We’ve got a bumper news shot for you today, with information about the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain, Micah P Hinson at the Static Gallery, and Andy White at Grateful Fred’s.
The International Guitar Festival of Great Britain 2010 starts on Friday 5th November and runs through to Saturday 27th. All the events take place in venues around Wirral, and as always the programme represents guitar playing and styles from right across the different genres.
Acoustic highlights of this year’s festival include Nick Harper (6th), Peter Price (11th), Alison Smith (12th), T-J & Murphy (13th), Joe Brown (14th), Tom Paxton (18th), Tom Doughty (19th), and Gerry Murphy (21st). Full details can be found at bestguitarfest.com.
The Harvest Sun Promotions team continue to provide the music-loving public of Liverpool with fantastic musicians from the UK and across the globe, and they’ve got a real cracker for Friday 5th November – Guy Fawkes Night.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Micah P Hinson is an old fashioned trouble man who fell prey to drugs and loose women, winding up homeless, destitute and incarcerated by the time most of his peers were filling in college applications. Music was his saviour, and since his 2003 debut, he’s pieced together a life for himself in his sleepy hometown of Abilene, Texas, even proposing to his now wife live onstage in London.
Currently riding a fertile creative patch (he’s already started working on a new album, he’s completing a set of Spanish EPs and he’s releasing a Spanish-language novel), everything that’s happened to him so far is apparent in And The Pioneer Saboteurs, his most fully realised work to date. “I hope people find hope in these songs,” says Micah. “I hope they find comfort. All things that lead to a good, happy existence while we are stuck on this revolving ball. And if they don’t find that, I hope it shows them how much better they are than some poor, sappy Texas boy.”
Hinson will be joined by London-based harpist-singer Serafina Steer, who can’t escape comparisons with Joanna Newsom but who forges her own path of idiosyncratic folk-pop. With a first-class music degree from Trinity College, Serafina’s at home in the classical world, but she’s no stranger to lugging her harp around the sticky-floored gig circuit.
The venue is the Static Gallery, and the gig kicks off at 8pm. Tickets are £12.50 in advance from skiddle.com and ticketline.co.uk
And Harvest Sun can be found at myspace.com/harvestsunpromotions and on facebook.
Grateful Fred’s is a relative newcomer on the scene but already have two fantastic events under their belts, and a whole host of incredible touring artists to look forward to in 2011.
Whereas September and October saw musicians from the USA, this month’s show features Andy White. Originally from Belfast but now living in Australia, Andy continues to fill venues around the world with his winning personality and high energy stage performances. His new album ‘Songwriter‘ is possibly his best yet and it certainly marks another high in a long and outstanding career which has seen collaborations with Peter Gabriel, Sinéad O’Connor, and Tim Finn (Split Enz).
Andy White will be playing Grateful Fred’s at the Freshfield Hotel in Formby on Sunday 7th November, starting at 8pm.
Tickets are £5 from wegottickets.com or on the door.
Full details from gratefulfred.co.uk