ralph McTell classic 'Streets Of London'. The official song for the film '100 Streets'. With a highly anticipated debut album due shortly, Beth is one to watch in 2017. 

If you would like to see Beth performing live in London, she will be at Tramp on the 8th November.

Beth McCarthy has appeared on prime time television in front of an audience of 10 million viewers, been mentored by Kaiser Chief's front man Ricky Wilson, completed two tours of the UK, released a debut single and EP, taken on numerous festivals including Latitude and Green Man, played recognized support slots with bands such at The Orchestra (formerly known as E.L.O), Nizlopi and Shed Seven - but the 17 year old singer/songwriter is just getting started.

Taking her influences from various different genre’s and artists, Beth’s style has been compared to that of Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran, only with a ‘little more edge and a lot more Yorkshire’. Beth plays a mix of her own songs, some poignant, some catchy, all well-crafted and cover versions in her own dynamic style. Her ability to tell a story through her songs combined with her cheeky on-stage presence and light-hearted, bubbly attitude makes Beth’s live shows both engaging yet informal and relatable.

http://bethmccarthymusic.net/#bethpage001

Small Things - Janileigh Cohen

Our LCM featured artist today is a wonderful new singer-songwriter from Bolton, Janileigh Cohen. We really love Janileigh's vocal and songwriting here at LCM. She reminds us of Sandy Denny, Janis Ian and Joni Mitchell. Janileigh released her highly acclaimed debut EP 'As A Child' in May last year, which is well worth exploring further if you haven't already. We are really looking forward to her new material and debut album. She is definitely one to watch in 2017. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a lovely new original song called 'Small Things' featuring Rich Williams. A big thank you to Richard P W Greenhalgh for the introduction. 

Janileigh's influences include John Martyn, Joni Mitchell, Jackson C Frank, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, so a lady of great taste.

http://www.janileighcohen.com/

Heartbeats - Albert Man

Our featured artist today has been described by a BBC Radio Head of Music as a “brilliant singer-songwriter”. This Manchester-born, half-German musician is now London based and released his crowd-funded debut album 'Cheap Suit' via Pledge Music in May. Albert Man has established himself as one of the most interesting songwriters on the London gig circuit. He writes piano-led, melodic pop songs described by Fresh On The Net as “sweet piano led shenanigans that come over like the lovechild of Billy Joel and Adam Levine”. As a taster our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is one of the lead singles from the new album 'Heartbeats'.

The UK’s answer to Ben Folds is described as a modern day Elvis Costello with a bit of Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon thrown into the mix. He has just recently been on London Live, BalconyTV and Band Vault TV, was one of the Coffee Music Project finalists, performed at The London Coffee Festival, showcased at Caffè Nero during UK Coffee Week, played at The O2 Priority Lounge before Muse, and was a part of an emerging artist night at The Piano Works and Hotel Café Royal.

If you would like to see Albert live in London he is performing at the always great Vin's Night In at The Hospital Club on November 12th.

http://www.albertman.com

Write Me A Song - Saskia

Our LCM Featured Artist today is a very talented independent singer-songwriter based in Gloucestershire. I first had the pleasure of meetingSaskia for the first time in London earlier this year, as we were part of the same independent artists course the 'New Artist Model'. Saskia is next coming to London with her band at the Harrison (Kings X) on 27th October. It's well worth popping down to see them. Our LCM #Trackoftheday is the very good original penned 'Write Me A Song'. Great vocal :/

Saskia is a rising folk artist building her national profile. Recently featured on Johnny Coppin’s Acoustic Show on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, and number 1 in Bristol's folk charts since August she is now booking in dates for her UK album tour 2016.

Frequently compared to Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Eva Cassidy for her clear, enchanting tones, passionate and creative melodies and her perfect, natural sound, Saskia's original songs draw on the genre's of Americana, roots & darker folk music. They are at once thoughtful, mesmerizing and stunningly beautiful, delivered with humour and style.

