Tag: Americana

Feb 10 2025

Jeff Cohen Writers Round – in association with Nashville Meets London

Sunday 26th January 2025

Review, photos and video by Keith Belcher

The Live Room, Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire

Jeff Cohen with Ashley Campbell , Kezia Gill, Jade Helliwell and Steve Chrisanthou

Conducted along the lines of Songwriter’s Circle, the BBC 2 show from circa 2010/12. Three artists taking it in turn to introduce and sing a song. This show had 2 additional guests. Take my word for it , this was a truly great show. See the quotes below, taken mainly from TLR WhatsApp Group. Some shots of the night.

Quotes: (Thanks to Ron, Mike, Alun, Andy, Graham and Eric)

Someone (quite a few people actually ) left saying “Well, That’s show of the year sorted”

“It was fantastic entertainment from start to finish and everyone who took part was terrific”

” It was one of those truly magical nights, stunning from start to finish”

” Last night was such a warm, revealing and engaging experience. Each performance brought the individuality of voice, playing and writing of each artist and was enthusiastically received by the audience”

“Awesome, loving it, especially the girl from Batley”

“Off the scale”

“What a brilliant show. The girls singing was awesome – each different. Loved the way the Campbell girl paid so much attention and joined in on songs she didn’t really know”.

“Ashley’s song for her Dad Glen Campbell was a highlight of the evening. Very moving”

videos by keith belcher

Jeff Cohen - Holy Water

Ashley Campbell - Remembering

Kezia Gill - Sky High

Jade Helliwell - Lighthouse

Steve Chrisanthou - Put Your Records On

Feb 9 2025

Showman & Coole

Friday 24th January 2025

Photos and video by Keith Belcher

Two thirds of the Lonesome Ace Stringband from Canada, John Showman and Chris Coole showed us just what a great fiddler and banjo player can do. Superb harmonies and funny stories too! A wonderful evening of top class acoustic music from two of the best.

videos by keith belcher

Medley: Don't Leave Your Records In The Sun and Skippin' In The Mississippi Dew by John Hartford and a Chris Coole original, The Echo.

Feb 7 2025

Tim O’Brien & Friends

Friday 17th January 2025

Review, photos and video by Keith Belcher

Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius and Seamie O’Dowd, TLRFriday 17th January 2025. The Live Room, Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire.


The first show at TLR last year was Tim O’Brien. Roll on a year and Tim O’Brien , Jan Fabricius and Seamie O’Dowd opened the music for 2025. Family reasons prevented Dermot Byrne appearing. Such is the calibre of these musicians that they adapted the arrangements to give a superb performance lasting over 2 hours. Tim & Seamie swapped instruments throughout the night.

Both played guitar, bouzouki and fiddle to a great standard. Jan played mandolin throughout and also contributed some lead vocals. Tim was in comedy mode in between songs and regaled the audience with humourous banter. Some new songs were played from a forthcoming album and the back catalogue was visited even including older Hot Rize classics as well as many old favourites.


2024 was a superb year for music at TLR. We were treated to some really awesome (a much overused word but appropriate here) performances . The line up for 2025 shows no sign of letting up. Two of the 3 shows this January are already sold out with few tickets left for the third. Tim and band got the year off to a great start. A capacity crowd were entertained with both songs and music of the highest standard. He can open again next year if he likes.

videos by keith belcher

Arthur Darley's Jig

I Breathe In

Keep Your Lap Trimmed and Burning

Dec 6 2024

Track Dogs

Sunday 24th November 2024

Photos by Nigel Plant

It was the third visit of the Madrid-based quartet to TLR and their biggest crowd to date. In fact, the band said it was their biggest crowd – as a stand alone act – of their career! They have been building a reputation for their live shows over the past few years and they never leave an audience without huge smiles on their faces. Tonight was no different as they delivered another fabulous performance of their rootsy blend of folk, Americana, Latin rhythms and friendly air of chaos – a great night!

Dec 5 2024

Joachim Cooder

Sunday 10th November 2024

Review, photos and videos by Keith Belcher

Sunday 10th November 2024. The debut appearance of Joachim Cooder at The Live Room. Accompanied by virtuoso old time fiddler Rayna Gellert. I hadn’t seen Joachim before but had seen Rayna a few times many years back when she was playing in the late lamented Uncle Earl band.

Rayna played fiddle and viola tonight as well as backing vocals and harmonies. Joachim was playing an electric Mbira and main vocals (photo below). A very interesting and intriguing, infectious sound in that the Mbira, an upsizing and adaptation of an African instrument obviously imparted an African vibe to the sound, this merged with Joachim’s self penned songs and several songs from the catalogue of Uncle Dave Macon (David Harrison Macon October 7, 1870 – March 22, 1952), known professionally as Uncle Dave Macon an American old-time banjo player and singer.

