Lydia Luce was a revelation at Bush Hall, 1st October 2019. On one of the wettest days since records began, out on to the stage came a musical light to shine a path through this torrential storm.

Lydia may not have been the headline act on this night but she certainly stole the show with her fiddle playing, lyrics to die for and ethereal voice. A voice that carries all the emotional power of an artist who connects with you through all the noise that is the Nashville machine. It’s not manufactured, it’s not middle of the road, this is an authentic original soul.

Music is in Lydia’s veins, it’s in her soul, she lives and breathes it, she brings it to life from her imagination and in doing so opens up a whole new universe of folk tinged lyrics that have the quality of dreams brought into flesh.

Listening to Lydia performing you were transported to another world, a world of heartbreak and enduring love that shows an indomitable spirit to survive.

Finishing off her set you were left hungry for more of Lydia’s music. More of the passion that she had enthused with her songs about Volcanoes and Cities.

It’s only a matter of time before Lydia Luce is the headline act and her music reaches more fans of folk and country music. Here’s hoping she brings her ethereal magic back soon to these shores.

Ashley McBryde has the voice that transcends time. It’s timeless. It transports you into a world of heartache, romance, life affirming soul shaking americana. A sound that is uniquely country but straddles different genres such as Rock and Blues. Ashley’s songs are at once personal to her life story but they are stories that we can all relate to that chronicle the human experience. On a wet Friday evening on 27th September 2019 Ashley brought her country soul to a sold out show to O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London.

‘Girl Goin’ Nowhere is my personal anthem. It’s the rallying call to each and everyone one of us to not let the ‘haters’ drag you down to their level with their negativity and pessimism. It’s a song which shows that your belief and faith in what makes you, you, should be rock solid. Those people never stop even when you do make a success of your dreams. The roar of the crowd on hearing this song was deafening. Ashley sang what was in our hearts.

‘Here’s to the break ups that didn’t break us’ is one of the lines from one of Ashley’s biggest breakout hits is ‘A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega’ a song for the underdog. ‘Hear a song from a band that saves ya, man’ it’s lyrics like this that permeate throughout Ashley’s songs. Bringing home to you the audience that here is an artist that understands your struggles because she has lived them too.

Ashley’s songs lifted the spirits of the audience to fever pitch. With every song the crowds energy increased vocally. Ashley responded by bringing out songs such as ‘American Scandal’, ‘First thing I reach for is the last thing I need’, Tired of being Happy.

Bringing the bluesy, rocking country sound of Ashley McBryde’s songs to live are guitarist Matt Helkamp, drummer Quinn Hill, bass guitarist Chris Sancho and guitarist/back up vocals Chris Harris. Together they are collectively called ‘Deadhorse’. And they kick ass alongside Ashley, bringing an authentic sound that makes you want to move, dance and sing at the top of your lungs. Surround yourself with good people the maxim goes and thats exactly what Ashley has done.

Ashley dedicated ‘Home Sweet Highway’ to her fans this night as a thank you for supporting her and her journey from outsider to Country Rock Queen. There’s a vitality to Ashley’s music , a resonance wither audience that uplifts the spirit.

Ashley also played her latest single ‘One Night Standards’ a modern day take on romance for the 21st century. This needs to be on the new album which hopefully once her mammoth tour is over should be the title track.

Bringing the night to a close with an encore Ashley had captured the hearts of this London audience by being the embodiment of country rock heart and soul. This night was an unforgettable night of music, at times electrifying, at others an acoustic ode to the soul and what it means to be human. Never let ‘No’ stop you from achieving your dreams instead let it be the fuel to rocket you to new heights. We were in the presence of greatness tonight, a legend, a Queen of Country.

Once upon a time there was a prince called John and a princess called Joy and together as The Civil Wars they lived happily ever after, producing music which captured audiences hearts. Thats how the story was supposed to end right? But this is a modern tale and the Prince and Princess went their separate ways and then there was silence.

