Our tips for the week's best gigging action
Acoustic
Rowan Coupland
Albion Beatnik Bookshop, Oxford
Sunday, 7.30pm
Tickets £5 on the door
Tickets are £17.50 (subject to booking fee) from themillartscentre.co.uk
Tickets are £17.50 (subject to booking fee) from themillartscentre.co.uk
A bookshop may seem an unlikely place for a night of live music, but then Jericho’s Albion Beatnik is not your usual purveyor of literature. Gathering among the bookcases this Sunday are singer-songwriters Rowan Coupland, Samuel Zasada, Freada and Julia Meijer. Expect an intimate evening of unamplified acoustica. you may even come away with a good read.
Country rock
Empty White circles
O2 Academy Oxford
Saturday
Tickets £6 from ticketweb.co.uk
Dig out those stetsons and six-shooters for a night of homespun Americana. Not content with bringing the cream of local music to the O2 Academy every month, this weekend’s Upstairs session presents an Oxford band with real country-rock credentials. Formed by American-born brothers Kevin and Sean Duggan, Empty White Circles have a fine grasp of close harmonies, catchy riffs and toe tapping rhythms. They headline a night of talent to celebrate the launch of their new self-titled EP, and are joined by fellow country-rockers Co-Pilgrim (featuring the ever charming Mike Gale and The Dreaming Spires’s Joe Bennett), dance-pop act Duchess, The Drakes and hotly-tipped Oxford singer-songwriter Chris Ryder.
Rhythm and blues
Brilleaux
The Jericho Tavern, Oxford
Monday
Tickets £10 from wegottickets.com
Hailing from the blues-rock nexus Tauranga, in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, Brilleaux are masters of good old British r’n’b. Frontman Graham Clark and his Kiwi compatriots play the Famous Monday Blues in what is sure to be a night of great danceable rock.
Pop
Nina Nesbitt
O2 Academy Oxford
Wednesday
Tickets £8 from ticketweb.co.uk
While the name may be unfamiliar, you may know young Scottish-Swedish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt for her upbeat cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop on that John Lewis advert. But the 19 year-old is so much more. Her four-track EP Stay Out, released earlier this year, attracted more than four million YouTube views, while its catchy little title track reached number 21 in the charts. Her set at the O2 Academy precedes her debut album, produced by Jake Gosling, the production genius behind Paloma Faith, Ed Sheeran and, err.. One Direction. She is joined by Olivia Sebastianelli and Daniel James.
Read more on Olivia by clicking here....
Folk-prog-rock
Martin Barre
The Mill, in Banbury
Saturday
Tickets are £17.50 (subject to booking fee) from themillartscentre.co.uk
1970s survivor releases his fourth solo album, Away With Words, which to the delight of Jethro Tull fans, features new arrangements of the band’s material together with new compositions.
Barre, who made his name with classic albums Thick as a Brick and Aqualung, is Tull’s second-longest standing member after flamingo-legged flautist Ian Anderson, and has appeared on all but the first of their albums.
As well as the usual acoustic fare, expect old favourites and new tunes bashed out on electric guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, flute and clarinet.
“Rearranging and representing the Tull songs featured on this album became a very pleasant and rewarding task,” says Martin. “These lesser-known songs have always been among my favourite pieces of music and reworking them brought back many good memories. Composing and re-arranging is my passion. Bringing together the many acoustic instruments was a delight for me, but of course the electric guitar couldn’t be left out of the picture.”
Folk
Jackie Oates
Nettlebed Folk Club
Monday
Tickets £12 nettlebedfolkclub.co. uk or 01628 636620
The folkie highlight of the week is possibly Monday’s set by Summertown singer Jackie Oates, who plays respected Nettlebed Folk Club with a special set of somniferous songs. Jackie has spent the past couple of years collecting lullabies dating back centuries, and at Monday’s show she will air them at a concert which, she insists, will not have music-lovers nodding off. “I’m fascinated by lullabies,” she told The Oxford Times. “They are an important facet of the folk idiom, but have been overlooked. They allow mothers to connect with children and have a calming, bonding effect as well as being a traditional link to the past.” She will also run an afternoon lullaby workshop for children aged up to four years old. Nettlebed Folk Club takes place at Nettlebed Village Club. Doors 8pm.
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