Jun 12 2022

Suzie Ungerleider

Friday 4th June 2022

Words and photos by Keith Belcher

A collection of stills from last nights performance by Suzie Ungerleider; a very memorable night. So nice to see an artist really having fun on stage

Video by keith belcher

Lucky Star; Pretty Face

May 25 2022

Jake Blount

Sunday 22nd May 2022

Photos by Keith Belcher

The debut appearance of The Jake Blount Band at TLR. Jake on banjo, fiddles and lead vocals. George Jackson, fiddle, banjo and vocals, Nelson Williams, double bass and Gus Tritsch, guitar, uke and vocals.

May 23 2022

Willy Porter

plus support Rebecca Loebe

Friday 20th May 2022

Photos by Keith Belcher

We were surprised and thrilled to have a late addition to the bill for Willy’s first show here in the shape of Austin-based singer songwriter Rebecca Loebe, who is on tour in the UK and had a gap in her diary. She shares a booking agent with Willy and decided to come along to see him as she was in the area for a gig in Queensbury the following night. Things couldn’t have worked out better and the two even managed to rehearse a couple of numbers for the encore. Another wonderful night at TLR!

May 18 2022

Outside Track 2022

Sunday 15th May 2022

Words and photos by Keith Belcher

The Outside Track is:

Isla Ratcliff – fiddle, vocals (Scotland)

Fiona Black – accordion, vocals (Scotland)

Teresa Horgan – flute, lead vocals (Ireland)

Seán Gray- guitar, vocals (Scotland)

Ailie Robertson – Gaelic harp, vocals (Scotland)

May 14 2022

Seth Lakeman

Thursday 12th May 2022

Words and photos by Keith Belcher

Another fantastic sell out gig at TLR. A trip through Seth’s archive. Set list with albums and year released. Difficult to believe Kitty Jay is almost 20 years old!

Set 1

Love Will Still Remain (Make Your Mark-2021)

The Giant (Make Your Mark-2021)

King & Country (Freedom Fields-2006)

Blood Red Sky (Poor Man’s Heaven-2008)

Bury Nights (A Pilgrims Tale-2020)

Bold Knight (Kitty Jay 2004)

Underground (Make Your Mark-2021)

Higher We Aspire (Make Your Mark-2021)

White Hare (Freedom Fields-2006)

The Setting Sun (Freedom Fields-2006)

Set 2

Lady Of The Sea (Freedom Fields-2006)

Side By Side (Make Your Mark-2021)

Shoals To Turn (Make Your Mark-2021)

Soloman Browne (Poor Man’s Heaven-2008)

Coming For You Soon (Make Your Mark-2021)

1643 (Freedom Fields-2006)

The Colliers (Freedom Fields-2006)

Change (Hearts & Mind-2010)

Kitty Jay (Kitty Jay-2004)

Blood Upon Copper (Kitty Jay-2004)

ENCORE

Last Rider (Word Of Mouth-2014)

May 9 2022

Le Vent du Nord – TLR 10th Anniversary

Friday 6th May 2022

Photos and review by Keith Belcher, forward by Ron

Forward

We honestly could not have wished for a better way to celebrate 10 years of The Live Room than we had on Friday night. A lovely little pre-gig buffet with attendant Chorus members, old friends and people who have helped us over the years, followed by the perfect celebration band. Many thanks to Keith for a pictorial record of the evening, one we won’t forget. Here’s looking forward to the next ten years!

We were especially thrilled to receive this beautiful sculpture from our friends Robbie Martin and Molly Kenyon. Robbie created it himself from a solid block of marble and it will be on display from now on at future shows!

