Tag: worry dolls

Don’t Miss Bootleg BBQ at the Groove, Presented by BGS, AMA-UK

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The Bluegrass Situation will join the AMA-UK for the Bootleg BBQ on Saturday (Sept. 15) at the Groove in Nashville, Tennessee. The intimate BGS Stage will be located inside the East Nashville record store, with live sets beings streamed on the BGS Facebook page. Artists on the BGS stage will alternate with performers on the outdoor British Underground mainstage. The event is free and open to the public.

The BGS lineup inside the Groove:
1-1:15 p.m.: Emily Barker
1:45-2 p.m.: Jamie Freeman
2:30-2:45 p.m.: The Black Feathers
3:15-3:30 p.m.: Holly Macve
4-4:15 p.m.: Treetop Flyers

Meanwhile, the outdoor stage will feature these performers:

12 pm.: Worry Dolls
1:15 p.m.: IDA MAE
2 p.m.: John Smith
2:45 p.m.: William the Conqueror
3:30 p.m.: The Wandering Hearts
4:15 p.m.: Aaron Lee Tasjan

BGS Preview: The Long Road Festival in the UK

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As this is being written, we’re on our way to the UK to prepare for our FIRST EVER international stage takeover, taking place next weekend at The Long Road Festival, in Leicestershire (near Birmingham). It’s a milestone event for BGS, and part of a larger initiative to reach our dedicated audience outside North America and shed light on some incredible talent that is putting their own spin on folk and roots traditions from other parts of the globe.

To prepare for The Long Road, held Sept. 7-9, we’ve summed up the top stuff we can’t wait to see and do while we’re in town. Hope some of you can join us to check out these highlights too:

1) That lineup tho…
With main stage appearances ranging from Carrie Underwood and Lee Ann Womack to Billy Bragg and Joshua Hedley, TLR is representing a variety of talent from commercial [read: Pop] Country to Americana with a capital A. The lines between roots and country music seem a bit more blurred over here, and we can’t wait to see how it all comes together.

2) Birmingham
Less than an hour from the festival lies the city of Birmingham. What was once a hardened industrialist town is now a breeding ground for creatives and start-ups, fostering one of the youngest populations in Europe (nearly 40 percent of the population is under 25). There’s plenty to discover here — from the old Custard Factory market to four (4!) Michelin-starred restaurants — so it’s a great stopover before or after the festival weekend.

3) AMA-UK stage takeover
Friday kicks off the fest with our friends at Americana Music-UK curating a stage featuring their freshest crop of British Americana talent. (Stay tuned to the BGS site for an announcement highlighting an upcoming collaboration with that team very soon….)

4) Moonshine + whiskey tastings?!
Say no more. You can find us in the Honky Tonk for more than just the BGS stage…

5) Stanford Hall
This is not your mama’s country festival. TLR is held on the grounds of Stanford Hall, a 400-year-old stately home in the heart of Leicestershire, sitting on over 700 acres of expansive parkland. Not too shabby!

6) Born in Bristol film screening
Produced and presented by the Birthplace of Country Music, retracing the 90 years since the recording of the original Bristol Sessions the resounding impact that music has had on the world, the documentary features the likes of Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Eric Church, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Marty Stuart, Sheryl Crow, and Doyle Lawson. Special screenings of the film will take place on site at TLR.

7) The Bluegrass Situation Takeover at the Honky Tonk stage on Sunday, September 9 (DUH!)
Featuring a cavalcade of fierce females from three different continents, our BGS-curated stage highlights everything ranging from bluegrass (Cardboard Fox) to country (Ashley Campbell, Angaleena Presley) to folk (Dori Freeman, Worry Dolls) to Americana (Danni Nicholls, Ruby Boots). It’s gonna be great. You can check out the full day’s schedule below:

13:05-13:45: Danni Nicholls
14:10-14:50: Ashley Campbell
15:15-15:55: Worry Dolls
16:20-17:00: Angaleena Presley
17:25-18:05: Cardboard Fox
18:30-19:10: Ruby Boots
19:35-20:15: Dori Freeman

Discover more about The Long Road and stay in the know by liking our BGS-UK Facebook page.

Purchase tickets for The Long Road.

WATCH: Worry Dolls, “Tidal Wave”

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Artist: Worry Dolls
Hometown: London, England
Song: “Tidal Wave”
Album: Go Get Gone (Deluxe Edition)
Release Date: July 13, 2018
Label: Bread & Butter Music / SFE

In Their Words: ​”​The first verse of the song was a voice memo on ​my phone for nearly a year that ​I kept coming back to but couldn’t really figure out what it was about. I knew tidal wave was a metaphor for when it feels like life is coming at you at full force and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. But it wasn’t until I lost an extremely close family member last summer, very tragically and suddenly, that I came back to the song and realised it was about grief. When you’re grieving they say it comes in waves, but for me it felt like a tidal wave.