She is an independent British Artist, and has sung to thousands of people in the last few months as she travels with her music. “…a fine singer-songwriter…wonderful voice and great guitar playing” Johnny Coppin, BBC Radio Gloucestershire. Saskia has become sought after in her local area and all over Gloucestershire and tours the folk & acoustic scene year round.

http://www.saskiagm.com/

Woman - Leddra Chapman

Our LCM featured artist today is an excellent London based singer-songwriter. Leddra Chapman is releasing her new EP 'The Third Love' shortly with a London date at The Forge, Camden on 3rd November. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a beautifully written personal song and one of our favourites from Leddra, a wonderful live version of 'Woman' (The Crowds and Cocktails EP).

Leddra picked up a guitar and wrote her first song before she became a teenager; what followed has been the growth, development and evolution of a young singer-songwriter building to a point in December 2009 where she released her first album ‘Telling Tales’. After working alongside some of the best music collaborators the UK music scene has to offer, the collection of tracks was acclaimed as ‘pitch-perfect acoustic pop’ (The Independent). Debut single ‘Story’, a track championed by Sir Terry Wogan throughout his final months presenting the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, was playlisted by BBC Radio 2. This period of time culminated in a televised live performance of the single on ITV’s This Morning. Follow up singles Summer Song and Edie achieved similar radio success, also playlisted by BBC Radio 2. Refusing to rest on her laurels, Leddra and her live band followed that media activity by heading out around the UK for two extremely successful nationwide tours as well as selling out renowned venues across the capital.

Summer 2011 saw Leddra personally invited to perform as main support to Tom Jones at three sold out concerts in London, Essex & Manchester. Playing to 35,000 people over the three nights, Leddra performed to a rapturous reception. In between these dates Leddra also, for the second year running, played at Signal FM’s live event in Stoke-on-Trent – performing‘Summer Song’ and also new EP track ‘Where You Want Me’ (written with and produced by Jake Gosling (Ed Sheeran)) to an audience of 15,000 people. Outside of the UK, Leddra embarked on a series of dates in Holland and Belgium, performing to a sold out Paradiso crowd in Amsterdam before appearing on live TV in Belgium (TV OOST).

Leddra followed this success with a headline EP launch show at the London Bull & Gate in November 2012. The sold out show sparked plans for another full headline tour of the UK in March 2012 – Leddra played 8 sold out dates across the country including a packed out show at the London Borderline. Following a one week tour in Los Angeles, performing at some highly regarded and trendy venues, Leddra again hits the UK festival circuit this Summer.

The beginning of 2013 marked the release of two new Leddra releases. First was a unique collaboration with The Body Shop and the Teenage Cancer Trust: ‘Beauty With Heart’. A single penned by Leddra upon invitation, the release was a charity single that garnered much acclaim. Hot on the heels of this release was a new EP entitled ‘The Crowds and Cocktails’. Lead-track ‘All About You’ was to became a live favourite and a staple on BBC Radio 2 who B-listed the song. Leddra performed to a string of audiences in sold-out venues in 2013 as she continued to road-test new material for her upcoming second album. Leddra then embarked on a Spring tour of Germany in support of Sarah Blasko to help promote her successful album release through record label Dramatico in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. To bring all this activity to a close Leddra launched her own London headline show at the prestigious Dingwalls venue. The date sold out and proved to be a great evening for fans both old and new as more new material was showcased to eager ears. Following this with a couple of hand-selected festival appearances, Leddra then decamped to the studio to record ‘My Mother’s Mind’.

Whilst recording the album, Leddra teamed up exclusively with Pledge Music to raise funds for the album’s production whilst also offering keen fans exclusive opportunities and access. Completing the goal needed for the album’s production in no time, Leddra soon completed the album with Peter-John Vettese again taking on Executive Production duties.

In between album sessions, Leddra found the time to duet with Alistair Griffin on the BBC Radio 2 B-listed ‘The One’. The track was the fifth single in a row with Leddra’s name on it to be playlisted by Radio 2 and continued to showcase her development as an artist. The track is set to close out ‘My Mother’s Mind’, with previous single ‘All About You’ starting the album off – somewhat appropriate bookends to an exciting and vital upcoming release.

Make Believe - Alex Francis

Hertfordshire has produced some excellent musicians and singer-songwriters and our next LCM featured artist is another. Alex Francis is originally from Hitchin and comes from a very musical family. Our LCM #Trackoftheday is a live version of 'Make Believe' taken from a Reload session filmed last year. 

