We’re hitting the road this March on “Your Mom’s A Tour 2018!” We’re kicking things off at House of Blues Orlando w/ Broken Streetlights, Raising Cadence, and Run Raquel on March 9th. Hit us up for FREE TICKETS at tickets@abrilliantlie.com.
Check to see if we’re heading to a city near yoooooou! We’re adding more dates soon!
Wishbone Ash, one of the most influential guitar bands in the history of rock, will be coming to the States in April 2018 on the Open Road Tour. True to its name, the tour will see the band clocking some serious miles as they return to America’s Southern swath, from North Carolina and Florida to California. Longtime fans and new converts alike will revel in the group’s signature twin-guitar mastery and powerhouse rhythm section as they present classics spanning their career.
Formed in 1969, Wishbone Ash is gearing up for its 50th anniversary on the heels of a limited-edition deluxe 30-disc box set, “Wishbone Ash: The Vintage Years,” available April 2018 through Madfish Records while supplies last.
True road warriors, each year these British rock legends log around 30,000 miles, roughly equivalent to circumnavigating the earth. “We are breaking with our usual U.S. tour schedule and hitting the road early in 2018 to take in some cities that we haven’t been to for quite some time,” says founding member Andy Powell (guitar/lead vocals). “The tour will be heavy on Southern dates like North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and then into Texas, Arizona and, finally, California.”
In the fall, the band will return to North America for some Canadian shows. “Everyone is rested and fighting fit, and looking forward to introducing new audiences to wunderkind Mark Abrahams on guitar, while hopefully surprising folks with some tunes from the vaults,” Powell says.
Abrahams, who replaced 12-year veteran Muddy Manninen last summer, will be trading licks with Powell; he’s already been earning rave reviews from fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Longtime rhythm section Bob Skeat on bass and Joe Crabtree on drums continue to provide the solid groove that is their hallmark.
Through the years the band has delved into various musical genres, from folk, blues and jazz to pedal-to-the-metal rock and electronica. Whatever the style, Wishbone Ash’s hallmark is the distinctive twin-melodic lead guitar interplay that has influenced such bands as Thin Lizzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Iron Maiden and, more recently, Opeth.
“The band basically lives together year-round on the road, so we have a very strong level of communication that translates in our performances and recordings,” says Powell. “We’ve come to an era where the industry has to pigeonhole a band as Classic Rock, Prog Rock, Heritage Rock and so on. The truth is that we have always kept our options open and always relied on the musicianship of the players to lead the way. It’s fun to be stylistically diverse and this has, in its way, contributed to our longevity.”
Wishbone Ash has to its credit 24 original studio recordings, 11 live albums and five live DVDs along with a DVD rockumentary (“This is Wishbone Ash”). Released April 2018, “The Vintage Years” 30-disc box set, three-and-a-half years in the making, is a special collection dedicated to the band’s output from 1970 to 1991, including all 16 studio albums, three live albums, eight previously unreleased live shows from 1973 to 1980, a 156-page coffee-table hardcover book and an assortment of memorabilia. Also now available are the first official re-releases in decades of “Twin Barrels Burning” from 1982 and “Raw to the Bone” from 1985, plus definitive editions with all new 2017 remasters.
In 2015, Powell released his musical memoir, “Eyes Wide Open: True Tales of a Wishbone Ash Warrior,” co-written with renowned Irish music journalist Colin Harper and now available in Kindle and Apple iBook formats. “It’s quite an undertaking to put 46 years of being a touring musician in this one band into book form,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of changes in the music business and the world in general, as you can imagine.”
There is no other rock band in history that has done more with the twin guitar concept than The Ash. Be sure to catch them on the Open Road US Tour in April 2018. Tour dates and more information can be found at www.wishboneash.com.