Review

Le Vent du Nord (The North Wind) is a Canadian folk music group from Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu in Quebec. The band performs traditional Québécois music (which is heavily influenced by Celtic music from both Ireland and Brittany): The members are: Simon Beaudry (vocals, guitar, Irish bouzouki), Nicolas Boulerice (vocals, hurdy-gurdy, piano accordion, piano), André Brunet (vocals, fiddle, foot-tapping), Réjean Brunet (vocals, diatonic button accordion, acoustic bass guitar, piano and jaw harp) Olivier Demers (vocals, fiddle, foot-tapping, jaw harp and guitar).

Special dancing guest on the night was Ripponden’s own Alice Jones.

Wow! What a gig, a joint celebration of TLR’s 10th anniversary and Le Vent du Nord’s 20th anniversary and debut at TLR. I doubt there are many bands in any genre more suited to a lively celebration. It rocked from start to finish! One of the liveliest and most “Joyeux anniversaires” I have ever attended. (excuse the French). It was also up there in the top TLR gigs of the last 10 years.

May 2 2022

Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman

Friday 29th April 2022

Review and photos by Keith Belcher

An unusual event tonight. Kathryn and Sean, usually one of Folk’s best dressed duos were in civvie garb after leaving their stage bag at Kathryn’s Mum’s house. That didn’t make any difference to the quality of the show. Boosting The Live Room’s already excellent sound with their own Bose units on stage. As Sean said we were in for a veritable Smörgåsbord of songs old and new, self written and traditIonal .

In amongst some of the old favourites were no less than 7 new, as yet unrecorded songs they were road testing on this tour. I think it would be an understatement to say that they went down pretty well. In the mix were traditional murders, tightrope walkers, mysterious cows , love songs, one about a whale singing off key and being lonely and some downright gruesome songs such as Huldra and Child Owlet . Great banter and song explanations throughout.

It goes without saying that Kathryn’s voice, keyboard and flute playing were excellent as was Sean’s guitar work. A really good night. Brother Seth due at TLR later in the month. Set list below.

Set 1

The Granite Mill

52 Hertz

The Rope Dancer (new unrecorded)

The Knight’s Ghost

Red Rose & White Lily (new unrecorded)

The Cows Of Mystery Eavesdropping (new unrecorded)

A Tribute Of Hands

A Song To Live By

Set 2

The Willow Tree

The Fall Of The Lion Queen (new unrecorded)

Night Visiting (new unrecorded)

The Child Owlet

Huldra

The Year Without A Summer (new unrecorded)

Tomorrow Will Follow Today

Pewtor (new unrecorded)

Apr 13 2022

John Smith 2022

plus support from Native Harrow

Sunday 10th April 2022

Review and photos by Keith Belcher

Supporting John on this tour were Philadelphian duo Native Harrow, now resident in Brighton. UK. They are Devin Tuel on main vocals and guitar and musical partner multi-instrumentalist Stephen Harms, tonight mainly on bass and guitar. Both wearing well-made flared trouser suits. They evoked, to me, sounds of the late 60’s and 1970’s.

Devin’s vocals have been compared to, amongst others, Laura Nyro and Karen Carpenter. They have released 4 albums. The latest being CLOSENESS which garnered very good reviews from Uncut, The Times, Mojo and The Guardian. They certainly seemed to have some avid followers in the audience who greeted their songs with much enthusiasm.

The dictionary definition of exquisite is: adjective: “meaning extremely beautiful and delicate or marked by flawless craftsmanship or by beautiful, ingenious, delicate, or elaborate execution”. It could also be justifiably ascribed to John Smith’s performance on Sunday night. I have seen John Smith play great shows many times over the last 16 years or so, often taking in several shows in a tour. Sunday’s show, however, was just exquisitely sublime. The show was deservedly sold out in advance. That’s not bad when you consider he was only playing a few miles away at The Brudenell Club, Leeds the night before. Usually promoters try and avoid that sort of proximity clash but with multiple cancellations, rescheduling etc etc over the last 2 years, life is what is!

There have been many changes for John over the period of you know what. He’s had time for much reflection and introspection. It’s resulted in many great new songs. He’s moved home from Somerset to North Wales, brought his parents over from Spain to care for them, found out he’s allergic to all sorts of things and changed his diet considerably. He’s brought out 3 excellent albums over that period. He has also really missed playing to real live audiences.