The banjo was originally an African instrument also so in many ways the adaptation of another African instrument continues a logical pairing (Darrell Scott’s Banjo Clark tells the story of the banjo in music-that’s today’s trivia!) Rayna contributed to the old timey vibe with her playing and 2 solo fiddle tunes. This was a rapidly sold out gig, well received by a very enthusiastic audience, some solid eclectic rhythms and sound, ably narrated throughout by Joachim. The tour and albums have been getting very good reviews.

videos by keith belcher

Hold The Woodpile Down

I Thought You Were A Goat No.1

Morning Blues

Nov 10 2024

Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra

Sunday 13th October 2024

Photos & Video by Keith Belcher

It was a sparkling evening with Rob and the band on their second visit here, this time with their new album, Feet First. A great night of honky tonk, Western Swing, old school rock & roll and country. Rob is a sharp and very funny songwriter.

videos by ketih belcher

Blood In The Water

Honest Man Blues

Good Lovin'

Oct 2 2024

Peter Bruntnell Band

Sunday 15th September 2024

Photos and video by Keith Belcher

A return visit from The Peter Bruntnell Band. Touring and playing music from new record (CD and vinyl) Houdini And The Sucker Punch The band is Peter Bruntnell guitar and main vocals, Mick Clews, drums, Dave Little , electric guitar and Peter Noone on bass.

videos by keith belcher

No Place Like Home

Out Of The Pines

Perfume River

Oct 2 2024

Kristian Bush

Sunday 1st September 2024

Photos & video by Keith Belcher

We were very lucky to secure the services of this multi-platinum selling, Grammy Award-winning artist here at TLR, and we weren’t disappointed, as Kristian, accompanied by his brother Brandon on keyboards, gave us a sparkling show, full of warmth and great songs. Another award winning artist, Jeff Cohen, opened the show and gave a very engaging performance that had the audience laughing. It was a mark of how popular the show was that we’ve rarely seen such a queue at the merch desk after the show!

videos by keith belcher

Jeff Cohen: Hey Love

Kristian Bush: A Different Way To Get There

Kristian Bush: All I Wanna Do

Kristian Bush: Giving It Up

Aug 28 2024

Andrew Combs

Sunday 25th August 2024

Photos, video by Keith Belcher; show comments from Kevin Thomas

We’d been chasing Andrew since about 2018 when we discovered him at Americanafest in Nashville, so we were very excited to bring this wonderfully talented singer songwriter to The Live Room for the first time. With a new record just released, Dream Pictures, Andrew was on a tour of the UK, Ireland and Europe. He was supported by Bradford Americana singer songwriter, Chris Dover.

Andrew Combs was a revelation to me. An excellent musician, very calm, composed and insightful. I really like his songs, delivered with a relaxed style that grows on you as the night proceeds. His modest, no bullshit patter is not typically American, another plus. The long queue to buy his albums at the end showed I was not the only one impressed. – Kevin Thomas

videos by keith belcher

Chris Dover: Whiskeyhead

Chris Dover: Sweet Angeline

Andrew Combs:Eventide

Andrew Combs: Too Stoned To Cry

Andrew Combs: Better Way

Jul 10 2024

Mark Radcliffe & Dave Boardman/Weeping Willows Double Bill

Sunday 30th June 2024

Photos, video and review by Keith Belcher

Sunday 30th June 2024. The Live Room, Saltaire. A double header of two debutantes to TLR. From Australia, The Weeping Willows (not to be confused with Weeping Willows- a Swedish band ) and Boltons own Mark Radcliffe with Knutsford resident David Boardman.

The Weeping Willows are Australians Andrew Wrigglesworth (guitar, lead vocals) and Laura Coates (lead vocals, accordion and tambourine). Currently resident in Melbourne. Ron and Hilary “discovered” The Weeping Willows on one of their Nashville visits, meeting up with them again in Kansas (the pandemic came between the visits I think). The usual good taste in bringing these two musicians to TLR. It took a while but happened eventually.

There was the little matter of a football match on Sunday night but the gig was sold out regardless. On Monday I saw a gig cancellation at Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton ( Jon Palmer Acoustic Band) for this Saturday (July 6th). The reason for the cancellation “EVENT POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORESEEN FOOTBALL”. On Sunday there were a few who crept in at 8pm after the travesty had reached its conclusion. They would have missed the best part of The Weeping Willows but probably caught up with their sleep during the football.

The Weeping Willows opened a really tremendous night of high quality entertainment. I was not familiar with Andrew and Laura’s music before the night. I was very impressed. Their opening song “River Of Gold” reminded me greatly of The Civil Wars (remember them, a meteoric rise and similar crash but absolutely phenomenal on stage – I saw them twice), Andrew’s very accomplished guitar and Laura’s tremendous voice create a very large sound for 2 people. They had that same power and presence on stage. Andrew took lead on several songs and they combined their voices beautifully. On another song, “Singin’ The Blues”, I was reminded of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (who I adore) with homage to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.

They covered a vast range of musical genres, Americana , Southern Gothic, obviously but a touch of bluegrass, some blues , some rock, uptempo and ballads. In just under an hour they crammed a lot of music in as well as getting the audience to check the footie scores . They left the stage to serious applause . They returned during Mark’s set to help with “Out On The Shore”. After the show they posted that they couldn’t stop smiling . They were not alone. It was one of those evening where everyone went home smiling, even the football supporters. Let’s have them back for a full show please.

Continuing with the action on 30th June 2024. Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman took the stage following The Weeping Willows. At times you may have thought you had come to a comedy night. There were lots of very funny stories mixed in with the largely self penned songs mainly about the North of England.

videos by keith belcher

Bells Are Ringing In The Churchyard

Singin' The Blues

First Light

Steal The Sea