Wishbone Ash US Tour Dates April 2018
03 – Harvester Performance Center – Rocky Mount, VA
04 – Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC
06 – City Winery Atlanta – Atlanta, GA
07 – Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts – Melbourne, FL
08 – Skippers Smokehouse – Tampa, FL
11 – House of Blues – New Orleans, LA
13 – Keys Lounge – Fort Worth, TX
14 – Sam’s Burger Joint – San Antonio, TX
15 – One World Theatre – Austin, TX
18 – Rhythm Room – Phoenix, AZ
19 – Railhead, Boulder Station Hotel Casino – Las Vegas, NV
20 – Canyon Club – Agoura Hills, CA
21 – The Rose – Pasadena, CA
22 – The Coach House – San Juan Capistrano, CA
25 – Yoshi’s Jazz Club – Oakland, CA
26 – The Fox – Redwood City, CA
NEW SINGLE FEATURES BASTILLE’S DAN SMITH ON BACKING VOCALS
Singer-songwriter and Bastille live member Charlie Barnes has shared a new single from his upcoming sophomore album ‘Oceanography’ with ‘Will & Testament’ featuring backing vocals from Bastille’s Dan Smith.
The follow up to 2015’s post-pop monster ‘More Stately Mansions’, ‘Oceanography’ finds Barnes in a different place in his life. The past two years have seen huge change for the musician, he has spent the majority of his time on the road as a touring member of Bastille, performing on some of the biggest stages in the world and travelling all over the globe as well as getting married and relocating from Leeds to the Midlands.
New single Will & Testament sees Barnes exploring his poppiest urges with excellent results explaining “Will & Testament’ has been through a lot of different iterations in its lifetime. The main guitar hook that starts the song is from the very first demo recording I did before the last album was even finished, and I originally built the demo up to be this big, wall of sound moody post rock thing with really nasty sounding guitars in the middle eight. Funnily enough, it was the former Oceansize member who suggested we take a slightly different approach, so we have Steve to thank for how this song eventually turned out. It’s sorted of ended up sounding like Discoceansize. Yep. I went there.”
The new single also features backing vocals from Bastille’s Dan Smith with Barnes adding “He made it all sound much better, so thanks Dan.”
In contrast to his previous LP – largely recorded in one place with producer and Oceansize guitarist Steve Durose – ‘Oceanography’ is a story of snatched moments after tour rehearsals, late nights spent in far flung studios from Wales to Virginia, ideas sent back and forth over email and put down in fits and starts while on the road. At points it seemed like it would never come together, so it’s some achievement that it not only matches the attention-grabbing maximalist prog pop of ‘More Stately Mansions’, but builds and expands on that record’s foundations.
Barnes has also shared a video to go alongside the single explaining “The idea for this video came about during a severely self-deprecating conversation I was having at a festival somewhere with Bastille’s lighting guy Jamie. I was (half) jokingly explaining that promoting a record can be sort of like screaming at a brick wall for a bit. We thought that would make a good idea for a music video, so I spent a lovely afternoon in Eastbourne looking for really good walls with my long-time collaborator and all round life guru Ryan.”
Charlie has also announced he will be pulling double shifts and opening on the sold out run of Bastille Re-Orchestrated shows, including at the Royal Albert Hall and Manchester Apollo.
Tour dates are listed below:
March 7th – Leeds, Oporto (with The Society Pages)
March 13th – Glasgow, Bloc
March 14th – Leicester, The Cookie (with The Society Pages)
March 15th – London, Islington Academy 2
March 22nd – Sheffield, West Street Live
Bastille Re-Orchestrated shows:
April 10th – Manchester Apollo, UK
April 11th – Edinburgh Usher Hall, UK
April 13th – Bristol Colston Hall, UK
April 14th – Sheffield City Hall, UK
April 16th – London Royal Albert Hall, UK
April 18th – Utrecht, Tivolivredenburg, Netherlands
April 19th – Berlin, Tempodrom, Germany
April 20th – Lucerne, KKL, Switzerland
‘Oceanography’ will be released on Superball Music on the 9th of March 2018 and can be pre-ordered now on CD, LP & digital download here:https://charliebarnes.lnk.to/Oceanography
Legendary bassist Stu Hamm will be touring the US end of February in support of his highly anticipated new concept album “The Diary of Patrick Xavier”! Stu Hamm has been the go-to bass player for the world’s great musicians. Time spent playing with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani has cemented his place among the greats and gave him the platform to display his pioneering bass techniques to adoring crowds worldwide.
