The Luck - Thousand Islands, Islington (25/07/19)

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• Artist: The Luck with special guest Roisin O’Hagan

• Date: 25th July, 2019

• Location: Thousand Islands, Islington

• Website: https://www.twitch.tv/theluckmusic

• Review By: Gary Smith (LCM)

• Video: Martin Cox

Album launches are always special occasions, especially when it is marking the launch of a wonderful and highly anticipated debut. Thousand Islands, a ‘glitterball’ filled venue above the famous Garage. played host to a fast-rising London based brother and sister duo, who I think have all the elements and great team behind them, to become one of the UK Americana and Folk Rock breakthroughs acts of 2019.

Blending Americana with Folk Rock, Max and Esmay have such a great talent to write and produce memorable, meaningful and commercial songs. Blended together with excellent arrangements, musicianship and special ‘blood’ harmonies. The first time I heard their music I had the same reaction as I did when I first heard The Wandering Hearts, who have gone on to great success over the past few years.

On the hottest day so far of 2019, the crowd braved the heat to enjoy a top night of new indie music.

Their special guest and opening the launch was Essex based Country singer-songwriter Roisin O’Hagen who has also been on my radar for a while. Roisin was a Fender Undiscovered Artist of the Year 2018 finalist and has recently performance a ‘Under The Apple Tree’ session at the home of a legendary supporter of new artists broadcaster Bob Harris. Taking to the stage solo with her bright red Fender acoustic, Roisin performanced a seven song set of some of her most popular tracks including ‘Miss You Like June’, ‘Undone’, ‘Run’ and ‘Living In The Dark’, We were even treated to her UTAT session song ‘Coming Home’. With a great new single ‘Drive’ released back in June, I’m expecting more very deserved recognition and success for Roisin this year. Please watch out for her at a gig or festival near you.

Introduced by another wonderful BBC Radio 2 broadcaster and support of indie music Paul Sexton, Max and Esmay took to the stage along with Jim on drums and Scott on guitar. With Esmay taking the lead vocal they opened their set with the rocky Americana flavoured ‘True North’. This was quickly followed by a great track which has received a lot of regional radio play recently ‘ If This Is Love’ taken from the new album. ‘Lionheart’ is an aspiration song about having courage, really going for it and following your dreams. The pace then slowed for the heartfelt ‘Place In The Sun’, a love song written for their parents 40th wedding anniversary.

With just Max and Esmay on stage, Max plays piano and takes lead vocals on the uplifting, atmospheric Fleetwood Mac and Laurel Canyon flavoured ‘Rise & Shine’. Another aspirational song in the set was the very catchy folk rock ‘Vertigo’. It was full of driving percussion and soaring harmonies. One of my favourite tracks on the night was the wonderful and reflective ‘Holding On’, which was the first track the Max and Esmay wrote togethe with its beautiful heartfelt lyrics, soft finger picked guitar, delicate bass and super vocals. Next was the the more rocky album title track ‘Ready To Run’ which is receiving a lot of praise and love and very rightly so. The track was written near Lake Tahoe in the US about the end of a relationship.

Max and Esmay returned to the stage for their well deserved two song encore. First was the wonderful ‘Leave Your Light On’ followed by a beautiful unplugged up close and personal performance of ‘Muscle and Bone’ in the middle of a very attentive audience.

It was a super and very memorable debut album launch by two new high flying stars of the London music scene. LCM ‘Ones to watch’ in 2019.

You can buy a copy of Max and Esmay’s new album below or directly through their website >>>

Sam Kelly And The Lost Boys - Bush Hall. London (11/11/18)

THE LONDON ROOTS FESTIVAL

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• Line-up: Sam Kelly and The Lost Boys with special guests Honey and the Bear

• Date: 11th November, 2018

• Location: Bush Hall, London

• Review By: Gary Smith (LCM)

A ‘Remembrance Sunday’ gig at the wonderful Bush Hall in London saw one of the UK’s finest young folk bands headline a very memorable night of music. It was full of passion, high energy and high quality music.

Sam Kelly and The Lost Boys have gained a worthy reputation as an very exciting live band. They are also a folk super group, full of very talented award winning individual musicians in their own right. They played a slightly reduced regular line-up at Bush Hall with Graham Coe (The Jellyman’s Daughter) and Archie Churchill-Moss (MMR) missing. But still had the awarding winning Sam Kelly (The Changing Room), Jamie Francis (The Changing Room, Stark), Toby Shaer (Seth Lakeman, Carousel), Ciaran Algar (Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar) and Evan Carson (The Willows, The Changing Room, Ange Hardy) in their ranks. 

