Well mashed up…

but it came out ok, better than some people’s t-shirts have from the washing machine. A glorious night with Massy Ferguson and the returning Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians. Big thanks to both of them and all of you who came along to The Greystones.

It’s a quick turnaround as WagonWheel Presents… returns to The Backroom this coming Sunday July 14th for our second visitor from Seattle of the week. Rachel Harrington joins us, along with Richard Kitson who opens the show. You can find a full preview for this show here, we’ll hopefully see you then.

 

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The tall and the short of it…

is we enjoyed a fabulous evening at The Greystones last night in the company of Neil McSweeney and Stoney. Big thanks to both of them (one of whom may have to learn to run a little faster), and everybody that filled the room and joined us.

WagonWheel Presents… will be back in The Backroom on Wednesday July 10th for the visit of Seattle’s Massy Ferguson when they tour the UK in the support of brand new album Great Divides. Not only that but after two years away, Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians return to open the show. It’ll be all the bar room rock ‘n’ roll you can cram in to one night, full details can be found here, be sure to grab you ticket.

 

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Massy Ferguson @ The Greystones, Wednesday July 10th + Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians

On Wednesday July 10th, WagonWheel Presents… welcomes Seattle’s Massy Ferguson back to The Greystones. They will be touring the UK in support of brand new album Great Divides. Their songs are steeped in classic Americana, rich with imagery of highways, truck-stop coffee, whiskey, road-weariness, and bad motels. Massy Ferguson make cinematic roots music about the blue-collar aspects of life.
After two years away from the stage, Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians make their live return to open the show. Advance tickets priced at £8 are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/469738 and the venue (12-6pm), or entry will be £10 on the night. Doors open 7.45pm.

 

***MASSY FERGUSON***

For more than a dozen years, Massy Ferguson have proudly planted their boots on both sides of the country-rock divide, carving out their own brand of amplified Americana along the way. Based in Seattle, they’ve become international torchbearers of a sound that’s distinctly American, with a touring history that spans nine different countries. On their fifth album, Great Divides, they double down on their rock & roll roots, mixing bar-band twang with raw, guitar-driven bang. Gluing those sounds together is the songwriting partnership of bass-playing frontman Ethan Anderson and guitarist Adam Monda, whose songs spin stories of small-town adolescence, big-city adulthood, and the long miles of highway that stretch between.

Long before Massy Ferguson played their first show 2006, Anderson spent his childhood outside Seattle in the rural reaches of the Pacific Northwest. His parents were strictly religious, and he found himself at the local Pentecostal church almost every weekend, watching as his fellow congregants beat their Bibles and spoke in tongues. The spirit didn’t move him in quite the same way. In search of his own kind of clarity, Anderson turned to music: first to the country and folk artists whose songs reminded him of home, and later to the hard-edged rock bands who ruled the roost in Seattle, where he’d eventually relocate as an adult. Those two stylistic extremes — country and rock & roll — continue to rear their heads in his music. Anderson’s past continues to rear its head, too, and its woven throughout the dark, moody music of Great Divides. Massy Ferguson’s records have always sounded cinematic, like a Springsteen-worthy portrayal of blue-collar life in America’s northwestern pocket. If Great Divides continues that tradition, it does so in montage-form, zooming into various scenes of Anderson’s life for four minutes at a time. The details are rich, the context is implied, and the writing is stunningly simple, like the literal minimalism of Anderson’s favorite authors: Cormac McCarthy, Raymond Carver, Dennis Johnson, and Willie Vlautin. Songs like “Don’t Give Up On Your Friends” root themselves in his teenage years, delivering dual blasts of adolescent angst and anthemic, heartland-worthy hooks from the perspective of a boy who’s never left the county limits of his hometown. Meanwhile, “Can’t Remember” shines a light on Anderson as a 21 year-old Seattle newcomer, drunkenly talking to the cocktail waitress who’d later become his wife. By the time Great Divides reaches its ninth track, Massy Ferguson brings everything full-circle with “Wolf Moon,” a song that finds Anderson — no longer an out-of-place teenager, but now an adult with a wife, two children, and perhaps Seattle’s roots-rock band — dispensing road-worn advice to his sons.

