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PLAYING OUT LOUD!
ARTICLES
Hayseed Dixie. Preview by Peter Ashton.
 According
to the sleeve notes for the first Hayseed Dixie album, "A Hillbilly Tribute To
AC/DC" their interest in AC/DC started when they found a collection of AC/DC
records in the valley of Deer Lick Holler in the Appalachian mountains of the
USA, where a stranger had crashed in his car and expired. They could only play
the records at 78rpm on an old Edison Victrola player, but the boys all agreed
that it was mighty fine country music. Well, if you believe that, you’ll believe
anything!
One thing is true though, Hayseed Dixie, who appear at the Wedgewood Rooms in
Southsea on Wednesday February 9, have built up a huge reputation as a
sensational live act since they formed in 2001. They don’t just to AC/DC covers
- after their debut album sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, they went back
into the studios to record some of their own songs. The result was “A Hillbilly
Tribute to Mountain Love” an inspired exploration of one of the primary reasons
for drinking, cheating, killing and going to hell.
The next development in the career of Hayseed Dixie was hearing some songs by
the band Kiss and realising they were kindred spirits. So in February 2003 they
spent two inspired days in the recording studio to produce their third album
"Kiss My Grass - A Hillbilly Tribute To Kiss." There followed a joint tour with
Kerosene Brothers followed including over 100 shows all over the USA and
Australia which included much heroic drinking.
Feeling the need to plough some fresh fertile fields, the boys began to focus on
getting to the UK and Europe. as well. Last year they released of "Let There Be
Rockgrass" and the first UK tour took place. According to Hayseed Dixie, the
full spectrum of hell was raised and “Rockgrass” became an international
phenomena.
Now they’re back on tour in the UK again and as lead singer Barley Scotch says:
"We ain't even started drinking yet. We've just been on a recon mission so far.
Now we know where the party people around the world are, and we're coming back
to close the deal!
Hayseed Dixie are: Barley Scotch - singer, guitar & fiddle, Don Wayne Reno -
banjo, Dale Reno - mandolin and Jason D. Smith - bass. Tickets for their gig at
the Wedgewood Rooms on February 9 are £10 via 02392 863911.
Dana Gillespie. Preview by Peter
Ashton.
 If
you like your blues delivered in a raunchy, back-in-the-alley style and you live
anywhere near Poole, then get over to Mr Kyps excellent music venue on Friday
February 11. Playing there that night is former actress Dana Gillespie, whose
band includes talented pianist Dino Baptiste.
The glamorous Dana recorded her first album at the age of 15, moving from folk
through 70s Bowie-esque glam-rock to her first love, the blues. "I discovered
the blues when I went to the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962,” says Dana,
“and I also went to see the Yardbirds at the Marquee Club. I was in my early
teens then, and hadn't heard anything like it before - blues wasn't easily
available in the UK back then." Bessie Smith also inspired her because of her
combination of sly, funny and bawdy lyrics. "Blues was my first musical love
because it's earthy, spiritual and honest," says Dana.
In 1964 she recorded for Pye, with Donovan on guitar and became a regular on the
folk circuit. She recalls: "I was doing folk because I couldn't afford a band
and I hadn't found my musical niche". In those early years Dana got to know many
of the top bands and people in the music business. Most shared her love of
blues, and played their own version of it. Bob Dylan, who was an old friend of
Dana from the 60s, later invited her to support him on his 1997 UK tour.
Running alongside her musical career, Dana has also enjoyed a career in the
theatre and cinema. She appeared in the first run of “Jesus Christ Superstar”
(playing Mary Magdalene), The Who's "Tommy" (playing the Acid Queen) and the
rock Othello, "Catch My Soul". She also appeared with Peter Cooke and Dudley
Moore in the film version of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" and starred in Ken
Russell's "Mahler" among other movies.
Her second RCA album “Ain’t Gonna Play No Second Fiddle” was just beginning to
take off when her management company decided she should move to the USA, where
she played and toured extensively for two years, also hosting a radio blues show
in New York.
During the 80s, Dana toured Europe several times with the "Stars Of Boogie
Woogie" tour, singing either with the Mojo Blues Band or with Axel Zwingenberger.
Since 1982 Dana has recorded six more blues albums including her latest “Staying
Power.” In 2002 Dana was invited to take her road band, The London Blues Band,
on the first ever major tour of India by a western band of India.
In recognition of her talent, Dana was voted 'Top British Female Blues Vocalist'
by the British Blues Connection and Blueprint Magazine between 1992 and 1996,
and has now been elevated into their Hall Of Fame.
Advance tickets for the gig at Mr Kyps are £8 through 01202 748945 and £9 on the
door. Support is by the Harry Skinner Blues Band.