Alex was raised in the sleepy Hertfordshire town, but moved to Brighton to realise his musical dreams in a more creative and exciting environment before relocating to North London last year.

Alex’s emotive melding of rock and soul emerged out of the London grass roots rock scene in 2015 and spurned a completely organic rise to prominence that few singer-songwriters have experienced.

In the last few months Alex has showcased his music at some of London’s most vibrant live music venues including Camden's Jazz Cafe, Hoxton Bar and Kitchen and The King’s Head Member’s Club in Dalston.

Alex opened for Samm Henshaw at his ‘Sound Experiment - Part 1’ EP launch last August at The Lexington and supported Luke Sital Singh at the Brighton Dome last September. He won the support of TimeOut magazine’s ‘Rising Stars’ artist programme at the end of last year, showcasing him at some of his highest profile shows to date. On top of that, Alex has been singing background vocals for James Bay during the Spring & Summer leg of his 'Chaos and the Calm' world tour.

Alex travelled to Nashville to record new material in September, and has recently collaborated with Anders Grahn (Haley Reinhart, Magnus Tingsek, Andrew McMahon) Dan Smith (The Noisettes) Rupert Christie (Lou Reed, Lianne La Havas) and Josh Grant (Samm Henshaw, Gavin DeGraw) on new tracks for his debut EP due for release this Autumn.

Trains Cry - Caroline Spence

Our next LCM Showcase artist is a multi-award winning Virginia native singer-songwriter, who is now based in Nashville. Caroline Spence released her debut album 'Somehow' last year and our LCM#TrackOfTheDay is one of lead singles the sublime 'Trains Cry'. Thanks to Kaity Rae for the great recommendation. 

Caroline Spence is enamored with words and songs. Though countless singer-songwriters boast the same simple claim, few have been lifted up by their passion the way Caroline has. Her passion has led to a pilgrimage to Nashville, where the 25-year-old honed her writing and her coy, dusky soprano across folk, Americana and alt-country genres. That same passion resonates throughout every track on her first full-length solo debut, the magical and meditative 'Somehow', released on March 3rd 2015.

With songs that wrap the truths of life up into personal vignettes of clever wordplay and catchy hooks, it’s no wonder that in 2013 Caroline won American Songwriter Magazine’s June/July lyric contest as well as the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest songwriter competition later that year. Caroline also had her songs recorded by up-and-coming independent singer songwriters Andrew Combs (“Heavy”) and Annalise Emerick (“A Good One” and “Somewhere In Between”). But when American Songwriter named her the grand prize winner out of all song submissions for all of 2013, she began to feel her passions validated.

So, with help from producer Michael Rinne, Caroline selected 13 original songs out of about 30 to record at Farmland Studios with some of her favorite musicians, including Danny Mitchell (Kim Richey) on keys, Kris Donegan on electric guitar (Matthew Perryman Jones, Amy Speace), Daniel Parks (Kelsey Waldon, Lucy Hale) on acoustic guitar, mandolin and banjo, Michael Rinne on bass (Rodney Crowell, Steelism) on bass, Christian Sedelmeyer (Jerry Douglass, 10 String Symphony) on fiddle, Justin Schipper (Josh Turner) on pedal steel, Evan Hutchings (Escondido, Rayland Baxter) on drums and Andrew Combs, Erin Rae and Anderson East all providing additional vocals.

Once the album was finished, Caroline went on to win the Kerrville Folk Fest songwriting contest in May and in August was one of the headlining acts at the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest alongside The Stray Birds, Hooray for the Riff Raff, John Fulbright, Josh Ritter, and Brandi Carlisle. She also visited the acclaimed Daytrotter studios in September to record an exclusive acoustic set.

With all the courage, grit and passion that pervade her 13 new tracks, Caroline is more than ready to share Somehow and take her place in the world of professional songwriters. Still, she does so without losing touch with her reality: “It just feels like all of this happened somehow, making these songs, this record, just somehow happened, kind of magically. And I know what I want and I just know that somehow I am going to make it happen.”

http://www.carolinespencemusic.com

Never Come Back Again - Austin Plaine

Our LCM featured artist today is a very good Minnesotan singer-songwriter Austin Plaine who released his self titled debut album in September last year. Just before Austin flew to Nashville to record his album he was working on his backup plan, he took the LSAT for admission to law school. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is one of the lead singles, the very catchy 'Never Come Back Again'. 

