THE MARTIN HARLEY BAND – Worthenbury Village Hall, Friday July 16th This was the first time that Martin Harley and his band had appeared in the region and whilst the schools breaking up that day had affected the attendance, a good crowd nevertheless enjoyed one of the best nights in Worthenbury in a long, long [...]

THE LINTON MUSIC FESTIVAL 18,19 and 20 JUNE 2010 A posse of Worthenbury based blues fans journeyed down to the beautiful Herefordshire village of Linton which is situated close to the Gloucestershire border last weekend to sample for the first time the delights of this widely recommended little blues festival. All I can say following [...]

STEVE HOWELL – Since I Saw You Last Out of the Past – OOTP5 Texas born Steve Howell has been gaining some very good reviews from this latest release on the Out of the Past Music label over in the USA and it can be fully understood for what is a very good cd. Howell [...]

Jimmy Bowskill – Live – Ruf Records 1158 I have to say that I was a little surprised with this release because Thomas Ruf has been a major influence in the blues world over the last 10 years or so and has produced many major and important cds in that time but for this reviewer, [...]

Arthur Adams – Stomp the Floor Delta Groove DGPCD135 This is the latest release from Delta Groove featuring 69 year old Arthur Adams from Medon, Tennessee who has previously released work on Blind Pig. He has had a varied and interesting career having decamped to LA in 1964 where he worked as a session guitarist [...]

JEFF CHAPMAN – Big Jeff’s Blues -Vol 1 no label This is a raw dose of bar-room foot stamping blues featuring ZZ Top lookalike Jeff Chapman whom I presume might hail from Greenville Illinois as the credits indicate that the cd was recorded and mixed there. The opener, I’m a Bluesman is a basic raw [...]

24th Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival (The King Biscuit Festival) 8/9/10 October 2009 Helena, Arkansas The locals in Helena Arkansas reckon that every third festival will be hit by poor weather and certainly the forecast leading up to this festival was not promising, however, the weather did not really matter as the excitement and buzz [...]

GIG AT WORTHENBURY, SAT MAY 30th FRUTELAND JACKSON with BOB HALL and HILARY BLYTHE Goin’ Up The Country blues and roots club is delighted to welcome top American acoustic blues guitarist Fruteland Jackson to Worthenbury village hall on Saturday May 30th as part of his extensive tour of the UK and Europe. Mississippi born but [...]

Best CD of the year. I wasn’t as impressed by the CDs that I heard this year as I was last year. I bought some of acts that I’d heard live but as often happens, the CD didn’t do the live performance justice.  However there were one or two gems. The Stumble were justifiably one [...]

Harper at Worthenbury “Goin’ Up The Country” blues and roots club Fri 19 December 2009 Australian harp and didgeridoo player Harper played his 1st ever UK gig in July 2007 at Worthenbury and it was a packed village hall that greeted him and his American band once again. His young band of Marc Dixon on [...]

Gig Review Trafficker -Worthenbury Village Hall 05 Dec 2008 This was the night when Tommy Allen really killed off the “sold out to rock” merchants in great style. Having announced that he had turned right back to the blues, he brought a new Trafficker brimming with first rate musicians to a packed Worthenbury village hall. [...]

Some advance news about the gig at Worthenbury on December 5th with Trafficker. Since the band’s acclaimed but rather rocky last album “Fade To Black”, Tommy Allen has moved into the region and has brought in a tried and tested rhythm section in Micky Barker on drums and Chris Lomas on bass.  With that has [...]

M FOR MISSISSIPPI – A Road Trip through the Birthplace of the Blues The DVD M for Mississippi was released on Saturday October 11th at a packed first public showing at the Delta cinema in Clarksdale in Mississippi. It was the brainchild of two enthusiastic young men Roger Stolle of Cathead Delta Blues and Folk [...]

The 22nd ARKANSAS BLUES AND HERITAGE FESTIVAL 2008 9th to 11th OCT 2008 The festival (formerly known as The King Biscuit Festival) takes place in the little town of Helena, Arkansas on a beautiful grassy bank of the levee of the Mississippi river looking down on to a permanent stage, named after Sonny Boy Williamson, [...]

Last Swill and Testament Paul “Sailor” Vernon Music Mentor Books – ISBN 0954706846 The hilarious, unexpurgated memoirs of Paul “Sailor” Vernon – blues fanatic, rare record dealer, ligger, erstwhile bon viveur and friend to the stars. It’s not often that reviews of books apppear in Blues in The North West, but having read this recently [...]