The Southern Companion to release their excellent new album in January

We are delighted to announce that The Southern Companion will be releasing their new album “Shine A Little Light” on 25th January 2019 on their own label, Eleven33 Records. Pre order will be available from 21st November 2018 and when purchased digitally you will receive "Songbird" as an instant gratification download.

The band will be supporting the release with their first UK headline tour during February and March 2019. Dates to be announced shortly.

Fronted by singer/songwriter and guitarist Darren Hodson, The Southern Companion are made up of some of the UK’s finest session musicians , some of whom first met in the music room at school. Their CV’s include industry big hitters Tom Jones, Take That, Mel C, Lulu, Rumer, James Morrison, Pete Townsend, Dire Straits, Amy MacDonald, the list goes on and on.

After recording an “Under The Apple Tree” session for Bob Harris in 2016, an appearance at the C2C festival in London soon followed and a string of UK festivals that summer brought The Southern Companion firmly into the hearts of Country & Americana fans. 2 years of UK, European and USA tour dates came next supporting songstress Rumer and 60’s legend Lulu.

Multiple British CMA Awards, Live shows for The AMA-UK, National air play on BBC Radio 2 from Bob Harris, as well as a featured song in the upcoming smash hit movie “Wild Rose” feat. Jessie Buckley & Julie Walters, 2019 looks set to be a big year for the band.

“Americana blend that delivers a lot of impressive moments” – Maverick Magazine

“Wonderful band, I really enjoyed their set, We all love that song here” – Bob Harris – BBCR2

“A Mid-Atlantic Sonic Whirlpool where the US & UK currents meet” – AmericanaUK

“In a different place and time Darren’s voice would have made him a 90’s “modern rock” god and that’s a wonderful thing as far as I’m concerned” – Baylen Leonard / Bluegrass Situation

The award winning Lucas and King to release self titled debut album

Crowned ‘Fender Undiscovered Artist Of The Year 2018’ Southampton based duo Bo Lucas & Hayleigh King are set to release their highly anticipated self titled debut album on 23rd November. ‘Lucas & King’ promises to be a great fusion of Blues, Country, Sixties Pop and Roots. Their album launch will be at the prestigious Green Note in Camden on 26th November

With influences including Peggy Lee, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, The Kinks and Dolly Parton, the album features beautifully complex lyrics, sung by the sultry stand-out vocals of lead singer Bo Lucas, made all the brighter by Hayleigh King’s sympathetic and tasteful guitar accompaniment which in turn creates the cinematic backdrop of their sound. The album features elements of sixties pop, surf, garage and blues that take you from the empty and confined opener of ‘Brunswick Place’, through to the realities of love and life in ‘Maybe I Do’, to an existential crisis in ‘Shop Girl’, finishing on the dark noir obsessive ‘Nothing On You’. The duo have managed to create a timeless, but also fresh sound that is entirely their own. Upon meeting in Brighton at university, Bo Lucas (lead vocals and acoustic guitar) and Hayleigh King (electric guitar and backing-vocals) quickly cemented a musical connection, writing their first song ‘Crazy Heart’ within 15 minutes of first playing together.

Their DIY approach to music saw them playing at open mic's and local shows, resulting with the opportunity to tour with and open for Ray Davies - 50th anniversary tour, back in 2014. At short notice they burnt CDs on laptops, with handmade brown paper & cardboard sleeves stuck together, hand stamped with “Lucas & King” and handwritten track listings ready for the tour. In just a few years Lucas & King have stacked up many accolades and awards; the duo were finalists in Glastonbury Emerging Talent 2017 which saw them perform on Rabbit Hole, Avalon and Acoustic stage. Then in July of this year they were crowned winners of the prestigious ‘Fender Undiscovered Artist award’, hand picked by a panel of judges from over 2000 contestants; prize including a trip to LA, with gigs at the Fender factory in Corona California.

Lucas & King have also supported many respected overseas artists, such as Blind Boy Paxton, John Murry, The Americans and Colter Wall, all of whom have become avid fans of this very special duo.

You can pre-order the new album in the link below from Bandcamp

https://lucasandking.bandcamp.com/album/lucas-king

https://www.lucasandking.com/

The excellent The London Roots Festival grows bigger and better for 2018

The London Roots Festival 24th October - 18th November (formerly The London Folk & Roots Festival) is now in it’s fifth year. It’s grown from doing 6 shows in the first year to 32 in 2017 year across various size venues such as The Palladium, Bush Hall, Union Chapel, Shepherds Bush Empire, Oslo and many more.  Growing from strength to strength each year, 2018 promises to be bigger and better than ever.

This year's great line-up includes:-

• Tom Baxter
• Blind Boys Of Alabama
• Joshua Burnside
• Callaghan
• Bruce Cockburn
• Fisherman's Friends
• Finbar Furey
• Jake Morrell
• Lindisfarne
• Over The Rhine
• Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys
• John Smith
• Sound Of The Sirens
• Trampled By Turtles
• Robert Vincent

In 2014 David Messer having promoted roots music for a number of years through DMP UK, decided to start a festival to give a platform for new and up and coming artists to play with known and established artists and to bring the best in roots music to London under one banner. So he teamed up with his friends at National Promotion company Kilimanjaro Live and created the The London Folk & Roots Festival, a multi venue event over two weeks in Oct/Nov.

It’s grown from doing 6 shows in the first year to 32 last year across various size venues such as The Palladium, Bush Hall, Union Chapel, Shepherds Bush Empire, Oslo and many more.

They have changed the name this year as they feel that folk comes under roots and they have an eclectic mix of folk, country, Americana, blues, singer songwriters and world music. We are very pleased here at LCM that this festival, is becoming a great part of London’s musical calendar.

If you are interesting in playing at the festival please send your info to david@dmpuk.com.

https://www.seetickets.com/tour/the-london-roots-festival