Don’t mistake Great Divides for an Anderson solo project, though. Adam Monda, who helped launch the band in 2006, continues to play an integral role in the songwriting process, contributing melodic ideas and other launchpad ideas. Made complete by contributions from bandmates Dave Goedde and Fred Slater, Great Divides shines its light on dark memories, pivotal moments, small details, and the wisdom gained by years of doing unwise things. Massy Ferguson recorded the album with Martin Feveyear, known for his work with artists like Kings of Leon and Brandi Carlile. Some of the tracking sessions took place at a studio in Seattle. Others were hosted by Feveyear at his home on Vashon Island. Looking to capture a sound that was raw and immediate, the band kept things loose, throwing together arrangements on the spot and finishing lyrics moments before recording them in the vocal booth. As a result, there’s an urgency to Great Divides, from its widescreen-worthy anthems to its mid-tempo highlights. This is an album about a man’s attempt to understand the world around him, moving from the limited horizons of his childhood to the (slightly) clearer reality of his adulthood. It’s the punky, half-cocked confidence of college rock mixed with the hungover honesty of alt-country. In short, it’s Massy Ferguson — a band whose electric stomp sounds like the soundtrack to the American Everyman.

“First and foremost, Massy Ferguson are a rock band raised on crashing guitars and a driving beat but are not afraid to mix in a bit of refined country to shape their music in true American tradition.” Three Chords and the Truth, UK

“Seattle band Massy Ferguson further cement their alt country /roots rock status with another solid new album Victory & Ruins. The thirteen song collection focuses on the easy going narrative vocal styling of Ethan Anderson, who is mix between Tom Petty and Steve Earle.” – No Depression Magazine

http://www.massyfergusonband.com

 

***DAVE WOODCOCK & THE DEAD COMEDIANS***

Described by Americana UK as “The next big thing from Sheffield”, Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians released latest album Medicine in 2015 to great critical acclaim. The follow up to their 2011 album “Poisoned Nights & Bar Room Nights”, it found its way on to several end of year ‘best of’ lists and saw them raise the bar once again. They deliver booze soaked rock ‘n’ roll echoing Springsteen, Strummer and with a nod towards the likes of The Hold Steady.

“9/10….the finest blue collar heartland rock this side of the Atlantic” – Toast Magazine

“The perfect rock and roll band… absolutely alive with electricity and excitement” – Now Then Magazine

http://www.facebook.com/davewoodcockandthedeadcomedians

 

Facebook Event page:

http://www.facebook.com/events/400993794031360

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The general consensus…

seems to be, that wasn’t bad? Felt like a pretty good Sunday to me, not least due to an outstanding bunch of live sets from Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians, Joe Solo, Ash Gray & The Burners, Franc Cinelli, The Black Thunder Revue, Quiet Loner, Killing Fields Of Ontario, Idiot Son, Paul Handyside, Rory Cannon, Mat Wale & Little Convoy, Colin Mounsey, Massy Ferguson and Dave Woodcock. Big thanks as always to all of them, and to everybody that came along to a busy day at Shakespeares for our Tramlines show.

Our next show sees us venture to the Hop Hideout for the first time on Friday August 4th for an unplugged performance from The Fargo Railroad Co. Unfortunately, unless you were one of the lucky few who secured a ticket within the first hour or so of them going on sale, this show is already sold out.

So your next chance to join us for a WagonWheel Presents… show will likely be on Friday August 11th when Rachel Harrington returns to The Greystones. We’ve also got an opening set from Paul McClure and full details can be found here, maybe we’ll see you there?

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All in for rock ‘n’ roll…

Some things don’t change, like a quality pairing of Massy Ferguson and Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians. Big thanks to them and those who braved the dark new world to enjoy some fine music with us on a Friday night at The Greystones.

WagonWheel Presents… returns to The Backroom this coming Wednesday June 29th in the company of Wild Ponies. Mat Wale & Friends open the show, full details of which you can find by clicking here. We hope you can join us there.

