Grateful Fred Newsletter No: 76
What's occurring?
Max & Veronica at Grateful Fred’s
Those Fredheads who were lucky enough to be at Grateful Fred’s last June will already know why I immediately asked them to come back again to perform for us. Well, that time has come around and next Wednesday, 5th July, we will have the chance to see and hear the lovely Veronica and the brilliant Max perform their music for us again.
When you hear them play you would be hard-pressed to find out that they actually hail from Italy not the deep south of the USA.
Max must be one of the finest guitarists that we’ve been lucky enough to have performed at Grateful Fred’s and Veronica is just as talented as a musician on ukulele, washboard and…kazoo! (My favourite instrument…)
Here’s what it says on their website: https://maxandveronica.com/
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Veronica Sbergia & Max De Bernardi passionately play country blues and ragtime, hokum, jug band and rural music from the 20’s and 30’s.
An irresistible blend of blues, ragtime, vaudeville music and hillbilly music, played using strictly acoustic instruments such as ukuleles, washboard, kazoo, double bass and guitars.
They love entertaining the audience and keeping this precious musical heritage alive, faithfully reproducing its original sound whilst playing it with a modern twist. With The Red Wine Serenaders they won the European Blues Challenge, held in Toulouse (FR) in 2013 and were selected in January 2015 to represent Italy for the International Blues Challenge in Memphis (TN).
They continue to play and record their music, travelling and touring everywhere the music will lead them.
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If you haven’t seen or heard Max and Veronica before then I promise you that you are in for a real treat and an evening that you will remember.
It’s “goodtime music” with the emphasis on “goodtime”.
Please come along and join us if you can and help support great live music.
There are still tickets available at: https://www.theatkinson.co.uk/events/grateful-freds-july-2023/
Here’s a little taste of what you can expect…
Supporting Max and Veronica will be two of our friends, Lynne and Steve of…
Hazjak.
Hazjak are Steve Chapman Smith, guitar, bouzouki, banjo and vocals and Lynne O'Malley vocals, piano and percussion. Both are highly respected musicians on the northern folk, acoustic circuit.
Lynne is in the female trio "Yan tan tether" and sings with Henry Priestman in the Yorks area. Steve has been a solo artiste for the last 6 years and they came together as a duo in January 2018.
Hazjak are the perfect compliment to the music of Max and Veronica.
And…opening the evening (you can’t say you haven’t been warned…)
The Silver Freds
Sadly (we think sadly is the word…) our drummer, Frank, will not be with us for the evening as he is currently in South Africa and is appearing with the Hamilton Hotel House Band, Zaire, where he seems to be just as noisy as when he plays with us and, by the looks of it, is still daft as a brush.
You can see them (and Frank) in all their glory here:
The Grateful Fred Bijou Sessions
Following the great night we enjoyed earlier this month with Shanteya and Jo of Australian duo Saije our next Bijou Session is on Tuesday 19th of September when we welcome…
Rain of Animals
Rain Of Animals is the collaboration between Pepita Emmerichs (Oh Pep!) and Theodore Barnard (Wire & Wool) and their love of all things mandolin, fiddle, guitar, harmony vocals, bluegrass, old-time, swing, tunes and songs. Spanning originals to arrangements of classics and gems of rarities you wish you had discovered earlier, their sound is both new and old, unique in it's instrumental wizardry and musical integrity all at once.
Just like the evening we enjoyed with Shanteya and Jo, “Rain Of Animals” are the perfect artists/musicians to enjoy the comfort and intimacy of the Bijou Cinema.
Tickets are limited by the seating limitations of the Bijou so please book early and come along and enjoy another night of great, original acoustic music.
Tickets are available now at: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/582818
Coming up at The Bijou Sessions
John Lomax lll
We have a number of Bijou Sessions lined up. One more in 2023 when we’ll be welcoming John Lomax III, a member of the legendary Lomax family of folklorists and music researchers.
John has had one of the most extraordinary lives in music, ranging from music journalist, manager of Steve Earle (amongst others), radio DJ, photographer and author.
He knew Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and many others through his father, John A. Lomax, Jr. Alan Lomax, John's uncle, was a documentarian of folk music whose recording work exists in the Library of Congress.
John Lomax passed away in 1948, but his sons picked up where their father left off. John Lomax Jr. was also a folklorist and a folk performer, and a booster for the music in other capacities in a long career helping to preserve and promote American folk, especially in his native state of Texas. And of course John Lomax III’s uncle is the great Alan Lomax, who might be the best known from the Lomax clan from his field recordings and work with the Smithsonian Institution, as well as his efforts as a performer and preservationist. The entire family has forged their legacy behind seeking out, archiving, and paying forward important songs. After all, what good is music if nobody hears it?
And so John Lomax III continued in the family business, but in a way that ultimately had major impacts in country music through the many Texas-born songwriters that would shake country music up as part of the 70’s Outlaw movement, and later in the emergence of alt-country. Raised in Houston, TX and attending college in Austin, John Lomax III came of age right when songwriters such as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt were making their mark. He moved to Nashville in 1973, just like a lot of these Texas songwriters did looking for greener pastures and promising song placements with big country stars. Along with Guy and Townes, you had songwriters like Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, and Richard Dobson helping to move Nashville in a more open and poetic direction, and John Lomax III was embedded right there with them.
The accomplishments and accolades for John Lomax III in a multitude of capacities are almost too long to list. He’s the author of numerous books, including Nashville: Music City USA and The Country Music Book. He started multiple publications meant to put more attention behind important artists, including the Nashville-based magazine Hank and later the Nashville Gazette. He’s known internationally and has written for periodicals in Australia and England. John Lomax III is also a photographer, and many of his shots ended up in the recent Ken Burns documentary on country music.
And at 76-years-old, John Lomax III is not finished yet. “I will continue selling hard copy music on Amazon’s Marketplace via Lomax Global Music (est. 2011),” he says. “I’ll be completing a feel good book about American ingenuity and other writing projects … Finding, preserving, presenting and promoting unique American music and musicians is what Lomax’s have done for 111 years across four generations.”
“My uncle’s motto was ‘giving a voice to the voiceless,’ and now it’s even worse because giant corporations are squeezing everything but their music out of the picture,” says Lomax. “Some of these songs are just great, they’re a part of our heritage, and they need to have all the help they can get to last to another generation.”
For as long as he’s able, Lomax intends to do his part.
The evening will be an evening of songs, talk and images and for lovers of folk music and music history, it should prove quite an evening.
Tickets will go on sale shortly.
In February 2024 we’ll be bringing back Brigid Kaelin and Steve Cooley.
Brigid is a wonderful singer-songwriter and musician (including the musical saw!) and Steve’s musical pedigree includes membership of the legendary band, The Dillards.
Those Fredheads who came to the show that we presented at the EDDA building in Ainsdale last year will know what a great evening we enjoyed with Brigid and Steve.
Tickets will go on sale shortly.
Well, that’s about it for now, although I know when I finish writing this that I’ll have missed something out that I wanted to tell you, but that’s normal for me!
So, I hope you can make it to one or all of the Grateful Fred shows that are coming up and thank you for having been to those that you have done.
Peace and Love,
Grateful Fred
“May the bird of paradise sit on your shoulder” ( that’s sit not Sh-t”)
www.gratefulfred.co.uk