The joy of being able to perform again has been, like for other acts recently at TLR very noticeable. His sound has altered considerably. To my ears it’s far more refined and delicate. He was always quiet but never more so than now. The array of effects pedals at his feet also seems to have bred profusely and are used subtly to enhance his voice and guitar. He always used to make do with 2 guitars but he now travels with 3 and one is called Mavis. Perhaps the other 2 also have names but he didn’t introduce them on the night.

A rare night off sound desk duties for Ron, which, I would imagine made the sold out show even more enjoyable. John and Native Harrow had the skills of Barnsley’s Joe Rusby at the desk. Both Joe and John commented at the sound check just what a great room TLR is for sound. Something all the regulars are well aware.

John’s set opened with the array of pedals being used to great effect on a long extremely delicate intro to Hold On from THE FRAY. He then remarked it had been approximately 3 years 16 days since he performed at TLR, not that he had been counting! The next 2 songs were also from THE FRAY. Sanctuary had also been re-recorded for THE FRAY VARIATIONS with a String Quartet at Abbey Road. It has, amongst others, a wonderful line, “I saw the future with eyes wide open”.

The set also featured the traditional Hares On the Mountain and a Roly Salley cover, Killing The Blues, really beautifully sung and played. Whenever I hear this song played by anyone, I think back to a Martin Simpson comment about the royalties cheque difference when Robert Plant and Alison Krauss recorded the song, considerable I should imagine. John’s version was just as good. 

During the time of no live gigs John collaborated with the very phenomenal Sarah Jarosz on a song called Eye To Eye, also on THE FRAY. What a lucky man! He sings with both Sarah Jarosz and the equally brilliant (“big sister”) Lisa Hannigan. He commented that when he received the vocals (it was all done at distance, Sarah is US based) from Sarah he thought he had better redo his own already recorded vocals, Sarah’s were that good. I have seen her several times and she really is a huge talent and still SO young. She also performs in a trio called I’m With Her with Aoife O’Donovan and Sara Watkins who have harmonies beyond belief, well worth checking if not already known.

He did 2 songs co-written and sung with Lisa. The first was Star Crossed Lovers. John joked if we imagine hard Lisa and Sarah might appear from backstage. I’d think I was hallucinating or in heaven if that happened.

 John in a recent Facebook blog had given a glowing report on TLR audience. His line was a “die hard pin drop audience”. I was really aware of this as Sunday really was a “you could hear a pin drop night”. I had arranged with John that I would photograph 3 songs to capture the 3 different guitars and I would do most of it from the back. I have never been so conscious of a shutter click, the listening intensity of the audience was so much that to me, the shutter release sounded like thunder. I sincerely hope I did not really annoy too many people. I moved around to “share” the load. John maintained a friendly constant banter with the audience throughout. There was even a little friendly Northern heckling of Get On With It in response to one banter interlude.

All too soon the show was coming to an end with 2 songs from HEADLONG, Joanna followed by Far Too Good, both songs are incredibly well written and have seriously addictive vocal and guitar hooks. Along with Save My Life (possibly the catchiest song for many a year, sadly not performed) from same album they all need health warnings that once heard they’re going to echo around your head for days (or more).

The encore paid homage to John’s Brixham , Devon upbringing with another Lisa Hannigan co-write and performed song Salty and Sweet. The audience performed their vocal parts beautifully without being asked bringing a huge smile to John’s face. It was easy to see that he really enjoyed the night. Let’s not wait another 3 years for the next visit.