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WagonWheel Presents… Tramlines @ Shakespeares, Sunday July 23rd

On Sunday July 23rd, WagonWheel Presents… returns to Shakespeares for our fifth annual Tramlines show. Once again we’ve got two stages of live music, with Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians, Ash Gray & The Burners, The Black Thunder Revue, Killing Fields Of Ontario, Paul Handyside, Mat Wale & Little Convoy plus all the way from Seattle, USA, Massy Ferguson joining us in the Bard’s Bar. Taking to the stage in the Stable Yard will be Joe Solo, Franc Cinelli, Quiet Loner, Idiot Son, Rory Cannon, Colin Mounsey and Dave Woodcock who gets things under way with a solo set. Our show starts at 2pm. Entry is free all day, no wristband required.

 

***DAVE WOODCOCK & THE DEAD COMEDIANS*** : 10pm Bard’s Bar

Described by Americana UK as “The next big thing from Sheffield”, Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians released latest album Medicine in 2015 to great critical acclaim. They deliver booze soaked rock ‘n’ roll echoing Springsteen, Strummer and with a nod towards the likes of The Hold Steady.

“The perfect rock and roll band… absolutely alive with electricity and excitement” – Now Then Magazine

http://www.davewoodcock.net

 

***ASH GRAY & THE BURNERS*** 8.40pm Bard’s Bar

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. Currently residing in Sheffield with a new album due imminently, tonight the Texas songwriter plays with his band The Burners.

http://www.facebook.com/ashgraymusic

 

***THE BLACK THUNDER REVUE*** 7.20pm Bard’s Bar

The Black Thunder Revue are a Sheffield based dirty, bluesy Rock n Roll band. With influences firmly set in Mississippi blues they bring a fresh, exciting sound that’s full of passion and melody.

http://www.facebook.com/pg/blackthunderrevue

 

***KILLING FIELDS OF ONTARIO*** 6.10pm Bard’s Bar

Killing Fields of Ontario initial recordings were predominantly acoustic and banjo driven, however as new songs emerged the band became more electric, with bigger drums and bigger guitars (in a musical, not dimensional, sense). Using a varied combination of acoustic and electric instruments, the band create a sound that is powerful and modern, and yet still steeped heavily in folk roots.

 

http://www.killingfieldsofontario.com/

 

***PAUL HANDYSIDE*** 5pm Bard’s Bar

Paul Handyside is a folk and roots singer songwriter  who began his musical career with eighties indie darlings Hurrah! Handyside formed Bronze in 2001 before concentrating on solo recordings in the late 2000s. With elements of traditional British folk and sixties protest songs emerging in Handyside’s now well established and diverse musical palette, current shows are based around the trio of Paul, producer Rob Tickell on slide guitar and Dave Porthouse on melodeon and double bass.http://www.paulhandyside.com 

***MAT WALE & LITTLE CONVOY*** 3.50pm Bard’s Bar

Mat Wale has been writing and recording since early 2004. Rising out of the tumultuous Chesterfield music scene of the mid 2000s that spawned ‘avanGaad’, ‘Vigilante Wing’ and ‘The Culture Thieves’ among others. Whether working with Alt. Country behemoths ‘The Rackets’ (2006-2013 on and off), Grunge/Electro/ Folk duo ‘Arrogant Whale’ (2006-2010), Country Rock outfit ‘Big Convoy’ (2011-Present) or performing solo, Mat is untouched by his peers in terms of sheer volume of work. Unwaveringly sticking to his ‘Lo-Fi’ ideals and grass roots approach to making music.

http://www.matwale.com

 

***MASSY FERGUSON*** 2.30pm Bard’s Bar

It seems strange to call Seattle rock-americana outfit Massy Ferguson “up and comers”. But despite 11 years as a band, that seems to be the ironic position they find themselves in. After a breakout new album “Run It Right Into the Wall” that climbed into the Top 50 of the US Americana charts and a showcase at the Americana Music Awards in Nashville the band is definitively making a name for itself. And, perhaps finally, differentiating that name from the tractor-combine company that inspired the moniker.