“The Diary of Patrick Xavier”
2015 started out with a bang. My life was tossed in a blender, and I decided to go on a walkabout to sort things out. I booked as many gigs as possible and became the Flying Dutchman of bass players. Those of you who actually know me, know that I am always reading something. And, as much as I love the convenience of my Kindle, and reading comics on my iPad, nothing beats the feel and smell of actually holding a book in your hands. When I finish a book, I leave it in the seat pocket in front of me (if I’m in a plane), or hide it somewhere in the hotel room, where I hope that housekeeping won’t find it, but a bored, lonely fellow traveler might…pay it forward y’all!! And so…I finished reading “The Shadow-Line” by Joseph Conrad on the beach in Pescara, and pedaled it back with me at the end of the day to Citta’Bianca Hotel and placed it on the bookshelf in the lobby…Then, something caught my eye…It stood out because what was written on the spine was in English. “The Diary of Patrick Xavier”. What I held in my hands was a diary of an American named Patrick Xavier who, after life changing events, had decided to travel for 18 months to find…???…and to keep a journal of his physical, emotional and spiritual journey. And now it gets weird. Although the Agent of Change that happened to Patrick was quite different from what happened to me, the experiences he was going through were just too close to my own to be ignored. We were searching for the same answers to the same questions. Reading what he went through was heartbreaking, hilarious, inspiring, and all too familiar to me. Anyway, it was all very intriguing. This is how music is created. I came upon the idea to write songs based on P.X.’s journal entries…or at least the ones that mirrored my own experiences and that I could relate to in such a way as I could get the point of the text across musically. I won’t quote directly from his journal entries, but will give a brief description of what he wrote that moved me to write the music. Our man Patrick is a much better writer then me, or maybe…the writer I would have liked to become had my life tilted differently at key moments. The names and places have been changed to protect the guilty… the innocent can take care of themselves. – Stu Hamm
Stu Hamm has traveled the world from Boston to Belfast to Budapest, Bali and Berlin. He’s performed in a 19th century circus tent with Joan Baez, and recorded a duet of “Do Right Woman” with her. HAMM has performed with Mick Jagger, played sold out shows at Royal Albert Hall and in front of 120,000 people in Mexico City with a Mexican Rock Band.
Hamm graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he met guitarist Steve Vai and, through him, met Joe Satriani. He played bass on Vai’s 1984 debut solo album, “Flex-Able” and in 1990 Hamm was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Degree from his Alma Mater. He has performed and recorded with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Michael Shenker, Frank Gambale, and many other well-respected guitarists, however, it was playing live on tour with Satriani that brought Hamm’s skills to national attention. Subsequent recordings with Satriani and other rock/fusion artists along with the release of his own solo recordings (featuring keyboard player Tommy Mars, guitarists Alan Holdsworth and Robert Fripp, drummers Steve Smith and Tommy Lee), solidified his reputation as a bassist and performer.
Stu Hamm solo tour dates:
FEBRUARY 27, TUE – St. Paul, MN (Vieux Carré)
FEBRUARY 28, WED – Milwaukee, WI (Shank Hall)
MARCH 1, THU – Chicago, IL (Reggie’s)
MARCH 2, FRI – Indianapolis, IN (Irving Theater)
MARCH 3, SAT – Evansville, IN (Mojo’s BoneYard)
MARCH 4, SUN – St. Louis, MO (Fubar)
MARCH 6, TUE – Cincinnati, OH (MVP)
MARCH 7, WED – Detroit, MI (Token Lounge)
MARCH 8, THU – Cleveland, OH (Wilbert’s Music)
MARCH 10, SAT – Kenneth Square, PA (Kenneth Flash)
MARCH 11, SUN – New Hope, PA (Havana)
MARCH 15, THU – Marlboro, NY (The Falcon)
MARCH 16, FRI – Providence, RI (Alchemy)
MARCH 17, SAT – Boston, MA (The Middle East Upstairs)
MARCH 18, SUN – Brookline, NH (Oak Hill Music Hall)
MARCH 20, TUE – Piermont, NY (The Turning Point)
MARCH 21, WED – Pawling, NY (Darryl’s House)
MARCH 22, THU – Schenectady, NY (The Van Dyck Lounge)
MARCH 23, FRI – Syracuse, NY (Funk ‘n Waffles Downtown)
MARCH 25, SUN – Rochester, NY (Lovin’ Cup)
MARCH 27, TUE – Buffalo, NY (The Tralf)
MARCH 28, WED – Toronto, ON (The Garrison)
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