Liverpool Acoustic Live preview – 25th March 2011

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Liverpool Acoustic Live
 Spotlight #40 – March 2011


BONUS TRACK  1) Leon Rosselson – I Didn’t Mean It 

2) T-J & Murphy – Live and Learn
3) Virginia Haze – You Can’t Always Get Your Own Way
(recorded live at Catacoustic)
4) SJ Downes – Right Now


Download the show for free
 (right-click to download)

Or listen online below
http://itsafrogslife.net/podcast/player/player.swf 
 (not available for email subscribers)

This month’s Liverpool Acoustic Live takes place on Friday 25th March 2011 at the View Two Gallery on Mathew Street.
  • T-J & Murphy return to the View Two Gallery after last year’s sold out appearance and will be playing songs from their debut album alongside new songs from their soon-to-be-released follow up album. These guys are something special, and never fail to impress.
  • Virginia Haze played for us back in March 2009, her last gig before leaving to live in Bulgaria. She’s now back in Liverpool and we’re delighted to host her return gig.
  • SJ Downes is a bluesman with tradition at the heart of everything he does. Steeped in the history of the delta blues greats, SJ Downes performs classic songs and still manages to stamp his own mark on them.
Tickets are £5 in advance. In the unlikely event that there are any tickets unsold then entrance will be £6 on the door.Tickets for Liverpool Acoustic Live and eXtra shows are available from wegottickets.com/liverpoolacoustic 

Doors open at 8.00pm with music starting at 8.30pm sharp. The night finishes at 11.15pm

Join the facebook event here.

T-J & Murphy formed in June 2007. The initial idea was to get together as friends and write some acoustic music, in short have a jam! The outcome proved much different. The guys had been in a band together in their early teens. This band broke up only a few months after it started; this was the point their individual musical journeys began. They would not be in contact for some eight years, until a couple of chance meetings, which would in turn lead them to embarking on a busking trip across Europe. It was there that a creative musical spark was triggered and a strong song writing partnership was forged. T-J describes it as a “happy accident”. Whatever it was it was the start of an incredible musical journey. 


On returning home work started on their highly acclaimed 14 track debut album ‘Weary nights’ [cdbaby.com/cd/tjam], whilst gigging extensively around the UK. and touring Norway. In two years remarkable progress has been made, which has not gone unnoticed by press and radio. Many interviews and articles have been printed; live sets performed on BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Cambridge, Radio Cheshire, Chorley, and Pembrokeshire to name a few. The music even spread as far as Rockland Radio (New York). 


The boys have played support slots for top acoustic musicians such as Nick Harper, Stephen Fretwell, Eliza Carthy, and Teddy Thomson. The music of T-J & Murphy is spreading like wildfire, winning a strong fan base along the way and gaining recognition as a must-see live act, and they recently performed a sellout show at Birkenhead Priory as part of the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain. So what’s next? The lads have begun work on their second studio album Hurricanes – recruiting some of Liverpool’s finest musicians to give the new album a different dynamic, while closely holding on to their acoustic roots.


They have more shows coming up, including supporting Nick Harper at The Masque in April and once again playing The International Guitar Festival in November.





Virginia Haze 
myspace.com/virginiahaze 
facebook

Virginia’s singing career began when her Nan gathered the grandchildren around the piano to perform a rendition of “Sing” by The Carpenters, and from that moment, at four years old, she was hooked. The years went by and Virginia sang whenever she could, in the shower, in school and at family events. People would comment about the little girl with the husky voice and say she had something unique.When she was 13 she started an all female band called “Infinity”. Unfortunately the band never lasted forever, as the name would suggest, but Virginia’s passion to sing and write songs did. She worked with a number of bands after that, the most prominent being “Collectors Bizarre”


Over the years Virginia Haze experimented with different styles and concepts. She has finally reached her song-writing destination. Her songs are spiritual, three dimensional and original. Her trademark is her unique and unmistakable voice which can lend itself to most styles ,Her voice has been described as bluesy, rock with soul, dark and Chocolate flavoured!Happines is writing songs and playing music , Virginia lives an alternative lifestyle in her pursuit for freedom from the material world. She is currently living on a canal boat after recently returning to Liverpool from Bulgaria, where she lived for two years, making jam and wine and getting closer to nature. Now she’s back to tell a tale or two before she sets of on a new journey.


Virginia’s album Genuine is available to buy in physical form or as a download from CD Baby [cdbaby.com/cd/virginiahaze] and as a download from iTunes.



photo (c) Graeme Lamb Photography

Country Blues and Ragtime influenced guitarist and singer S.J. Downes moved to Liverpool in late 2006, and has been honing his unique style of Acoustic, Folk and traditional musics, live and in the studio, since. Coupling delta music and similar traditions from late 1920’s and 30’s with a keen sense of the present and a highly developed individual technique and expression, Downes has played in all variety of spaces around the city from the Bluecoat gallery to St. Brides Church. 


After warming up in 2011 with nights for Mellowtone @ Shipping Forecast and Company Store @ Zanzibar, Downes is looking forward to opening up at the View Two Gallery on 25th March for Liverpool Acoustic Live. In line with his most recent recording, Ferrograph Series Volume 3: Blues On Sun Street (remembering Blind Thomas and other such titles…), an instrumental set of 11 6-string guitar takes, part in homage to the late great John Fahey, a small limited second edition run will be available for purchase on the evening at the View Two.



BONUS TRACK – Leon Rosselson
I Didn’t Mean It, from the CD RosselSonGs (1990)



ADVANCE NOTICELiverpool Acoustic is proud to present LEON ROSSELSON.

In association with the Working Class Life & Music Festival and Sefton Park Palm House, Leon Rosselson will be bringing his one man show to Liverpool for the very first time on Friday 22nd April 2011

A true legend of the British folk scene, Leon’s show My Life as a Songwriter (or how I failed to become rich and famous) is a hop, skip and a jump through five decades of songwriting, with songs ranging from the lyrical to the satirical, from the personal to the political, from the humorous to the poignant.

Support on the night is from the exciting new Liverpool folk group Rich Man’s Ruin, comprising Alun Parry, Gabi Monk, and Vinny T Spen.Tickets are on sale now at £9 (£7 conc) wegottickets.com/event/104400

(Note: this gig is at Sefton Park Palm House, not our normal View Two Gallery venue, and the wegottickets link is for the Palm House’s event page.)

Liverpool Acoustic Live Spotlight #40 – March 2010
If you get the chance, please support your local artists by emailing them, joining their mailing lists, leaving them comments, going to their gigs, and buying their music direct from them where possible.
The Liverpool Acoustic Spotlight is produced and presented by Graham Holland on behalf of the Liverpool Acoustic website. It is also available on the Internet courtesy of Art In Liverpool FM (Defnet Media), and is a proud member of the Association of Music Podcasting.
The theme music is King of the Faeries by Andrew Ellis from his CD Midnight On The Water.