The Live Room
The best all round roots music club in West Yorkshire
Sunday 23rd July 2023
Review and photos by Ron Pengelly
Saltaire visit on Sunday evening from Texan electric bluesman Hamilton Loomis and his band at the conclusion of their UK tour.
All kinds of blues plus a healthy dollop of funk and rock blew the roof off and made for a rather special show full of energy. The audience loved every minute, and huge appreciation from him both for the audience and the venue.
Hurry back Hamilton!
Wednesday 12th July 2023
Review and photos by Ron Pengelly
Really enjoyed my stint at The Live Room at Saltaire in Saltaire in recent weeks covering for their regular photographer Keith Belcher. It’s been a privilege to have a ringside seat for so many top notch folk and roots acts from all over the world.
Many acts, like Canadian Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys on Wednesday evening, are difficult to categorize in terms of genre, but the common threads are consummate musicianship and great entertainers. And boy were we entertained last night, as the standing ovation at the end showed. Unbelievable, still buzzing, and now we know why he’s called ‘Crazy Legs’!
Sunday 9th July 2023
Review and photos by Ron Pengelly
Lots of love at The Live Room at Saltaire for a superb Americana double bill on Sunday evening. Great show from Carter Sampson and Amelia White of Oklahoma and Nashville towards the end of their UK tour.
Friday 7th July 2023
Review and photos by Ron Pengelly
A blast of Indian folk rock at The Live Room at Saltaire on Friday night from Bangalore based The Raghu Dixit Project. Great, energetic songs, with some Iron Maiden woven in, and a competitive singalong, where half the audience didn’t have a clue what they were singing. And a selfie with the audience to round off the evening.
Great evening guys, thanks for coming to Yorkshire!
Sunday 25th June 2023
Review and photos by Ron Pengelly
A taste of the wilderness of New Mexico came to Saltaire on Friday with the Hoth Brothers. My photos of a hugely entertaining set of toe tapping Appalachian inspired songs from Bard Edrington and Sarah Ferrell, with Karina Wilson on fiddle and vocals standing in for Boris McCutcheon who couldn’t make the tour.
Great show, thanks folks.
Friday 16th June 2023
Review and photos by Ron Pengelly
Welsh language band Vri at The Live Room on Friday showcasing Welsh folk tradition. Fantastic harmonies, energy and musicianship, three guys who clearly love playing together. Felt like we were in the pub for a singalong one minute, watching top notch chamber music the next.
Hugely impressive and uplifting. Give ’em a listen.
Sunday 11th June 2023
Review, photos and video by Keith Belcher
The third Scots act in a row for TLR. This time relative youngsters Gnoss made their TLR debut. Gnoss are (from left to right on stage) Connor Sinclair (Flute/Whistles/Vocals), Graham Rorie Fiddle/Mandolin/Electric Tenor Guitar), Aidan Moodie (Guitar/Vocals) and Craig Baxter (Bodhran/Percussion).
Three albums to their name so far: Drawn From Deep Water 2019, The Light of the Moon 2021, and stretching Skyward 2023. What a lot of energy we had on stage tonight. Alternating songs, tunes, stories, jokes and loads of warmth, charisma and dynamism. What more could you want on a Sunday night. Some shots from the show. Quite a few microphones to navigate tonight, not as many as Kris Drever when there were 26 mikes on stage.
Sunday 4th June 2023
Review, photos, video by Keith Belcher
4th June 2023. Kris Drever is no stranger to The Live Room, this was his sixth visit. This was his first with this band of friends making a rare and very welcome foray south of the border. The first of 3 Scots performances in a row for TLR in June. The wonderful Karine Polwart and Iona Lane on 4th and Glasgow based Gnoss on the 11th. Tonight the band comprised Kris on main vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, Euan Burton on upright and electric bass, Rachel Lightbody on vocals and multi tasking Admiral Fallow leader Louis Abbott playing drums, percussion, guitar and vocals.
