Tom Blackwell

Now landed on Teesside after a meandering journey across all corners of England, Tom Blackwell emerged from the Manchester folk club circuit, where he discovered the country, blues and gospel music that would become the foundations of his work.

Between 2010-2011 a succession of homemade recorded demo collections garnered somewhat of a cult following. In 2012 The Viper label of Liverpool (Edgar Jones) released a compilation of these tracks. The record received support from BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music.

After a tumultuous start to 2014, Blackwell found himself embarking on a 3 month pilgrimage of America. Armed only with a guitar and the clothes on his back, he travelled thousands of miles over rail and bus, before a chance meeting in Nashville with sound engineer Matt Wyman led to the recording of Tyrone The Gun. The album found critical acclaim and named as one of Country Music People magazine's albums of the year in 2015

In 2018 he decided to undertake an archive project to document his early material in the barest of forms. The ‘Memphis Volumes’ were just that, hushed vocal and guitar takes captured in various Merseyside dwellings onto an old Tascam cassette recorder.

His second official long player, Regency Cafe was released in the late summer of 2023

A prolific writer with a visceral and dynamic performance style, Blackwell has been playing across the UK and beyond for the last 15 years, honing his craft both on and off stage.

SAM GRASSIE

Scottish-born, London-based fingerstyle guitarist and songwriter Sam Grassie is talented beyond his years: a young musician lending fresh energy to time-worn sounds. A rising star in the world of trad folk, he’s part of folk collective Broadside Hacks and wears his Bert Jansch influence on his sleeve, but his debut EP Sandwood - a flurry of woodwind, sax, drones, and double bass - carves out a sound of his very own.

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