Laura Veirs. Preview by Peter Ashton
 Another
packed night of Americana comes to Winchester’s Railway Inn on Sunday February
27. Headlining is haunting American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs with The
Tortured Souls plus support from Black Neilson, Gina Villa Lobos and Karl Blau.
The gig starts early so order your tickets now and get there promptly.
Laura Veirs grew up in a progressive pocket of Colorado Springs, where her
parents were teachers. The family including her older brother Scott was very
close, and spent many summers and winters camping, backcountry skiing, canoeing,
and other outdoor activities. Although Laura was encouraged from a young age to
express herself artistically, she wasn’t particularly drawn to music in her
childhood. Her family played classical, folk, and world music on the stereo, and
Laura took a few years of piano lessons, but by the time high school rolled
around she wasn't really involved in music being more interested in sports and
photography. Veirs's first musical memory is of her dad singing her to sleep
with old American folk songs.
She first started playing guitar at the age of 19 when she was at Carleton
College in rural Minnesota. She initially learned folk songs but soon after a
friend introduced her to Bikini Kill, Sonic Youth, and other noisy bands. It
wasn't long before she convinced three girl friends to start a punk band. She
had so much fun that she nearly abandoned her studies of geology and Chinese.
Until that point, Veirs had been considering a career as a Chinese translator,
diplomat, or geologist or other form of scientist.
After college she moved to Seattle, where she started playing solo at open mic
nights. With the help of a friend, Laura recorded some songs submitted themas an
audition for Seattle's 1999 Bumbershoot Festival; she was accepted. That summer
she moved to San Juan Island in Washington State, where she met Bret Lunsford,
former guitarist for Beat Happening, at his record store. Lunsford asked her to
play a show at the store, where she met the vibrant Anacortes music community,
including bassist/guitarist Karl Blau (who now plays in her band); Blau then
introduced her to a wide variety of underground Northwest folk and rock
musicians.
Veirs also made her first CD, ‘Laura Veirs’, that summer in a recording studio
on a neighbouring island. Made in only three hours, the album was self-released
later that year. The following year another Seattle musician, Aiko Shimada,
introduced Veirs to producer/drummer Tucker Martine and trombonist/keyboard
player Steve Moore—two members of her current band. Veirs and Martine instantly
hit it off, and she recorded ‘The Triumphs and Travails of Orphan Mae’ with him
in August 2000. She again self-released the record, which made a modest but
noticeable splash in the local press and radio.
Veirs recorded her next record, ‘Troubled by the Fire’ in the spring of
2002.which was released worldwide in March 2003 to surprising critical acclaim.
In June 2003, before heading out on her first European tour, Veirs and her band
The Tortured Souls—which now also includes viola player Eyvind Kang and cellist
Lori Goldston recorded ‘Carbon Glacier’ which was released in Europe and
Australia in February 2004 receiving high critical praise. Mojo magazine called
it "incantatory, contemplative, literate," and went on to say, "Laura Veirs
might be the bridge between the alt-country ghetto and the Sheryl Crow-revering
mainstream," while Uncut, in a five-star lead review, called Carbon Glacier
Veirs' "first masterpiece…the unmistakable sound of a songwriter hitting her
stride, pouring herself into each syllable."
For more information on the Railway Inn gig ring 01962 867795
Deadstring Brothers. Preview by Peter Ashton
 Wistful
Americana sounds are on the menu at the Railway Inn in Winchester on
Thursday February 24 when the Deadstring Brothers from Detroit entertain. The
Deadstring Brothers began as a two-piece in the autumn of 2001 when
singer/guitarist Kurt Marschke met pedal steel player Peter Ballard while doing
session work. Discovering their mutual love of old country music, the duo began
playing covers at any local dive that would have them. The pair later expanded
the line-up to include the organ/electric piano of Aric Karpinski, and the
rhythm section of drummer William King and bass player Philip Skarich.
Since then the band have worked to develop their own take on Americana,
drawing influences from a variety of sources. "It's all in there somehow,"
declares Marschke, "but blues and country music just feel the most natural." Not
unlike Exile On Main Street-era Stones, the Deadstring Brothers deliver a
menacing sound that draws equally on the melancholy of country ballads and the
abandon of rock and blues. The band's music is deeply rooted in the storytelling
and instrumental traditions of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and the "Outlaw
Movement," but is also informed by the song structure and understated aggression
commonly associated with Detroit bands. Their haunting melodies reveal the
influence of early '70s rock icons like The Band and Gram Parsons, while
Marschke's vocals betray the more modern influence of outré singer/songwriters
like
Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave.
