FOUNTAIN OF RICHES
As odd as it sounds, when I had the chance to record two different albums last summer I jumped at the opportunity. The first was me and Aaron Catlow, which is a no-brainer, as we wanted our new songs to be available to our fans on our 2024 tour. We had a blast making this one with Jon Short on double bass. The other opportunity came at me like a bolt from the blue. Martin Levan, who recorded John Martyn's “Grace And Danger” and did all the recording and live sound design for Andrew Lloyd Webber's “Phantom Of the Opera,” and Mark Freegard, who has recorded The Breeders, Del Amitri and pretty much all my albums over the last decade, teamed up and offered me a few days at Red Kite Studio in Wales. I couldn't say no. Plus, I had a bunch of songs that haven't really seen the light of day in any of my other collaborations and they've been kicking at the barn door to get out for awhile. There is a hundred ways to record a song, but I decided to frame these with just my voice and guitar. So for 2024 I am becoming a 2-headed Hydra: one is, of course, me and Aaron, rocking the free world as best we can. The other is me on my own-some, lonesome, like I used to do in days gone by.
GREENS AND BLUES (THE ALBUM)
On the back of a couple of fabulous years on the road, Aaron Catlow and I made a new recording over the summer. This time we worked with Josh Clark (Kate Rusby's drummer) at his studio in Bath and we invited Jon Short to play double bass with us. We had a blast! Greens And Blues is what we call the recording and it features a couple of songs that Aaron and I wrote plus others by Gillian Welch, Shirley Collins, Molly Tuttle, Rab Noakes and Sierra Ferrell, among others.
Since this collection of songs were developed onstage throughout 2023, we feel they have an upbeat, groovy vibe to them. Lots of harmony singing plus guitar arpeggios, sliding bass lines, plucky fiddle riffs, bluesy guitar chords, fiddle double-bowing and even Aaron’s whistling!
Greens And Blues is a bold step forward in the Brooks & Aaron saga. Won't you join us?
We're on tour throughout 2024. Come see us!
Get Your Very Own CD or DOWNLOAD of Greens And Blues.
GREENS AND BLUES (THE TOUR) …so far…
December 2023
7th Firth Hall, Sheffield University, Sheffield
January 2024
25th Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London
28th (aft) Square & Compass, Worth Matravers, Dorset
28th (eve) Tobacco Room, Bristol
29th The Bell Inn, Bath
30th Concert, Leigh On Sea, Essex
31th (aft) Private Concert, Burgess Hill, South London
February 2024
1st Acorn Theatre, Penzance, Cornwall
2nd Gallery Forty5 Felton, Morpeth Northumberland
3rd The Aurrie, Lower Largo, Fife
April 2024
26th Cambridge Folk Club, Cambridge
27th Somborne Session, King's Somborne Hampshire
May 2024
2nd Kirkcaldy Music Club, Kirkcaldy, Scotland
3rd Concert, Worthenbury, Wales
9th Ebenezer’s, Crewe, Cheshire
10th Masonic Hall, Broughty Ferry, Scotland
11th Wee Bear Cafe, Bridgend of Lintrathen Scotland
12th Wee Bear Cafe, Bridgend of Lintrathen Scotland
13th The Lightship, Blyth Harbour, Northumberland
14th Corner House Arts Centre, Surbiton, Greater London
June 2024
5th Grateful Fred’s, The Atkinson, Southport Mersyside
14th Bluestone Brewery, Newport, Wales
15th Concert, Barry, Wales
23rd Folk at the Froize, Woodbridge, Suffolk
July 2024
18th Marlborough College, Marlborough, Wiltshire (w Jon Short)
20th St Edith’s, Sevenoaks, Kent (w Jon Short)
September 2024
1st Whitstable Sessions, Whitstable, Kent
3rd The Blue Room Sessions, Den Bosch, The Netherlands
4th Roots in het Groen, Geldrop, The Netherlands
6th Folk House, Bristol
WATCH US PERFORMING At EL RINCON IN BRISTOL
DIAMOND DAYS SOLO RECORDING
I jumped at the opportunity to record at Red Kite Studio in Wales with Martin Levan (Andrew Lloyd Webber & John Martyn) and Mark Freegard (The Breeders & Del Amitri). Their expertise, combined with the studio's stunning acoustic sound, to say nothing of being able to sing into one of their legendary vintage microphones, a team of horses couldn't hold me back. I was in for a penny and a pound.
I decided to record this one solo. Just me and my guitar. The songs are the ones I've been writing or arranging over the last few years. Songs like Palomino Gold (the power of stories that are passed down), Gone And Done It Now (a post-Civil War vignette), London Road (with a tip of the hat to Child Ballad 209), Bonnie Triumph (Evel Knievel's motorbike was a Triumph Bonneville, otherwise known as a Bonnie Triumph), and Ring Those Golden Bells (in the Joseph Spence tradition, a song I learned from Tuba Skinny).
Diamond Days is my first solo recording in four years and is my love-song to my guitar, to songs and to the stories that fuel my music.
Get Your Diamond Days CD or DOWNLOAD Here
On Tour in March, April and November 2024
DIAMOND DAYS SOLO TOUR
March 2024
2nd Village Hall, Rampton, Cambridgeshire
5th Cafe No. 9, Sheffield
6th Irvine Folk Club, Irvine, Scotland
7th The Doublet Bar, Glasgow, Scotland
9th Village Hall, Manley, Cheshire (WA6 9EL)
10th Little Theatre (aft), Sheringham, Norfolk
14th Garstang Unplugged, Garstang Library, Garstang, Preston
16th Tolmen Centre, Near Falmouth, Cornwall
20th The Green Note, Camden, London
22nd Colne Delta Blues Club, The Community Centre, Brighlingsea, Essex
April 2024
19th Woodman Folk Club, Ashwood Marina, Kingswinford, West Midlands
Watch A Studio Performance of London Road HERE