I was at the last ever concert given by The Civil Wars at the Roundhouse London in 2012, it was a magical evening, the duo were at the top of their musical game and then they unexpectedly separated. Tentatively after many years John Paul White came back onto the musical scene in 2016 with his album ‘Belulah’ and travelled to these shores at Bush Hall, London to promote these songs and more importantly his return to music.

Last night at Islington Assembley Hall (5th September 2019) John Paul began his latest tour across Europe to promote his album ‘The Hurting Kind’. A very emotionally raw, visceral americana collection of songs which departs from the more folk/country music that he is known for. John Paul brings a stronger sense of his self into these songs building from personal family history and tragedies.

John Paul opened the night with ‘Wish I Could Write You A Song’ a haunting melody of love and loss. Continuing with ‘My Dreams Have All Come Home’, and ‘The Long Way Home’ These songs play your heartstrings like an orchestra and rather than make you melancholy they are love songs to the human spirit and it’s capacity to carry on through emotional and physical hardship.

One of the most powerful songs sung by John Paul that night for me was ‘James’ inspired by the country icon Glen Campbell and finding out he had Alzheimers and struggling with memory loss. To make that connection more personal in the lyrics John Paul changed the name of the protagonist to that of his father.

Then at the end of his set John Paul said he was going to perform a song he hadn’t played in front of an audience in seven years. That song was ‘Barton Hollow’. The crowd roared with appreciation and then fell silent to hear one half of ‘The Civil Wars’ perform one of their songs again. It was everything that you could hope for the soaring vocals, the guitar strings holding the melody and that connection that brought back memories of another time and place.

The encore consisted of just John Paul on stage singing ‘Once And Future Queen’ and ending with ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ a fitting ending to a night of musical magic. After rapturous applause the evening was at and end but one thing remained for me to do and that was to meet the man himself John Paul White.

Earlier on in the evening waiting in line to enter the venue John Paul came and shook everyone’s hand who was there. When he came to me he said “You can’t pick me up again!” I replied ‘Are you sure?’, “Maybe” came back the answer said with a glint in his eye. When John Paul sees me after the concert he says “You’re the only one who got to do that no one else will!”

The fire in Jillian Jaquelines’s eyes burned brightly last night (2nd September 2019) at London Roundhouse when she opened up for fellow Country artist Kip Moore. The intensity of her performance shone through as she sung songs from her as yet unreleased new album while closing out with signature tunes from albums ‘Side A’ and ‘Side B’.

Having only recently supported Kip Moore on his recent tour in May 2019 you would think that there would be nothing new to discover or appreciate from Nashville’s newest shooting star but the clarity of Jillian’s voice made the fans night as they experienced the songs as they were made to be heard, live and personal.

A Spotify superstar Jillian’s song ‘Reasons’ has over 16 and half million plays on the music platform. This didn’t happen by accident Jillian has been in the music business since the age of 9 when Kenny Rogers took her under his wing musically speaking and provided her with the solid foundation to take on Nashville and the music machine that spits and chews out lesser beings.

Opening her set with ‘The Ocean’ she held an enraptured audience in her hands with lyrics about how the rain reminded her of an ex-boyfriend. Love and all of its complexities were definitely on show last night with the song ‘Compliment’ and how the attentions of an an ex-lover can be damaging in the here and now.

Jillian has lived and breathed country her whole life and it showed last night with a stunning rendition of Pam Tillis’s ‘Maybe it was Memphis’ The lyrics to this classic came to life to a new audience and it showed Jillian’s range from singing country pop to songs which are now ‘classics’.

Jillian brought her set to a close with ‘Tragic’ and “God Bless this Mess’. Listening to an artist on Spotify or whichever music platform your addicted to can be a intimate personal experience but listening to the same artist in front of hundreds of fans at concert is a mind blowing experience.

Jillian Jacqueline’s ascent to country music stardom is assured. The combination of those crisp clean vocals and intensity of delivery made fans of everyone who listened to her. When you see a new star shining up above the night sky it’ll be called Jillian.