http://www.massyfergusonband.com

 

***JOE SOLO*** 9.20pm Stable Yard

Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough. His musical odyssey began in 1987 fronting a bash-em-out band at school, and has seen him play seven countries either as lynchpin of pop-punk upstarts Lithium Joe or hammering out his unique brand of Folk, Punk and Blues in his own right.

http://joesolomusic.com

 

***FRANC CINELLI*** 8pm Stable Yard

Bucking the trend with his free-wheeling alternative folk Franc Cinelli is the songwriters’ songwriter. From uptempo torch songs to blues laden road journals and lovestruck serenades to defiant, prison outlaw ballads; Franc has carved his own musical path. Like all good troubadours, he spent a lot of time touring by himself before making records. Not just the length and breadth of the UK (quite literally from Hastings to Stornoway) but throughout the East Coast of the USA, Texas & Tennessee, and in his native Italy.

http://www.franccinelli.com

 

***QUIET LONER*** 6.50pm Stable Yard

Quiet Loner is the pen-name of songwriter Matt Hill. Quiet Loner sings songs about love and fear, life and death, despair and hope. On a live stage Hill is an understated yet powerful performer delivering a show that is emotional, political, occasionally angry but nearly always gentle and human. Inspired by the storytelling traditions of American folk and country music, Hill’s songs also have a distinctly British lyrical bite.

http://quietloner.com

 

***IDIOT SON*** 5.40pm Stable Yard

Reticent would most probably best describe the Andy Thompson approach to live performance. Whilst his band Idiot Son where conceived at the turn of the century, you could probably count on two hands the number of times they have been found outside of London. The musical output is equally sporadic, album “Lummox” was released in 2004 on their own Poppycock label, featured shimmering, solitary acoustic guitar and cello alongside conventional drums and bass, all winding around Thompson’s wry observations of the capital city and its stories. They returned in 2015 after a recording absence of ten years with their second album, the similarly sublime ‘Stibbington’.

http://www.facebook.com/idiotsonuk

 

***RORY CANNON*** 4.30pm Stable Yard

Up & coming folk rock singer/songwriter Rory Cannon has been described as a flawless guitar talent with an enchanting voice. He’s been gigging regularly around the North for the last year or so and recently released the EP Lies.

http://www.facebook.com/pg/rorycannonmusic

 

***COLIN MOUNSEY*** 3.20pm Stable Yard

Colin Mounsey’s tunes draw on a wide and varied range of influences such as Ben Folds, Sparklehorse, Nick Cave and Bruce Springsteen. Last album ‘Let Love Win’ was the result of several days of frantic writing, a lot of late nights, and quite a bit of alcohol. Colin describes it as sounding “sort of like Radiohead meets Cher with a hint of John Denver, some Johnny Cash rolled in for good measure and a brilliant MC”. The MC being “to make it sound different”.

http://soundcloud.com/colin-mounsey

 

***DAVE WOODCOCK*** 2pm Stable Yard

And finally, when he’s not doing his full on rock ‘n’ roll thing with The Dead Comedians (as happening on the other stage later today), Dave Woodcock can occasionally be found acoustic guitar in hand belting out a solo interpretation or two.

http://www.davewoodcock.net

 

Facebook Event page:

http://www.facebook.com/events/1760440347602824

 

 

 

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Massy Ferguson @ The Greystones, Friday June 24th + Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians

On Friday June 24th, WagonWheel Presents… is delighted to welcome Seattle’s Massy Feguson back to The Greystones. The band return to the UK to launch brand new record Run It Right Into The Wall. Having made for such an epic show back in 2014, it would have been foolish not to bring back Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians to complete the bill once again (especially since rumour has it the new Massy Ferguson record includes a Dave Woodcock penned tune). Advance tickets priced at £7 are available from the venue (12-6pm) and at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/352487 or entry on the night will be £9. Doors open 7.45pm.

