Glasgow Americana Festival 2010

Keeper of the Americana flame in Glasgow  - Kevin Morris of The Fallen Angels Club has just delivered 5 days worth of Americana music to the city of Glasgow as part of the 4^th Glasgow Americana Festival.

I only managed to make it along to a few shows but enjoyed them all. One of which was that of Northern Irish songwriter now based in Nashville - Ben Glover, who had jetted in to open for Tift Merritt. Ben gave a storming performance of songs from his album Through The Noise, Through The Night with a brilliant version of Atlantic City thrown in to the mix for the CCA crowd. His cd is hot property in my household  - I love the lyric ‘she’s got the same last name as a well known whisky’ from the track Full Moon Child  - I’m convinced the surname in question is Grouse.

It was also good to see 2 Glasgow based acts take part in the festival on the final night at Stereo. Adriana Spina, who I’ve previously only seen as a solo performer, filled the venue with some glorious vocals complimented by some fine accordion and Cajon playing by her 2 bandmates. Going by what I heard, her soon to be released new album will be good’un.

Local lads Woodenbox and a Fistful of Fivers pack a mighty punch with their trademark live shows and they did not fail to disappoint. I’m convinced they caused some structural damage to the basement of Stereo such was they accuracy of their shooting high energy Mariachi flavoured songs into the crowd – definitely worth a few fivers more.

The screening of ‘The Duct Tape Messiah’ a documentary on Texas songwriter - Blazey Ford at the GFT brought another dimension to the festival and highlighted again the popularity of the Americana scene and its appeal to the Scottish audiences- long may the festival run.

This years acts included-

Tift Merritt
Eilen Jewell
Frazey Ford
Kevin Welch & Alana Levandowski
Gurf Morlix
Girlyman
The Southern Tenant Folk Union
Brian Houston & Yvonne Lyon
The Porch Song Anthology
Roddy Hart
John Taylor
John Alexander (yes me)
Full Tonne Kid, Stephen Maguire and Paul McLaughlan
Jake Cogan and the Liberty Roses
www.glasgowamericana.com