Deadstring Brothers' live performances have the energy of lo-fi guitar
rock, but sophisticated arrangements keep them from being "just another Detroit
band." As steel guitarist Peter Ballard testifies, "I like music, but I love
and live the old country stuff."
In their hometown, the Deadstring Brothers have shared the stage with acts
ranging from Cat Power and Eleni Mandell to Jesse Malin, the Bastard Sons of
Johnny Cash and Jesse Sykes.
Support on the night of February 24 at the Railway comes from Thee
Exciters. Tickets are available via 01962 867795.
KT Tunstall. Preview by Peter Ashton
 Upcoming
young Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall plays a gig at Southampton’s
Joiners Arms on Wednesday February 9. The latest in a line of outstanding
contemporary Scottish songwriters including Texas, Fran Healy, Teenage Fanclub
and The Beta Band, KT combines emotionally connecting intensity with gripping
lyrical bite and heartfelt melody, according to her website.
KT grew up in the university town of St Andrews which she describes as
“beautiful but sheltered, a little bubble" always knowing she had been adopted
at birth. "I grew up knowing I could have had a million different lives. It
makes your life mysterious and your imagination go wild," she says.
Her debut album 'Eye To The Telescope' is the creative consequence of that
inquiring imagination. "My songs examine and explore little specific emotions or
situations or stories," she explains. "They're kitchen table songs, like a
conversation between me and one other person. It's almost like an alien has been
sent to get emotional samples
from human beings and put it all together on a record."
KT spent her childhood up hills and under canvas with her outward-bound parents.
Music was never really part of the equation until her older brother discovered
the joys of hair metal. "I would sit outside his room and record his music
through his door." The first album she bought was “The Never-ending Story”
soundtrack, but her favourite, reassuringly, is David Bowie's 'Hunky Dory'.
"Its’ sound really touched my love for songwriting and spacey stuff," she says.
"I was really into sci-fi books as a kid. My dad is a physicist and he used to
take my brothers and I into his lab when we were little. We played games with
liquid nitrogen and Van de Graaff generators. He had the keys to the observatory
at St Andrew's University and he'd get us up in the middle of the night to show
us Halley's Comet. That's partly why the album is called 'Eye To The
Telescope.'"
The young KT took up piano, then flute and gradually her singing voice developed
its earthy individuality, "I'm pretty certain that I learned how to sing because
someone gave me an Ella Fitzgerald tape - she was my singing teacher." By her
mid-teens, KT had started writing her own songs, "But I was just coming out with
this schmaltzy love nonsense. It was a complete vomit of puppy love. But I
thought I was rocking." At 16, she took up the guitar, teaching herself from a
busker's book.
Hungry for experiences and independence, she gained a scholarship to Kent School
in Connecticutt, New England and absorbed gigs by The Grateful Dead and 10,000
Maniacs. She also formed her first band, The Happy Campers, and played a host of
informal gigs. Next stop on her personal odyssey was a music course at Royal
Holloway College, where she tried and failed to form another band. "I managed to
win Battle Of The Bands with one mandolin player! It was me and eleven goth
bands and I won."
She then returned to St Andrews and became immersed in the grassroots scene
which spawned The Beta Band and the Fence Collective, forming a group with
Fence's Pip Dylan and honing her tastes with a diet of James Brown, Lou Reed,
Billie Holliday, Johnny Cash and PJ Harvey. A few years and bands later, it was
crunch time for Tunstall. She hit London again where, finally, things started to
fall into place. She began writing projects with Swedish songwriter/producer
Martin Terefe and London-based Orcadian Jimmy Hogarth and London's Tommy D. With
over a hundred songs
in her pocket she set to work on her debut album with her new band and legendary
U2/New Order/Happy Mondays producer Steve Osborne at the helm.
Since completing 'Eye To The Telescope', life has been a blur of gigs, first as
support to Joss Stone, then a tour of Europe, singing with 'klezmer hip-hop'
band Oi Va Voi, who ignited the Avalon Stage at Glastonbury.
Now KT is raring to channel all her infectious energies into her own music. "I'm
not exactly sure what has driven me so hard," she says. "I've never questioned
it. I've never had a back-up plan. I was never going to do anything else."
For ticket details on the Joiners gig ring 02380 225612
Philip Jeays. Preview by Peter Ashton
 If
you have a penchant for chanson and you live in Berkshire there's a concert that
might appeal to you at Newbury Corn Exchange on Friday February 25.
The Blue Hours cabaret session hosted by Barb Jungr welcomes Philip Jeays, a
young man who sings and performs in the style of Jacques Brel, but is very
definitely an individual talent.
