On the afternoon of Saturday February 6th, WagonWheel Presents… returns to The Greystones for the second part of our WagonWheel Weekend. Day two begins with music from Neil McSweeney and Sheffield’s own Texan troubadour, Ash Gray.
Advance tickets priced at £6 for Saturday afternoon’s show are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/f/9440 and the venue (12-6pm) or entry on the day will be £8. Weekend tickets are also available from http://www.wegottickets.com/wagonwheelpresents and include entry to all five shows across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Doors open 3.15pm for a 3.30pm start. Show finishes 6pm.
***NEIL McSWEENEY***
Neil McSweeney (born Irvine, Scotland) is a songwriter and musician based in Sheffield, England. His acoustic guitar playing style combines folk, blues and country influences but it is his voice, likened by The Guardian to a male Tracy Chapman, and his direct and personal lyrics for which he is most recognised.
McSweeney’s debut album, Remember To Smile was released in 2006 by Sheffield independent label, LM Music. Tracks from the album attracted national radio play from BBC Radio 2 and the digital station BBC Radio 6 Music. This led to Postcards being released as a single by Kids Records, the singles arm of Warner Music UK subsidiary 14th Floor Records. Further national radio exposure followed including the track being playlisted by XFM. Around this time Neil also accompanied his friend Stoney both on record, on tour and in session for BBC Radio 2’s Dermot O’Leary at Maida Vale Studios.
Extensive touring in the UK followed before second album, Shoreline, emerged in 2009. This was self-released and attracted positive reviews in the national press as well as the attention of fellow Sheffield musician, Richard Hawley. Following support sets at The Crucible in Sheffield and the Royal Festival Hall, McSweeney accompanied Hawley as main support on the European leg of his Truelove’s Gutter tour.
During a hiatus from touring in 2011 and 2012, to spend more time with his young family, McSweeney developed friendships with musicians from the English folk and roots scene. This developed into collaborations which formed the basis for an EP (The Seventeen EP, May 2013) and a third full length album (Cargo) released on Harbour Song Records in 2013.
Late 2015 saw the release of EPs from two new projects, a duo recording with Vera Van Heeringen, and the Gluepot collaboration with Lucy Farrell and M.G. Boulter.
“Deeply felt, brooding songs rich in imagery…he has the tools to make a real impact” The Guardian
***ASH GRAY***
At long last Texas songwriter Ash Gray finally gets around to releasing his debut solo album. The title Once I Got Burned is hopefully not a comment on his nigh-on twenty year career fronting The High-Class Family Butchers and Ash Gray & The Girls, or holding down the lead guitarist’s job in various rock bands in Austin and New York. But it does see a shift away from the gypsy punkgrass of the Butchers and the psych-pop of The Girls as Ash turns in an album of stone Texas country-rock.
Born in the US to parents form Yorkshire, Gray first began to make inroads into the UK music scene when he assembled the Anglo-American ‘punk-grass’ band, the High-Class Family Butchers during a late-90s sojourn in London. Achieving notoriety (and not-inconsiderable airplay) with their back-porch covers of pop classics and guerrilla-gigging, the Butchers have continued over the years with a flexible line-up including members of Menlo Park, The Ralfe Band and folk poster-boy Seth Lakeman’s band. For a time they even included Harper ‘Son of Paul’ Simon, oddly enough.
Relocating to New York with short-lived hard rock throwback band Cycle Sluts From Hell, Gray began shifting gears after realising that his female guitarist KG was a great harmony singer who blended perfectly with his backing vocalist Helen. He formed Ash Gray & The Girls in late 2008 as an acoustic trio, with him on vocals and guitar and these two singers. After some fine-tuning and the occasional personnel-change, the band launched the album Born In The Summer with a four-night stand at SXSW in Austin in 2012. Returning to the UK at the end of 2013, Ash is currently residing in Sheffield, the land of his forefathers. The circle remains unbroken.
“Consistently high quality and faultlessly performed.” **** R2 magazine
“An excellent uplifting album that reaches back to the sounds of the summer of love but twists it enough deliver a set of tracks that are home in the present.” Beat Surrender
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