The best all round roots music club in West Yorkshire
Tag: Country Music
Mar 5 2026
Jeff Cohen Writers Round 2026
Sunday 1st March 2026
Photos and video by Keith Belcher, comments from the TLR WhatsApp group and Facebook
The return of one of the nicest men in the business, Nashville songwriter and publisher, Jeff Cohen, this time with a new cohort of guests: Laura Oakes from the UK and Stevie Woodward from Nashville. They were also joined for a couple of numbers by Jim Duguid, co-writer of many Paolo Nutini hits, including New Shoes, which he performed, and Steve Chrisanthou, who co-wrote many songs for Corinne Bailey Rae, including Put Your Records On, which he performed for us.
‘Hope that there’ll be another Writers’ Round next year. They’ve both been excellent and really varied’ – Susan Kirkham on Facebook
videos by keith belcher
Jeff Cohen: Boat On A River
Laura Oakes: Good Guy
Stevie Woodward: Nobody But You
Mar 4 2026
Niall McCabe
Friday 27th February 2026
Photos and video by Keith Belcher, review by Mike Latham
A wonderful performance last night. We missed him at Hullabaloo and I hadn’t yet listened to him. His style was not what one might expect from someone from an island off the coast of County Mayo but he has clearly been listening to lots of different sounds over the years. The music of his first few songs made me think of the folk of the sixties , Renbourn and Jansch a bit, but the American country influences came through loud and clear as the evening progressed.
He’s developed his own, wonderful, guitar style, creating great sounds. His songs were marvellous tales of grief, wonderment and humanity, clearly influenced by his local culture as well as the folk music of his homeland and abroad. All was topped off with a great sense of humour and a perfect voice.
Thanks for introducing such another fantastic artist to us, Ron and Hilary.
Videos by Keith Belcher
Crescendo
Valentine's Day
Dec 19 2025
Homegrown Bluegrass
Sunday 14th December 2025
Photos by Nigel Plant
We closed of our 2025 programme with a celebration of all things bluegrass (with more than a dash of country, jazz and contemporary songs) from across Yorkshire. Featuring around twenty musicians, six bands, a tableful of cheese sandwiches and mince pies, and a packed house, it was a great way to bring our musical year to a close!
Many thanks go to Kevin Garratt and John Bennett, who brought all the musicians together ad also performed on the day, and also to Peter Mate, who first launched the idea and with Adrian Gallagher spent several hours preparing all those cheese savouries!
Oct 8 2025
Melissa Carper
plus support Bonnie Montgomery
Thursday 4th September 2025
Review, photos and videos by Keith Belcher
Thursday 4th September 2025, The Live Room, Caroline Street Social Club, Saltaire. The Melissa Carper Band (USA). Melissa on guitar and main vocals, Greg Harkins on guitar and vocals and Bonnie Montgomery on guitar and vocals. Bonnie opened the show. Melissa and Greg coming on stage to join Bonnie’s set for a couple of songs.
In similar fashion Bonnie was on stage with Melissa and Greg for most of their set. There was some great singing, great playing and lots of fun all around. Ron and Hilary had wanted this gig for quite a while since seeing Melissa in Nashville a couple of years back. It more than lived up to their expectations. From the comments and reception I heard during and after the show the TLR crowd were pretty pleased with it too.
Aug 7 2025
Eve Selis: Dark Sky Blue
Plus support Florence Sommerville
Sunday 20th July 2025
Photos and videos by Keith Belcher, review by Mike Latham
Well, that certainly felt like an event that should come with a warning; though, to be fair to Eve, she did set out what she was going to do throughout her set.
Eve took us through her darkest times explicitly. Her art was to try and make sense of what was happening, events far beyond her control and make something out of it to provide a counter to the wide range of emotions that she faced during those times and beyond. That she was able to find that support and resilience to bring her out of those depths was great but then she used her skills as an artist and collaborator to offer those opportunities and solutions to others in her words and music.
The straw poll that Eve carried out at the start showed that nearly the whole room had been affected in similar ways. Her songs supported everyone through those early stages and took them through ways of finding solutions and resilience of their own to emerge with hope and positivity for the future. An emotional rollercoaster certainly but to relive that through each performance as she sings those songs shows the strength of her art. As you say, Eric, powerful.
Special mention must also go to the guitar work of Sam Hunt and the cello of David Hornberger. Both musicians brought a different dimension to the performance than we experienced from Eve before, mirroring the discord of those earlier songs, ‘Monster’ in particular and taking us through to the calm of ‘Grace’ and the positivity of ‘I choose Love’.
All in all, a totally unexpected but emotional and, ultimately, positive experience. We’ve had plenty of great shows this year but Eve’s performance was outstanding.
Thanks to Ron and Hilary, as always.
The evening started off with a beautiful set from Essex singer songwriter, Florence Sommerville, a young artist with a big future ahead of her. Having just launched her debut album, Endless Horizon, she is busy esrablsihing herself on the touring circuit and is also beginning to make waves over at the home of Americana music in Nashville. She’s a gifted songwriter and singer with great stage presence. Look out for her!
videos by keith belcher
Broken Pieces by Florence Sommerville
Cut And Run by Florence Sommerville
Dark Sky Blue by Eve Selis
Monster
Jul 7 2025
South For Winter
Friday 2nd May 2025
Photos & Video by Keith Belcher
We were treated to a wonderful show by New Zealand/USA duo who we first saw at the Folk Alliance Conference in New Orleans in 2020. Great harmonies, songs and musicianship, and great humour too.
videos by keith belcher
Black Crows
Always You
Wintersleep
Apr 7 2025
Lynne Hanson with Blair Michael Hogan (CAN)
Sunday 6th April 2025
Photos and videos by Keith Belcher
videos by keith belcher
Long Way to Crawl
Higher Ground
Shadowland
Mar 3 2025
Carter Sampson
Sunday 2nd March 2025
Photos & videos by Keith Belcher
What a show we had from the ‘Queen of Oklahoma’ on Sunday night. Carter and her band were absolutey superb. She’s a great songwriter with a soulful voice and a magnetic stage presence. Her album, Gold, is not far from our turntable here at TLR central, you should grab a copy!
Opening for Carter is TLR favourite, Joe Martin, who we’re looking forward to seeing with his band and a new album here in 2026.
videos by keith belcher
Another Sad Song by Joe Martin
There's Always Next Year
Lucky
Hello Darlin'
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.