His wonderful debut album is a collection of meditative folk-pop tunes that Austin, 23, has written over the past six years. Opener “Never Come Back” features banjo over a propulsive beat, while there’s fingerpicked acoustic guitar on “The Other Side of Town” and handclaps and catchy vocal harmonies on “Houston.” Austin recorded the album with producer Jordan Schmidt.

Having been inspired by artists like Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Elliott Smith and Ryan Adams, it’s easy to see why Austin found a love for songwriting and lyrics. This Minneapolis-based singer/songwriter turned to music as his personal outlet and hasn’t looked back since. The future is looking bright as recently Austin had his music featured in a Mastercard commercial, as well as appearing in some other TV shows.

http://www.austinplainemusic.com/

He Who Knows - Laura Frances

For our new LCM featured artist today we are thrilled to introduce a new London based singer-songwriter, who we think shows great potential. We first met Laura Frances at a 'Sound of Songs' gig at The Servant Jazz Quarters hosted by Gitta de Ridder a few months ago and were very impressed. Laura also joined Gitta at her recent debut album launch providing super backing vocals. Still in demo form we would love to share this new song 'He Who Knows' from Laura. It really reminds us of Hope Sandoval and the classic Mazzy Star. 

Laura Frances has is a new and haunting voice. A dark, baritone Joni Mitchell baring herself in her songs with a refreshing depth and brevity. She conjures mystical images in the vein of Leonard Cohen and delivers them under misty melodies from a world where everything is ethereal and half hidden. She made her debut at The Lantern Society in March and is making a name for herself as one to watch.

Children Of Privilege - Joe Purdy

Our LCM #trackoftheday today 'Children Of Privilege' is a song with a very powerful message and very timely as we live in a world with so much division. Real food for thought here. Our featured artist Arkansas based singer-songwriter Joe Purdy really writes from the heart. With fourteen albums released in the space of fifteen years Joe is also a prolific songwriter with a great vocal. He released his latest album 'Who will Be Next' in June and our song today is one of the lead tracks. Joe is on a UK tour soon and is coming on The Borderline on the 15th November. Well worth a visit to the West End. 

His new album tackles gun violence, racism, police brutality, climate change, immigration, the refugee crisis, Donald Trump and more. But his goal is to bring people together.

http://www.joepurdy.com

Nothing In The Desert - Paul Mosley ft Jamie Lawson

Our LCM featured artist today and very firm favourite is London based singer-songwriter PAUL MOSLEY . Paul has recently released his excellent folk opera album 'The Butcher' (AOTW review on our website). His music is definitely worth exploring further, if you haven't already. Paul is releasing a new EP 'Nothing In The Desert' today and our LCM #trackoftheday is the title song featuring the wonderful jamie lawson (as the stargazer) and some of the great cast of the album as well. They include some familiar people to the Group, see if you can spot them :) We like this one a lot and we hope you will too. 

For those who are interested Pauls hands are really that small and controlled by sticks and the puppet of Jamie is to scale 

North London Girl - Russell Swallow

Our LCM featured artist today Russell Swallow is releasing his new debut solo EP 'My Lover, Her Lover And Me' this evening (04/10/16) at the Green Note in Camden. There is still a handful of tickets left, if you would like to come along and join us. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is a live version of 'North London Girl' from a MidTea Session recorded earlier this year. Russell is also one half of the excellent 'Swallow & The Wolf'. 

Fresh from touring across Europe, from street busking and house concerts, beaches to mountains, Dynamic, melodic songs of brooding, confessional, indie. Classic and electronica grooves underpin sensual imagery & playful melodies, powered by rich tenor vocals, driven acoustic and electric guitars, and gorgeous ambient synths.

‘clearly a man with poetry in his soul’ – Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music

‘very, very beautiful’ – Chris Hawkins, BBC Radio 6 Music

‘powerful arrangements and an emotionally charged delivery’ – Institute Of Contemporary Arts

http://www.russellswallow.com/