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PAUL TOWNDROW 8- NIGEL HITCHCOCK: ENCOUNTERS
City Halls, Glasgow. Sat 16 May
Tlll', e'lr/nllile’ l)‘:’..'.":(;l‘: Sa/Ol/DUTISI‘S Paul Torrlrdrmx.’ and Nigel Hitchcock has Its (gr/tr, ‘n The Celtic fuslop of The Pr;atl,r)g Faeries. .vhere the Ski/f,“ based HlT(,llf,’/ZK is a reflular with nrs fellow island resvlent. trombonist Rick Taylor T'r,.-.rndro.‘.r did some gigs mth the band rn expanded horn section mode. and .vhen promoter Todd Gordon Invited him to put a saxophone group together. he opted for Hitchcock
‘l‘d been foyrng for a while wrth asking Nigel to do something collaborative. and when Todd approached me. it seemed the perfect opportunrty.’ Paul explains.
‘Nrgel rs a brt of a legend. He has complete control of the instrument. a vast musical vocabulary. brilliant sound and terrifying technrgue. Any saxophonist who has not heard hrm should check him out immediately! When I get a sniff at the chance to perform Wrth great players. I always go for If because I know I'm gorng to learn a lot. but I feel that we are different enough as musicians to make the gig very. very rnterestrng'
The two hornrnen team up With pranrst Paul l-lar'rrson. bass‘Ist Mark Hodgson and drummer Alyn Cosker in what is envrsaged as a “tribute to the saxophone'. They WI” play music from the likes of Charlie Parker. Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane. and Will also air a couple of new original tunes from Towndrow's forthcoming album. Newo/ogv scheduled for release In June. (Kenny Mathreson)
Paul Towndrow
l’Rl} VIE-1W NEW FESTIVAL STAG 8- DAGGER
Various venues, Glasgow, Sat 23 May
Even as some of Scotland's smaller festivals-rn-a-freld take a sabbatical or call rt a day tn the current frnanCIal climate. new City events like Hinterland and now Stag 8. Dagger are enjoying their debuts this year. COuld the way of the future for fans be one-ticket festivals that don't encompass the added expense of travel. accommmlatron and three full days' worth of drinking and eating? Certainly the centre of Glasgow rs a hotbed of mUSlCal apprecratron unmatched anywhere rn the UK Outside of central London. where srmrlar events like the Camden Crawl. Concrete 8. Glass and the original Stab 8. Dagger have thrived.
‘Stag 8. Dagger rn London have decrded to try taking the festival out to the rest of the COuntry this year." says Nerl McKre of Glasgow promoters PCL. ‘so they're dorng one day in London. one rn Leeds and one and one in Glasgow. They approached us for help rn promoting the event. and we've now become partners in the company." The real hope rs that 88.0 Glasgow wrll go on to become an annual fixture.
With such a mergrng of local and national knowledge. an impressive line-up has been assembled. Over SIX venues (ABC. Captain's Rest. Stereo. the Art School. Classrc Grand and Nrce ‘n' Sleazy). expect to see quality established names lrke Cold War KldS. Whrte Denim and Cursrve alongsrde upcoming artists such as Paper Planes and The Mae Shr, and the very best Scotland has to offer; The Aliens. BMX Bandits. Phantom Band. St Deluxe. Dananananaykroyd and more. (Davrd Pollock)
64 THE LIST 14—28 Mm 2009
peevrew AMERICANA GLASGOW AMERICANA FESTIVAL
Various venues across Glasgow, Sat 16-Sat 23 May
Scotland in general, and Glasgow in particular, has had a long love affair with the dusty backroad heartbreak of Americana and anything with a folky bent from across the pond. In the past the Big Big Country festival run by late promoter Billy Kelly was foremost in bringing the movement’s leading lights over to Glasgow. More recently we’ve had the impressively expanding Glasgow Americana festival, now in its third year. This year the festival is fielding its biggest programme yet, with eight shows in eight venues across the city running on consecutive nights.
The whole shebang is the brainchild of the Fallen Angels Club, instrumental in providing quality roots showcases in Glasgow for five years.
‘l'm pleased that we now have a festival lasting eight days, compared with only three shows when we kicked things off three years ago,’ says head honcho Kevin Morris. ‘There’s an excellent range of music on offer with great acts whose presence really put this festival
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on the Scottish music festival map.’
Among the many highlights are Po' Girl, a wonderfully rootsy female duo from Canada who manage to mix up traditional country with urban roots, soulful jazz and blues into an idiosyncratic but spellbinding whole. Elsewhere The Handsome Family will be delivering their deadpan deathly dark country tales of murder and ghosts, while Nashville-based rural folk singer Otis Gibbs will be keeping the tradition of the genre's legacy of protest songs alive with his show at The Twisted Wheel.
The pick of the bunch, though, may well be The Hotclub of Cowtown, who come out in front by virtue of their fantastic name alone. The Western swing trio have been on the go for over a decade and have risen from busking in public parks to touring with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and The Mavericks, as well as being the youngest band to be inaugurated into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame (yes, that really exists). Fast, furious and fantastic fun, they’re guaranteed to provide the biggest hoedown Glasgow has seen for quite some time. (Doug Johnstone)