Mar 22 2022

Track Dogs

Sunday 20th March 2022

Photos and review by Keith Belcher

Some nights you get really lucky and get a whole lot more than you expected. So it was on Sunday night for the second visit (in the flesh) for the 4 piece Madrid based Track Dogs.  They comprise 2 Irishmen, I Englishman and 1 American. They are Garrett Wall, vocals, guitar and ukulele; Dave Mooney, bass, mandolin, vocals; Howard Brown, trumpet, cajon, vocals; and Robbie K. Jones – cajon, banjo, percussion, vocals. Instruments were swapped regularly throughout the night.Their music reflects the nationalities as well as their Spanish base. Their first visit to TLR was 15th March 2019 and there was a virtual performance on 4th October 2020.

Tonight, we didn’t get just a quartet. For large parts of the show we had, for one night only, a sextet with the addition of cello player Adrianne Wininsky and violinist Chris Demetriou. Adrianne and Chris have featured on a couple of Track Dogs’ albums. Towards the end of the show we had a septet with old school friend Fergal Gara, who lives in the area, joining the band on stage to play some great harmonica. Their music is often described as a dynamic fusion of folk, Latino, Americana & bluegrass. What they really generate is an immense amount of fun and enjoyment, both on and off stage. Something we all really need at the moment.

A relatively quick sound check as the club had a rock n’roll afternoon until 5pm with a scheduled start for Track Dogs at 7pm. You wouldn’t know it from the great sound. A big queue outside when doors opened. They seemed to have a lot of hard core fans who weren’t going to miss out on the performance.

Taking the stage as a quartet they got such a great reception they joked about going straight to the encore while they were ahead. The show opened by jumping in with The Deep End, an upbeat Latino style song, that’s the way to start, (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!). By the time they got to Whatever Happens the audience were buzzing, needing no persuasion or prompting to join in with the vocals with much gusto.

At some point in Set 1 the painter of their last album cover took a bow having been introduced from the stage. Eventually Chris and Adrianne joined the stage with violin and cello filling the 2 empty seats between Garrett and Howard. Garrett Wall’s vocals are really tremendous, their harmonies superb and both Howard and Robbie took turns with superb lead vocals.

Musically very flexible, Howard switching between trumpet and cajon, Robbie between cajon and banjo, Garrett and Dave swapping guitar, bass, mandolin and ukulele. Assorted tambourines littered the stage(you need to have been there to understand the relevance of that remark). Set 1 ended with a very lively All Clapped Out. Big queue at the Merch table and a lot of old friends catching up. It was a very friendly sort of night.

A far longer second set opened with the question Where To Now, the title song of the latest CD. As well as the really lively numbers they played some delicate songs such as the beautiful Broken Strings. It really showed just how good Garrett’s voice was and how well the band blend on harmonies and also just how much sensitive strings add to a song.

There were many songs in set 2 where the band played and sang bluegrass style around a single mike. A humourous few minutes as Robbie introduced Empty Tracks, a song about a tourist train that stopped running during lockdowns. The rest of the band commenting on his usual time of rising!! (not early!!). That was followed by a James Taylor cover of Carolina In My Mind, very apt as they remarked as they had been really looking forward to playing The Caroline Social Club again.

Cranking up the pace with another cover, Brandy (Looking Glass cover) with Howard on lead vocals. They really pulled out all the stops when Chris rejoined the stage and they launched into Gonna Get My Way. Very noticeable that Chris was now standing rather than sitting for this one. Some cracking bass, violin, cajon and banjo solos on this one.

They also brought on Fergal  to play harmonica, he got a solo too!!! Difficult to think it could get any livelier than that but they then launched into Donna Lola with huge audience participation, again unprompted, a lot of the song unamplified as they left the stage and walked around the venue.

A quick breather before the encore. The band giving a heartfelt thanks to Ron and Hilary for everything they have done during the last 2 years and more, especial thanks to Ron’s great sound throughout the night. The encore, sang by Robbie showing just what a strong voice he has was another tip of the hat to The Caroline Club.

