until the end of the year for a blooming good night. A delightful evening with The December Flowers, Banjo Jen and E.R. Thorpe at The Greystones yesterday. Big thanks to all of them and all of you that joined us for a busy night in The Backroom.
WagonWheel Presents… returns on Thursday September 28th when we’re joined by Big Convoy, M&J Blues and Richard Kitson, swiftly followed by Rod Picott on Monday October 2nd. You can find tickets for both shows here, we’d love to see you again at either or both.
Well Thursday night certainly presented plenty of gifts for lovers of songs about Richard Nixon and rock ‘n’ roll banjo shows. It was great to hear that we won the war too. Massive thanks to everybody that joined us at The Greystones, most especially the magnificent Curtis Eller’s American Circus and that assh*le Jody Davies for a typically fine opening set.
It was another brilliant night under The Big Top, and WagonWheel Presents… will be back again on Saturday August 19th in the company of The December Flowers, Banjo Jen and E.R. Thorpe. We hope you can join us too. Not got your ticket yet? You can fix that right here.
In other news you can also now find us on Threads where we’ll try and keep you up to date with all things WagonWheel.
On Saturday August 19th, WagonWheel Presents… brings another fine Saturday night triple bill to The Greystones. This time out we’re joined by folk-rockers The December Flowers, original Americana from Banjo Jen and ethereal singer/songwriter E.R. Thorpe.
Advance tickets priced at £7 are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/582461 or entry on the night will be £9. Doors open 7.45pm. Please note we can only accept cash payment on the night for entry to the show, however The Greystones itself is now a cashless venue and they only accept card payments at the bar.
***THE DECEMBER FLOWERS***
The soulful, sun-drenched, 60’s-inspired folk-rock sound of The December Flowers took seed in 2017, when singer/songwriter Gemma Gray and multi-instrumentalist Joel Robson started recording and performing as a duo on the Sheffield folk circuit. They were joined by Shane Surgey and his Wurlitzer piano in 2018, after he watched them play songs from their ‘My Joshua Tree’ EP during that year’s Tramlines Festival weekend in Sheffield.
With the addition of drummer Sam Dougherty the following year, and bassist Ian Swift in 2021, The December Flowers bloomed into existence, and gigs followed supporting both local and international touring artists. The 2020 singles ‘Goodbye Little Town’ and ‘Sweet California’, and the 2021 EP ‘Everything Remains’, showcased the band’s maturing sound and expanding horizons.
‘Demons and Doubt’, the single released on 6th January 2023, was selected for discussion at the Americana Music Association conference for their panel on music for TV and film, receiving excellent feedback. BBC Music Introducing in Sheffield described the sound as “Richly harmonius… gently cosmic Americana”, and that “Gemma’s voice has a gentle vibrato that gets you weak at the knees.”
Imagine if folk icon Buffy Sainte-Marie and banjo-player-turned-comedian Billy Connolly had an unlikely lovechild …who lived in Yorkshire! Sheffield-based artist Banjo Jen is difficult to categorise but easy to fall for. Her unique brand of folky Americana, with insightful observations and an eclectic original repertoire, has seen her gain a growing reputation as one to watch on the UK singer-songwriter scene. With razor-sharp songwriting, percussive Appalachian step-dancing and between-song banter to make you laugh out loud, her refreshingly original live act is guaranteed to win the heart of every crowd.
The ‘smart and sassy’ debut EP “Lost & Found” is a collection of Jen’s early songs, showcasing her rhythmic ‘frailing’ style of banjo-playing and her fiercely melodic approach to songwriting. The eagerly-awaited follow-up EP “Cloud of Dust” was released in 2022 and is a collection of the more country-style songs in Jen’s repertoire, recorded with a full band (including backing vocals by Bob Harris Emerging Artist 2022 award-winner Lauren Housley and production by AMA UK award-nominee Thomas Dibb). The release of this recording saw Jen complete her first headline tour and gain many new fans at her entertaining live shows. Tonight Jen is joined by her fiddle player for a duo show.
E.R. Thorpe was raised on the blues in the place where folk music, full of rage and fragile beauty, goes back to the source. Her sound is evocative, sometimes wilfully naïve, sometimes considered and ultra-precise, often strange, always hypnotic. With a ragged edge that has more in common with Nick Cave, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey and William Blake than the obvious comparisons, she muses on nature and religion, God and the devil, good and evil, revealing both the beauty and devastation of life. These are songs born of deep tradition, but alive in the present day, revealing and fragile, executed spare and sharp.
As a frequent collaborator, she’s the voice that haunts and caresses many Torn Sail tracks, a silver lining to Mark Lanegan’s heart-breaking cloud on “Ricochets” from the “The Short Sweet Life” album. Alongside Torn Sail’s Huw Costin and Matt Hill, she makes up The Low Drift, a folk group travelling beyond the ‘Keep Out’ signs, to the ancient green lanes and sunken tracks where their ancestors’ buried bones lie undiscovered.
Most recently, her new EP drives the raw, hypnotic, sun-bleached blues and folk into hook-laden, pop-adjacent territory.
proved to be a magic number on Friday night. Big thanks to everybody that made it out for our ‘in the round’ show at The Greystones, but most especially Banjo Jen, Jody Davies and Tsar Nicholas III for a fine night’s entertainment. These shows never fail to be special and that was certainly the case again.
We’re in The Backroom one more time this year on Thursday November 17th with Paul McClure and Buffalo Ghost, details and tickets can be found here, it would be great to see some friendly faces again.
far from a fine mess and there was nothing to be sorry about for anybody that joined us at The Greystones last night as Curtis Eller brought the curtain down on his UK tour in typically entertaining style. Big thanks to Curtis, Richard Dilks for a great opening set, and everybody that filled the room up on a Monday night.
WagonWheel Presents… will be back again on Friday October 28th when we have another of our ‘in the round’ songwriter shows. These are always something special and joining us this time will be Banjo Jen, Boss Caine, Jody Davies and Tsar Nicholas III. Tickets are on sale here and we hope you can join us then too.
WagonWheel Presents... 