 

***MASSY FERGUSON***

You know only good things can come from a band that named itself after a farm-equipment company. But Seattle’s Massy Ferguson is not as hayseed as you’d expect. Their songs are steeped in the classic Americana of Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, and the Backsliders. Rich with imagery of highways, truck-stop coffee, whiskey, road-weariness, and bad motels, Massy Ferguson make cinematic roots music about the blue-collar aspects of their nation. This is what Jay Farrar might sound like without his thesaurus

Singer-bassist Ethan Anderson says the sound is Americana that leans more toward rock than country, and that’s a pretty good description. Think Drive-By Truckers or some combination of Son Volt and The Hold Steady. Think Springsteen’s “Greetings From Asbury Park” or “Nebraska.” Those influences, 1970s Southern rock and good-time classic rock bands like Thin Lizzy, have also helped them to land gigs at festivals and clubs in Australia, Iceland, Germany, England and Mexico.

Anderson and singer-guitarist Adam Monda, Massy Ferguson’s founding members, started the band in 2006 as a duo, playing a farmers market in Mukilteo. (They were paid with a fruit basket.)

“Adam’s pretty good with the weird, abstract details, and I’m pretty solid on the storytelling,” Anderson says.

Since adding Tony Mann on keyboards and Dave Goedde on drums, the band has graduated from fruit-basket gigs to some of Seattle’s most prominent stages, places like The Tractor Tavern, the seat of Seattle’s roots-rock Americana scene. They’ve toured internationally on numerous occasions and in 2010 managed to get a slot in the prestigious Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavik after winning the Seattle Weekly’s 2010 REVERB festival Favorite Band poll. In 2014, they toured the UK for the first time, playing a memorable slot at the Maverick Music Festival and headlined gigs in London (Windmill Brixton) and Sheffield (Greystones) among others.

“We’ve been very fortunate in a lot of regards,” Anderson says. “Considering we started off at the Mukilteo farmers market, I think we’re doing pretty well.”

The band likes playing bars (though not exclusively), “Above all, our live show is a lot of fun,” Anderson says. “We’re in it to have a good time. I think our songs have a certain amount of earnestness and depth, but we did that without sacrificing the fun.”

That’s important for a bar band, even one with aspirations.

“I don’t have a problem with anybody saying we’re a good bar band,” Anderson says. “Some bands take that as a negative. I think of it as a positive thing.”

In that way, Massy Ferguson is a bar band in the best sense — not a band relegated to bars because it will never rise higher, but a band that plays music perfectly suited to dark, crowded rooms in which there’s at least a possibility of a beer glass smashing against a wall.

The songs, filled with barflies, broken hearts and doomed late-night romance, would sound pretty good anywhere, though.

“First and foremost, Massy Ferguson are a rock band raised on crashing guitars and a driving beat but are not afraid to mix in a bit of refined country to shape their music in true American tradition.” Three Chords and the Truth, UK

“Seattle band Massy Ferguson further cement their alt country /roots rock status with another solid new album Victory & Ruins. The thirteen song collection focuses on the easy going narrative vocal styling of Ethan Anderson, who is mix between Tom Petty and Steve Earle.” – No Depression Magazine

“(Victory and Ruins) is one hell of a fine album that crackles with instant hooks and melodies, has an effervescence of choruses and boasts a fistful of damn fine blue collar songs into the bargain.” Mike Davies, Folk Radio UK

http://www.massyfergusonband.com

 

***DAVE WOODCOCK & THE DEAD COMEDIANS***

Described by Americana UK as “The next big thing from Sheffield”, Dave Woodcock & The Dead Comedians released latest album Medicine in 2015 to great critical acclaim. The follow up to their 2011 album “Poisoned Nights & Bar Room Nights”, it found its way on to several end of year ‘best of’ lists and saw them raise the bar once again.. They deliver booze soaked rock ‘n’ roll echoing Springsteen, Strummer and with a nod towards the likes of The Hold Steady.

“9/10….the finest blue collar heartland rock this side of the Atlantic” – Toast Magazine

“The perfect rock and roll band… absolutely alive with electricity and excitement” – Now Then Magazine

“Back With A Bang” – BBC Radio

http://www.davewoodcock.net

 

Facebook Event page:

http://www.facebook.com/events/977924792262499

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