A really powerful cover of Ruby (Are You Mad At Your Man?). Originally by Cousin Emmy & Her Kinfolk in 1946 then The Osborne Brothers in 1957 (apparently the first time twin banjos were used on a bluegrass recording! You learn something very day!!) but perhaps better known these days for the CAROLINA Chocolate Drops cover (2012). For this Adrianne joined Fergal and Chris on stage and they played out as a septet.

As I said at the start, sometimes you get a lot more than you expected. It was definitely one of those very superb nights.

Feb 15 2022

Paul McKenna Band

Sunday 13th February 2022

Review and photos by Keith Belcher

A debut appearance at TLR for the 5-piece Glasgow based band comprising Paul McKenna, guitar and main vocals, Conal McDonagh, pipes and whistles, Robbie Grieg, fiddle, Conor Markey guitar, tenor-banjo, bouzouki and backing vocals and Ewan Baird bodhrán and backing vocals. A fairly rare but very welcome appearance south of the Scottish border.

Last week we had Sarah Allen from Flook playing standing on one leg, out of choice. This week we had Paul limping painfully on one leg due to an injury picked up playing 5 a side football which attracted the absolute minimum of sympathy from band mates. There was certainly no limp to his voice, that was firing on all cylinders throughout the show. It was evident on the night just why he is regarded as one of the finest and most exciting Scottish voices. There was excitement all around, for the band the pleasure of actually playing in front of live audiences and as well as having the band appear, for the Live Room, the fact that for the first time there were 3 shows scheduled for this week. As well as 2 one leggers we also had 2 bodhrán players on the trot also with John Joe Kelly last week and Ewan Baird at this gig.

Introductions over the show started with The Mickey Dam a traditional Irish song about Immigrant labourers working on the Dam at Milngavie (pronounced Mil-guy) in Scotland. It’s rousing choruses got the night off to a great start. Throughout the night we had traditional Irish and Scottish songs, Paul’s own compositions, covers and also co-writes with other artists. Superb harmonious sounds coming from left of the stage with Conal and Robbie merging pipes, whistle and fiddle in a very pleasing to the ears sound. It’s not surprising that Paul’s voice has been compared favourably to the great Dick Gaughan. In Paul we have one of the most powerful and emotive voices on the musical circuits in any genre. Like Dick, Paul also writes songs with a social conscience, not yet as forthright as Dick but Dick didn’t get that outspoken overnight. There is a Dick Gaughan song called Whatever Happened which could have been the forerunner to Paul’s song The Dream, listen to both and see if you agree. Not surprising that Dick helped with the production of Paul’s album Between Two Worlds.

Conal switched between whistles and pipes throughout the night, playing both to great effect, likewise Conor switched between guitar, tenor-banjo and bouzouki as well as providing great backing vocals. A rock steady beat and great vocals from Ewan sitting mainly in the shadows at far stage right. The evening extremely well-paced, rousing songs alongside contemplative ones and 2 sets of very foot tapping tunes of jigs and reels. Lots of funny stories about Paul’s residency at Disneyworld in Florida and adventures in the States and Canada. There seemed a lot of alcohol involved with some stories. A co-write with the great Tim O’Brien, Can You See Me Sister, evoked stories of digital, transatlantic song collaboration.

Robbie weaved in and around all the other instruments superbly all night.  The audience participated enthusiastically and brilliantly on Paul’s own composition Home, which was the last “real” song of SET 2, an easy one as it didn’t involve words. They went off stage to rapturous applause, possibly a mistake for Paul to leave the stage as he had to hobble back for the encore, much to the amusement of his “sympathetic” bandmates. The encore of Walt Aldridge’s No Ash Will Burn also invited the same level of participation from the audience, this time a bit more complicated but the audience passed the memory test with flying colours. Outside it was very cold and wet but inside TLR a very entertaining and warming evening, a great debut appearance by a great band.

It was also the first of trial early starts for Sunday nights. Having started at 7pm the show was over shortly after 9pm. Those with “school” the next day were grateful. The trial worked well in my opinion.