Pretty much a sell out show with trips through the extensive back catalogue but not usually heard live with this combination of artists. Opening and closing the show proper with songs from 2016 album If Wishes Were Horses. Capernaum to start and finishing with title song If Wishes Were Horses (Both songs also feature on the new CD ..The Best Of.. a 36 track double CD). The harmonies working very well throughout. All band members contributing to vocals. An extremely well paced show with Kris giving good introductions to each song in his distinctively humourous understated style .
Set 2 opened with Kris solo playing Shetland fiddle music on guitar, The Unst Bridal Marches from 2019 mini album Hill And Shore. You could have heard a pin drop in The Live Room. The band re-joined the stage for newish song Catterline from the 2023 new album (The Best of ) . Tempo definitely upped for Hunker Down/That Old Blitz Spirit. Harvest Gypsies was next, a song performed recently at TLR by writer Boo Hewerdine.
The rest of the show just whizzed past ending with I Didn’t Try Hard Enough before a double encore of encores of Poor Man’s Son followed with an off mike encore of The Poorest Company. Kris providing solo unplugged guitar as the only instrumentation and everyone contributing to harmonies. A wonderful ending to a wonderful night. Both songs from the new compilation album.
Ron enjoyed a rare night off sound duties thanks to Tom Stanier doing a cracking job of sound mixing for this tour.
For anyone interested Poorest Company is also a song from 2006’s Before The Ruin where Kris collaborated with John McCusker and Roddy Woomble (and many others-well worth checking out ).
Thursday 1st June 2023
Review, photos and video by Keith Belcher
Thursday 1st June 2023. The return appearance of the multi talented bluesman, Guy Davis. Guy is someone I have wanted to see for a long time but never quite managed it. He’s not just an extremely talented guitarist, banjo player, harmonica player, songwriter, storyteller and singer. He has theatre and film acting credits to his name and has written many plays also.
An excerpt from his press biography tells it all better than I could:
“His performances feature a mix of his original songs and cover songs by Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Mance Lipscombe, Blind Willie McTell, Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and many others. His admiration for antiquities parallels his love of music, “I like antiques and old things, old places, that still have the dust of those who’ve gone before us lying upon them.” Blowing that dust off just enough to see its beauty is something Guy has excelled at for over twenty-five years of songwriting and performing. like savoring the ghosts of old sounds while still enjoying modern music.
Guy is a songwriter greatly influenced by his love of theater and storytelling, who derives joy from touring and seeing people from all walks of life. His hope is to bring people together, with the commonality that we are all people regardless of class, race, or personal experience, a lesson he learned from his long time friendship with Pete Seeger. Guy feels that Pete’s greatest strength was his ability to bring total strangers together, and have them all singing harmony by the time they left at the end of the night. “
It had been almost 10 years since his last show at TLR during the snows of 2013. Ron and Hilary had presented him twice before that at their venue in Wales. We got a superbly classy performance from a very classy artist. A beautifully paced show, along with the superb playing and singing the show layered with stories, anecdotes and a lot of humour and rapport with the audience. He has a huge back catalogue to his name, 20 albums over a more than 35 year career (and still counting) starting with 1978’s Dreams about Life to 2021’s, written during the pandemic, Be Ready When I Call You. Quite a few songs featured were from the latest award nominated album including the splendid ‘Palestine, Oh Palestine’.
After the very funny It Was You (a song about Orange 45) Guy asked if it was OK for him to play a few more, needless to say there were no objections . Full marks go to the Live Room Choir who provided lovely accompaniment to Guy’s songs when requested. A really enjoyable night made me wish I’d got around to seeing him a long time ago.
Friday 26th May 2023
Photos by audience members!
After nine years it was a welcome return visit from Minneapolis singer songwriter, Chastity Brown who with Tahrah Cohen on drums, delivered a powerful and passionate set, mainly comprising of songs from her wonderful latest album, Sing To The Walls. We hope we don’t have to wait another nine years to see her again!