Around the same time, I had just got my first Gibson and it was this gorgeous Sheryl Crow edition Southern Jumbo with this beautiful rich, warm bass. Zoe was using a vintage Earl Scruggs banjo and when we got the instruments home, this song just poured out. It was like the stars had finally aligned. Quite soon after finishing it, we produced it ourselves and recorded it live in a converted cowshed just outside of London!​” ​– ​Rosie Jones, Worry Dolls

Photo credit: Finlay O’Hara

Baylen’s Brit Pick: Dean Owens

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Artist: Dean Owens
Hometown: Leith, Edinburgh Scotland
Latest Album: Southern Wind

Sounds Like: A swampy Townes Van Zandt by way of Scotland, with a bit of jam band thrown in every now and again.

Why You Should Listen: Long heralded as one of Scotland’s best troubadours, the talent of Dean Owens is too big to be confined to one country, as glorious and wonderful as that country may be. His previous album, Into the Sea, was a deeply personal set of songs with Celtic influences right up front. The new album, Southern Wind, while no less personal, has more of a marshy Delta, Americana feel. At first, I thought this album was the perfect rainy day album. You know the type — one that you pop on when the weather is terrible and the last thing you want to do is go outside and you just want to be soothed into lying on the sofa all day. But then I was listening to Southern Wind walking through the park on a bright sunny London day, and you know what? It was the perfect sunny day album, too. That’s no small feat — an album that not so much forces its mood on you, but has some sort of magic in it that actually matches your mood.

A celebration of the musical connection between the UK and Nashville, this is really a Transatlantic affair with producer, players, songwriters, and singers from both sides of the pond working on this project. Will Kimbrough, Neilson Hubbard, Kira Small, Danny Wilson, and previous Brit Pick Worry Dolls, among others, all bring their respective skills to the mix … and what a lovely mix it is. Featuring songs about Elvis, Muhammad Ali, a mother, the street where Dean grew up, and a sister gone too soon, with blues, gospel, country slow waltz, and a bit of reggae rhythm, the album is both eclectic and completely harmonious. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, the next song takes you somewhere new but, once you’re there, it makes perfect sense after all. Southern Wind begins with a track called “The Last Song,” so you should know you’re in for the unexpected. Enjoy the ride.

As a radio and TV host, Baylen Leonard has presented country and Americana shows, specials, and commentary for BBC Radio 2, Chris Country Radio, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 2 Country, BBC Radio 4, BBC Scotland, Monocle 24, and British Airways, as well as promoting artists through his work with the Americana Music Association UK, the Nashville Meets London Festival, and the Long Road (the UK’s newest outdoor country, Americana, and roots festival). Follow him on Twitter: @HeyBaylen

Baylen’s Brit Pick: Worry Dolls

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Artist: Worry Dolls
Hometown Liverpool, England. Well, that’s where they met at university, anyway. Now they call London homebase.
Latest Album: Go Get Gone

Sounds Like: Sara Watkins twice or Punch Brothers minus three

Why You Should Listen: If the last couple of years is anything to go by, you’ll want to dig in now so you can be smug when all your friends start discovering them. They’ve gone from virtual unknowns gigging their socks off across Europe to being nominated for UK Song of the Year at the Americana UK Awards 2018 and holding their own performing on that stage with Robert Plant, Mumford & Sons, Angaleena Presley, and Seth Lakeman. Actually, they did more than hold their own, they announced with a bang that they have arrived.

They’ve collaborated with the likes of Sam Outlaw and Ian Hunter, and even released a limited edition white vinyl for Record Store Day and, if that ain’t cool, then I don’t know what is. Their songs can be as sweet as pie or as cold as ice, but either way, these two multi-instrumentalists manage to say it in the unique way that only old friends can. The Worry Dolls are going places and that doesn’t worry me one bit.

As a radio and TV host, Baylen Leonard has presented country and Americana shows, specials, and commentary for BBC Radio 2, Chris Country Radio, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 2 Country, BBC Radio 4, BBC Scotland, Monocle 24, and British Airways, as well as promoting artists through his work with the Americana Music Association UK, the Nashville Meets London Festival, and the Long Road (the UK’s newest outdoor country, Americana, and roots festival). Follow him on Twitter: @HeyBaylen