Special guests Honey and Bear, the newly married duo of Jon Hart and Lucy Sampson. had joined Sam and the band on their tour in March last year and the combination worked perfectly again. Hailing from Suffolk their great blend of Folk and bluesy Americana really complemented SKATLB’s more high energy Folk Rock style. I’m always fascinated by multi-instrumentalists and both Jon and Lucy swapped their multitude of instruments with ease. Their infectious music and tight rich harmonies adding to the mix. Subject material included the long distance yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, Dulwich under the sea, a lovely song dedicated to their grandparents and the beautiful ‘Sailor’s Daughter’.

After a short break Sam and The Lost Boys opened with the upbeat ‘The Kings Shilling’ from the band’s self titled debut album. The album version also features Kitty Macfarlane, who has just released her excellent debut album also produced by Sam.

Included on Sam’s 2015 EP ‘Spokes’ ‘Hickathrift’ tells the story of a giant killer. Tom Hickathrift is a legendary figure of East Anglian English folklore, a character very similar to Jack the Giant Killer. 'Angeline The Baker' (Roud 1834) was written by Stephen Foster for the Christy Minstrels and first published in 1850. The original Appalachian tune laments the loss of a female slave sent away by her owners. The song was also featured on Jamie Francis’ debut solo album.

The title track from Sam debut EP ‘Spokes’ followed but not before an anecdote about the song being played a few times on BBC Radio Shropshire on its release, enabling the band to buy a Freddo between them with the PRS radio royalties. Sam mentioned that the song was also played on the TV series ‘Hollyoaks’.

Sam revealed that Jamie and himself had recently signed a publishing deal. ‘Like Lennon and McCartney’ Sam said ‘You now have Kelly and Francis’. ‘Francis and Kelly I thought’ corrected Jamie with a smile. ‘He doesn’t say much, but when he does…..it’s solid gold’ said Ciaran laughing.

Taken from Sam’s second album ‘Picking Up The Pieces’ with ‘The Changing Room’, ‘Gwrello Glaw’ meaning ‘Let It Rain’ is a stunning song sung in Cornish. Sam mentioned that he played the song at Jon and Lucy’s wedding as their first dance. We returned to a nautical theme for a dark tale in which a lady's lover long lost at sea, returns to her and persuades her to come away with him to a distant land. After boarding the ship, in the true traditions of folk music, she quickly realizes all is not as it seems......[spoiler alert] one of the versions of this traditional song is called 'The Demon Ship'. The love interest of the traditional song 'The Bony Lass of Fyvie' gave them the title of their latest album 'Pretty Peggy'. On the album version the band are joined on the track by the wonderful Cara Dillon.

Described as ‘the stuff of nightmares’ by Sam, the ‘Dullahan’ is a headless Irish horseman who collects the souls of the dying. With its excellent high energy finish, this song is also found on the bands debut album. Next was a song dedicated to Sam’s grandparents who inspired his love of folk music, the beautiful ‘I’ll Give You My Voice’. Sam mentioned that you can find himself and his grandfather playing music together on YouTube.

First collected in the late 70’s from the North East of England and learnt from the singing of M. Knopfler, was a super high energy version of ‘Sultans of Swing’. It’s always a crowd favourite and it didn’t take much to have the audience singing and clapping along.

'The Close Shave', a very clever and funny variation on the traditional song 'Barrack Street'. It tells the unfortunate tale of gold miners in the a New Zealand town, cross dressing, gross deception, heavy drinking, robbery and a never ending cycle. The personal and tender 'Chasing Shadows' written by Sam is a song for a close friend and for anyone currently going through a tough time. Sam also mentioned that is now available on all BA flights, as it has been added recently to their playlist.

To finish the main set the band played ‘Greenland Whale’, a very catchy high tempo traditional whaling shanty is sometimes know as 'The Whale Catchers' or 'The Twenty Third of March'. It's a real toe-tapper with a great hooks and a sing-a-long chorus.

Their encore song ‘Healing Hands’ was followed with a couple of tunes, 'Josh's Slip' by Toby and 'Rookery Lane' by Ciaran which form the uptempo 'Shy Guy's Serve' set.

With a standing ovation and the sound of a very happy audience ringing in their ears the band knew that they had performed one of their best London gig to date. Another excellent addition to The London Roots Festival.

Photo Credit: Navigator Records

Photo Credit: Jon Hart

Honey and the Bear