Grateful Fred’s is a brand new Acoustic, Roots and Americana event based at The Freshfield Hotel in Formby. The inaugural gig is on Friday 17th September and features Drew Nelson from Michigan, USA.
Drew Nelson has been described as having an irresistable voice and simply brilliant songs, and has been collecting plaudits wherever he plays.
Doors open at 8.00pm, and tickets are only £5 in advance from wegottickets.com
Full details can be found at gratefulfred.co.uk
Ahead of the opening Grateful Fred gig, Liverpool Acoustic caught up with one of the organisers Colin Maddocks and asked him a few easy questions.
Liverpool Acoustic: Where did the idea for Grateful Fred come from?
Colin: Grateful Fred came about after I hosted a house concert at my home for my birthday and was then offered a great bunch of musicians from Nashville who were touring. However I didn’t think I could comfortably get 20+ people into our house plus 2 or 3 musicians! I love acoustic and Americana music so I really thought it would be a great, fun thing to do.
Liverpool Acoustic: How did you find the venue?
Colin:I asked a friend of mine who I played in bands with for many years if he could think of anywhere suitable for an acoustic, roots night and we found the Freshfield Hotel in Formby, our village, near Liverpool. Great room and famous for great, real ales.
Liverpool Acoustic: So what’s with the name?
Colin: I thought it a good idea to give the nights a “brand” that would be independent of the venue in case we ever had to move and came up with “Grateful Fred” simply because I love the psychadelic style of the Haight-Ashbury, Grateful Dead scene. I’m not a massive Grateful Dead fan as it must appear, but that’s how I came to design the site and posters like a 60’s poster.
Liverpool Acoustic: What are your plans for Grateful Fred’s?
Colin: We’ve started with three nights before Christmas and then we hope to line up some great visiting artists through 2011. We’ll be opening the nights as Palomino, and we’ve got Drew Nelson from Michigan on 17th September, Ashleigh Flynn from Oregon on 7th October, and Andy White from Australia on 7th November.
Thanks so much for your kind mention of our first Grateful Fred's Roots and Acoustic Night on Friday 17th September with Drew Nelson. It was a great success with over 60 paying audience members. Drew gave us a great show with songs from his Beulah Land album and showed what a great guitar player he is as well as a great songwriter. Our next night is on Thursday 7th October when we have the wonderful Ashleigh Flynn from Portland, Oregon of whom Nanci Griffiths says "she has the voice of an angel". Thanks again for your support.