day in the sun saw us enjoying two stages full of great music at Shakespeares yesterday. Big thanks to Stoney, Joe Solo, The Barker Ranch Highwaymen, Mat Wale, The Holding Hands, Paul Handyside, The Swells, Andy Whitehouse, The December Flowers, All Day Dog’s Breakfast, The Farewell State, Buffalo Ghost, Alexis & Ash running the downstairs desk, John Batchelor who found time for a guest spot with Mat Wale whilst keeping everything sounding like it should upstairs and not least everybody that came along. It was great to see so many friendly faces (especially some in WagonWheel T-shirts too), and lots of people sticking around for most of the day. But a bit of a rest now…
WagonWheel Presents… will be back in action on Friday September 20th when we return to Shakespeares for a slightly smaller scale show but equally quality packed. We’ll be in the company of M.G. Boulter and Banjo Jen and tickets are on sale here now. That’s swiftly followed on Monday September 23rd by our next show at The Greystones when we welcome John Statz and Andy P. Davison & The Soul Preachin’ Co. Keep an eye on the Gigs page for news on upcoming shows.
returns to Shakespeares this coming Sunday July 21st. Our show starts at 2pm and this year we’re joined by Stoney, Joe Solo, The Barker Ranch Highwaymen, Mat Wale, The Holding Hands, Paul Handyside, The Swells, Andy Whitehouse, The December Flowers, Georgina Gilmartin, The Farewell State and Buffalo Ghost. Entry is free all day as always.
A full preview and stage times for the day can be found here. Be sure to keep in touch with our WagonWheel Presents…Instagram or Facebook where we’ll post any news or updates on the day.
shouldn’t have kept anybody away from The Greystones last night, and those who were there to enjoy an evening with Rachel Harrington certainly picked a winner. Big thanks to Rachel, Richard Kitson for an ever entertaining opening set, and everybody that joined us.
Next up for WagonWheel Presents… we’re at Shakespeares this coming Sunday July 21st for our annual Sunday Social. As usual we’ve got two stages of free live music, this year featuring sets from Stoney, Joe Solo, The Barker Ranch Highwaymen, Mat Wale, The Holding Hands, Paul Handyside, The Swells, Andy Whitehouse, The December Flowers, Georgina Gilmartin, The Farewell State and Buffalo Ghost. We’ll be kicking off at 2pm sharp in the Stable Yard, for the complete list of set times take a look at the full preview here. We hope to see you then.
when we promised last night would be something special, and our latest In The Round show proved it once again. Big thanks to Jody Davies, Daniel Kemish, E.R. Thorpe, B.W. Pike and everybody that made the effort to be there with us at Shakespeares.
WagonWheel Presents… returns to action this coming Thursday June 27th when we’re joined at The Greystones by Neil McSweeney plus Stoney. Full details for this one can be found here.
On Friday September 20th, WagonWheel Presents… welcomes M.G. Boulter back to Sheffield when he joins us at Shakespeares. Most recently in town supporting The Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott at the City Hall, M.G. returns for his first headline show since last year’s Blood Moon EP release tour. Opening the show will be Banjo Jen. Advance tickets priced at £7 are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/463881 or entry on the night will be £9. Doors open 8pm.
***M.G. BOULTER***
M.G. Boulter is a songwriter and musician who currently lives on the Thames coast in England. He has released a number of records including his latest full length album With Wolves The Lamb Will Lie in 2016 (named by the Daily Telegraph as one of the best Folk albums of that year). He has also worked alongside many other artists and has been involved in The Simone Felice Group, Emily Portman’s Coracle Band, The Duke and the King and Blue Rose Code, as well as his long time partners, The Lucky Strikes.
In the late summer of 2017 M.G. and Birmingham string quartet The Froe met at the unique Fishermen’s Chapel by the Thames Estuary in Essex to record a selection of songs that were to become the ‘Blood Moon’ EP.
The main chapel was cleared to make way for microphones and mixing desks and the songs were gradually brought to life amongst the clacking of trains from the London-Southend railway line and the hubbub of the chapel’s community gatherings (all of which are captured on the recordings if you listen close enough).
Opening with the title track, ‘Blood Moon’, the EP is another example of Boulter’s character driven song writing style, vignettes of seemingly unexceptional lives heavy with universal messages. Here you find the helpless Marie “smoking and leaning against a vending machine” and the slurry taxi conversation of ‘The Lie’, “You were right, the party sucked from the conversation down to the punch”. The Froe’s singular arrangements add a counterpoint to Boulter’s missives.
Produced by Andy Bell and released on Hudson Records this EP represents the continuation of a musical collaboration that started during the making of M G Boulter’s 2016 album With Wolves the Lamb Will Lie.
Based in Sheffield, British singer-songwriter Banjo Jen is the “all-singin’, all-dancin’, badass banjo-pickin’ girl”.
A relative newcomer to the UK Americana and folk scenes, she’s already making waves! Using banjo as the lead instrument for her songs, weaving clever lyrics with catchy melodies, and incorporating Appalachian step-dancing and no-nonsense Yorkshire charm and humour into her sets, she’s quickly gained a loyal local following which is now spreading beyond the Yorkshire border! Tipped by Maverick magazine for a ‘long musical career’, highlights so far have included playing in Austin TX during SXSW 2017 and being selected by the Americana Music Association UK to showcase at both Red Rooster festival and The Long Road festival in 2018.
Banjo Jen’s debut EP ‘Lost & Found’ was released in 2018, offering a flavour of her distinctive songwriting. Playing the traditional ‘frailing’ style of banjo, and accompanied by punchy double bass, she is influenced by aspects of folk, country, blues and ‘old-time’ music – though she doesn’t stick to any particular tradition and makes her own rules up as she goes along! This, combined with a skill for finding a great melody and an interesting story, makes for unique and highly original songs; songs of sinning and straying, of characters and conflicts, of running from the law and of running from yourself. As the one and only Dolly Parton says, ‘We’re all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can’.
another year gone already? 2018 saw a modest total of 15 WagonWheel Presents… shows (though we did lose 2 to Snowmageddon that wiped out the Sunday of our Weekender), with a total of 37 different acts, 11 of whom were brand new faces to our little stage(s). That’s still not bad going i reckon. Among those 15 was our 300th show, we’re almost starting to get the hang of it.
We’ll be back for more in 2019, and we’ve got a few belters lined up already. Confirmed shows for next year are:
Angel Snow @ The Greystones, Tuesday March 5th
Good Lovelies @ The Greystones, Monday April 8th
Josh Harty + The Fargo Railroad Co. @ The Greystones, Tuesday April 16th
Curtis Eller’s American Circus + Paul McClure @ The Greystones, Friday June 7th
Rachel Harrington @ The Greystones, Sunday July 14th
Full details for all of the above including ticket links can be found over on the Gigs page.
Big thanks as always to everybody that’s joined us this year and been a part of what we do. Here’s hoping Santa is kind with the tunes he brings you all, and all the best for 2019 and beyond.
when two singer/songwriters trade songs for the night. Big thanks to John Statz and Megan Burtt for a great night at Shakespeares, plus A Prayer Away who opened the show with a typically fine set, and of course you if you were there.
For our next show we’re back at The Greystones on Tuesday October 30th when WagonWheel Presents… welcomes Rachel Harrington back to Sheffield, along with Boss Caine who opens the show. You can find full details for this one here. We hope you can join us too.