The following excerpt from a review in The Scotsman gives a taste of what to
expect on the 25th: " At his best, this talented British singer songwriter has a
ravenous charm. Think Jacques Brel reincarnated by an intense cross between
Anthony Newley and David Bowie. He is tall, thin and pale, with an attractive
smile, great haircut and a strong-voiced, often strident delivery of original
material that has nothing to do with the simple minded singalongs or innocuous
background for cocktail bar chatter. Alternately casting himself as romantic
fool, sneering devil and irony-streaked sinner, Jeays produces a neat hour long
set mixing wisdom and sarcasm, self-reflection and self-dramatization.
He is a dab hand at concocting eddying elegies for lost youth , dashed hopes and
dead friends. But he has an even greater penchant for bitter comedies of
hypocrisy, cultural pretension and amatory desparation. Jeays is almost too good
at taking a song by the throat. "
Philip usually appears with guitar, piano and drums backing so he can
concentrate on the songs in his dramatic style. He sings songs from his four
album releases to date - “October,” Cupid Is a Drunkard,”The Ballad of Ruben
Garcia” and “Fame.” There is also a great deal of humour in Jeays' songs along
with the angst and the agony - songs like “The Man from Del Monte (He Say Yes)”
and “Geoff,” a parody of Brel's "Jeff" with the singer considering the murder of
his friend in order to enjoy his wife, car and property, as opposed to Brel's
original appeal to a friend not to commit suicide.
Philip is back by public demand after his last storming appearance at the venue.
Tickets are priced £9 and are available through 01635 522733
The Quireboys. Preview by Peter Ashton.
 Glamrock, retrorock, sleazerock - call them what you will - The Quireboys are
back on the music scene after apparently stealing the show from Whitesnake on
their autumn tour last year. The band originally formed in London in 1984
play a gig at The Brook in Southampton on Tuesday February 22.
Known as The London Quireboys in America and simply the Quireboys
elsewhere, the band came across as a 90s version of The Faces. They were on the
verge
of hitting it big when a similar band named the Black Crowes appeared on the
scene and proceeded to upstage and steal the Quireboys audience.
The Quireboys, originally using the name Queerboys, formed in London in the
mid 80s. The group consisted of Spike on vocals who sounded exactly like Rod
Stewart, guitarists Guy Bailey, Ginger and Nigel Mogg, Coze on drums and
Chris Johnstone on keyboards. Their debut album “A Bit of What You Fancy”
released in 1990 spawned four singles which charted in the UK and Europe and had
minor success in the USA. Three years later the band released their next album
”Bitter Sweet and Twisted” featuring new drummer Rudy Richman. But the long
gap since their last album meant that the band had lost their momentum, and
they temporarily broke up.
The Quireboys reformed in the late 1990s, releasing the album “This Is Rock
'N' Roll” in 2001. Then in 2002 Clear Channel Promotions and Danny Bowes of
Thunder brought back the Monsters of Rock idea, putting it in the arenas in
November of that year. Alice Cooper was to headline with Thunder supporting;
they needed a band who had performed at one of the original shows at Castle
Donnington, so who else to ask but The Quireboys, who gladly accepted. Jason
Bonham (son of the late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin helped out on drums and the
concerts were recorded resulting in the “Live 2002” album released early the
following year. The rest of 2003 saw the guys playing The Bulldog Bash Series Z
Festival in Spain and a small tour of the UK. Jason left to join UFO making
way for Michael Lee ( Page & Plant, The Cult ) to fill the drum slot from
August to December. In the meantime the band made 'Well Oiled', their fourth
studio album, with new members Paul Guerin ( Red Dogs, Michael Schenker, The
King)
on guitars and Pip Mailing ( The Pecadiloes) on drums. It was at this time
that Phil Mogg (UFO) asked his manager Peter Knorn to take on 'The Quireboys'.
Peter then managed to secure a deal with SPV Records in Germany and
Crown/Nippon in Japan. 'Well Oiled' was released in June 2004. Support slots
with
David Lee Roth and UFO, headline gigs and major festival appearances in Spain,
Italy and Germany made it a great for the band.
Advance tickets for The Brook gig are £10 via 02380 555366. Get there
early on the night as there is a support band, Tokyo Dragon.
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Hayseed Dixie Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea
Wednes February 9
Dana Gillespie
Mr Kyps, Poole Friday February 11
Laura Veirs
Railway Inn, Winchester
Sunday February 27
Deadstring Brothers Railway Inn, Winchester
Thurs February 24
KT
Tunstall
Joiners Arms, Southampton Wednes February 9
Philip Jeays Newbury Corn Exchange
Friday February 25
The Quireboys
The Brook, Southampton
Tues February 22
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