13/11/10 WagonWheel's Last Stand @ The Grapes

[Amsterdamned]

After 4 years and over 100 shows, the last curtain falls on WagonWheel Presents... at The Grapes due to the impending closure of this historic venue. One thing we've always brought you is a quality packed bill and we have one hell of a line up for our final show at the place we've come to think of as home.

Joining us to provide a fitting send off will be Quiet Loner, on tour in support of new album "Spectrology", coming hot on th...e heels of his award winning 2004 debut LP "Secret Ruler Of The World". Manchester's Walton Hesse bring their psychedelic country rock which went down a storm when they played here earlier this year. Huw Costin makes a welcome return as he hits the road promoting the follow up to his 2009 solo release "Regrets". Finally we have another old favourite in the shape of The Listeners rounding off what promises to be a special night. Tickets priced at £3 are available from WeGotTickets.com ( http://www.wegottickets.com/event/97101 ) or entry will be £4 on the night. Doors open 8pm with the live music kicking off very shortly afterwards.

 

 

***QUIET LONER***

 

Quiet Loner is the pen-name of songwriter Matt Hill. His recording and live work as Quiet Loner has won him many accolades, including Americana UK Album of the Year 2004 for his debut LP ‘Secret Ruler of the World’, and he has played with kindred spirits like Lambchop, Joe Pernice, Neko Case and Chris Mills.

 

As Quiet Loner he sings songs about love, loss, infidelity, suicide, attempted murder, capital punishment, the database state, terrorism, religion, war, fallen angels, the secret rulers of the world and the redemptive power of country music. Hill is an accomplished raconteur and powerful live performer delivering a show that is emotional, often funny, usually political, occasionally angry, sometimes satirical but nearly always gentle and human.

 

Inspired by the storytelling traditions of American folk and country music, Hill’s songs also have a distinctly British lyrical bite. His new album ‘Spectrology’ is a stark and honest collection of performances recorded deep in the English countryside during the big freeze of January 2010. Produced by Mat Martin (Kirsty McGee, The Brute Chorus) it contains eleven songs of experience and wisdom, and features contributions from Inge Thomson (Bonnie Prince Billy, Broken Family Band), Roy Dodds (Fairground Attraction,Hank Wangford) and long term collaborator Alan Cook (Jackie Leven).

 

“poised between light and dark, like the sweet sting of velvet nettles” Uncut

 

“a real talent for songwriting plus some wonderful darker moments that you can't help but fall in love with - Manchester's answer to Gram Parsons” Maverick Magazine

 

“It's not an overstatement to say it's up there with Ryan Adams' "Heartbreaker". Believe me, you need to hear this album.” Whisperinandhollerin

 

 

http://www.myspace.com/quietloner

 

http://www.quietloner.com/

 

 

***WALTON HESSE***

 

Burst into being from the sunny imagination of songwriter Matt Grayson, Walton Hesse are a lapsed congregation of optimistic outcasts standing on the shoulders of Big Star and Wilco, peering into the shaft of a 13th Floor Elevator. Frontier facing and burdened by a twisted nostalgia this alt-country psych creation blend the melodious harmonies of Matt and Nicola Crosby, haunted by the ghostly union of Gram and Emmylou to bring Arizona desert plains to the streets of Manchester. The dual status of banjo playing lead guitarist Dom Marsh creates a butterfly of sound to intertwine a flawless rhythm section of Dan Fleming on drums, Scott Carey on bass and Dor Knightley on keys. Walton Hesse have been friends forever, born of a chance encounter and a ten year love affair the North Mancunian scum scrub up golden in the sunshine, blend MC5, Creedance and Hank Williams to shake the peaches from your dusty tree. Walton Hesse make you homesick for a place you’ve never lived… so don’t look now, listen, and bring it home.

 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=104003669

 

http://www.myspace.com/waltonhesse

 

 

***HUW COSTIN***

 

Huw Costin is a British singer-songwriter known for his emotional vocal style, melancholic lyrics, and a penchant for writing nifty pop songs when the mood takes him. Perhaps he is best known for his output with the now defunct Earth the Californian Love Dream, performing alongside Richard Warren (aka Echoboy) in the Cold Light Of Day, and adding his vocals and lyrics to early sides by Smith & Mudd.

 

As influenced by the folk, country, and rock of the 60’s and 70’s as the Nottingham ambient scene of the early nineties, and though compared to Big Star and Ian Brown, Costin takes inspiration from a more eclectic body of sounds and players in the creation of his own music.

 

His debut solo album - Regrets - found it’s way into the NME Yearbook as a top 10 album despite being unfinished and unreleased.

 

On it's official release 'Regrets' secured a 4 star review in Uncut who described it as “an emotive recollection of a love gone wrong”.

 

“It’s like the third Big Star album mixed with the Stone Roses… It’ll make you cry.” NME

 

http://huwcostin.tumblr.com/

 

 

***THE LISTENERS***

 

"Tell them I came, and no one answered. That I kept my word"

 

From ‘The Listeners’, by Walter de la Mare.

 

The Listeners is Emma Thorpe - on her own or with her collaborators. She sings in cinematic detail from a small town on the North Nottinghamshire borders.

 

Thorpe was born into music – her mother taught her to finger-pick, introducing her to the music of PJ Harvey, Sandy Denny, Susan Vega, Roy Harper and Bob Dylan along the way; Her father Kevin was well respected on the blues scene for his albums with Out Of The Blue; And her aunt managed Welsh psychedelic legends Man.

 

Despite this heritage Thorpe has shaped her own evocative sound. Sometimes wilfully naive, sometimes considered and precise - her choice of chords is particular and unusual and her finger-picking weaves a strange atmosphere – the likes of which you’d more likely find in a Lynch film or a novel by Bolano than in the sculpted folk of her inspirations. And like those who inspire her - Nick Cave, Patti Smith, William Blake, she loves to muse on nature & religion: God, the devil, good and evil, and like the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood she tries to tell it like it is – to reveal both the beauty and the devastation of life: Red Dust portrays human insignificance under darkening skies; Dinner For One traces the fading past of a destroyed relationship; You wouldn’t think that it took years for Thorpe to accept her own arresting voice and lyrical vision. Time well spent in distillation perhaps: This is music that is close to the source. These are songs, born of tradition, alive in the present day, revealing & fragile, excecuted spare and sharp:

 

"The Listeners were f*cking brilliant last night" Richard Hawley

 

"Alternately gentle and dramatic… like PJ Harvey ****** off, unplugged and wearing a kaftan." Music Mart

 

"Stirring stuff…like Nico back from the grave for an autumn night’s campfire singalong, while their hushed mid-set tracks recall “Ocean of Noise” Arcade Fire." This City

 

http://listeners.tumblr.com/

 

http://www.myspace.com/thelisteners

 

 

Facebook Event page:

 

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148929155150853

 

Last.fm Event page:

 

http://www.last.fm/event/1714582

 

 

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/131/l_b226a7db85e74d288cf9f1b0415c24d1.gif

[Amsterdamned]

This is tomorrow night. Live music kicks off very shortly after 8pm so get down early. For a taster you can hear tracks from Quiet Loner, Walton Hesse and Huw Costin at: http://www.myspace.com/wagonwheelmediapromotion