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Boat To Row - Single Launch Show The Yard Bird – Birmingham - Monday 9th May 2011
Support: Poppy Tibbetts & Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun

You can never turn down a free show with such a strong line up and entering a room to the vocal niceties of Poppy Tibbets was the perfect way to shelter from the ever greying weather. As her set developed Poppy lead the lazy journalist in me to comparisons with Laura Marling but I would place her vocal range closer to Laura Stevenson or Hannah Peel (which may be a show of my obscure musical knowledge more than a valid comparison).

After being wowed by the sharp song writing and vocal excellence of Poppy Tibbets Cheltenham’s folk punk heroes Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun took the stage and wowed another audience with another solid performance. I’m slowly running out of comments to describe how fantastic JLandTSS are both on record and as a live band. Today saw an impassioned performance in a small loud room which fits the developing style of the band perfectly. Every aspect of the bands live performance was spot on from Jim’s vocals to Phil’s deep bass, to Simon’s timely drumming to Chris’ Guitars and backing vocals. Once more Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun blew me away and this is after seeing them twice in a week.

Finally Boat To Row stepped up to launch their single ‘A boat to row, to row to you’ (currently available on a very pretty ltd press vinyl) with all the harmonic beauty we have come to expect from them. As the folk scene catches on in the midlands you can guarantee BTR will be right at the forefront of it.

The combination of multi layered harmonies, clever lyrics, which lack pretension and the perfect musical backing, makes it impossible not to enjoy listening to BTR. When you factor in the fact everything they do on a recording sounds just as good live you can tell you are watching something truly special.

There are no where near enough free shows of this quality and I would have happily parted with a handful of change for this one. If the opportunity arises to see any of these three acts live at any time in the near future you should make it a priority.

Review by Ben Adsett

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