If I were one for making new years resolutions, it would be to be much better at updating this blog. In my defence, it has been a punishing busy couple of months as I started a new full time job, took on managing Theo Bard, and went into overdrive planning our biggest ever house concert down at the farm.

But no excuses for sitting on this excellent review of Mikey Kenney’s show here back in November from new Front Room fan Harriet!

Mikey, for anyone who has not come across him before, is a spell-binding fiddle player, singer and songwriter from Liverpool. His most recent album, Quest for Rest, recorded under the name Ottersgear, is a stunning piece of work that spent most of the summer on repeat in this house!

Mikey Kenney with Damon Kilcawley in the Front Room

“Saturday night was our first time enjoying Songs from the Front Room at Bedford Cottage. As we stepped through their front door amidst the bustle of friendly faces sipping wine, delicious-smelling pizzas (cooked or on-route to next door’s oven) and the tell-tale strumming of an acoustic guitar into a warm, vibrant home that welcomed you instantly, it felt like we were becoming part of something really special.

When Mikey, who was joined on the night by Damon Kilcawley, started playing, everyone was almost totally silent.The only sound were thirty people’s toes tapping along to the music. Guitars, banjos, mandolins, harmonicas, a vintage organ and a fiddle… These are two extremely talented musicians.

Mikey entertained the crowd between tunes as well as during with hilarious stories and anecdotes that had the whole room laughing before falling into another hush as the next song began. I’ve never been to a gig that felt so intimate and so relaxed, but I hope I’ll have the chance to go to many more now that we know about Songs from the Front Room.”

Thanks Harriet and we can’t wait to welcome you again.

If you want to know more about Mikey and his Ottersgear project, you can find him in all the usual places.

• Website: www.mikeykenney.co.uk
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fiddlermikeykenney

To the casual observer, it might appear that nothing much has been happening at Front Room Songs for a very long time but, thankfully, nothing could be further from truth. It’s just that I am much better at organising and hosting front room gigs than I am at blogging.

Since the last post back in May, we rounded off the first half of the year’s music with a stunning show from folk-pop maestro Lail Arad in June. Lail gave us a tantalising glimpse of what’s to come on her new album (due out ‘sometime next year’) including a beautiful rendition of her single 1934, an ode to her musical hero Leonard Cohen.

After Lail’s show, we took a break over the summer to prepare for our very first Front Room Festival. Held on a beautiful day on beautiful farm in Surrey, what started as a jokey conversation with a friend was finally realised after 10 months of hard work by a dedicated team of incredible people.

From the bouncy castles and two-seater space hoppers to the amazing performances from an outstanding line up that included Gabby Young and Other Animals, Revere, Theo Bard and Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra, it is hard to put into words what a magical day this was. We could not have asked for a warmer or more enthusiastic audience, who fully embraced the spirit of the day. We are all still basking in the warm glow of happy memories, and have already begun planning for next year.

Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra © Bertie Bosredon

And as a final footnote to that glorious day, something very special happened as a result. I have teamed up with the fabulously talented Theo Bard as his manager. Theo has been entertaining audiences across London in the most beautiful and intimate music spots, singing his own unique brand of urban folk. His expert picking on the guitar, bold beats and uplifting lyrics combine to make a sound that is both timeless and contemporary, reflecting the diversity of his beloved London. It is a huge honour to be on this journey with Theo as he takes his music to ever greater heights. We have lots of exciting plans, so expect to hear much more from him in the coming months.

See you back in the Front Room soon!

Katie x

Guest post by Laura Tait

Felix Hagan and the Family at Brookside Farm. Picture © Katie Smith

Last year a friend in LA sent me a tweet telling me to check out Felix Hagan And The Family, as she thought they’d be right up my street. She’s a fan of Frank Turner and Frank’s a fan of the band, which is how they got onto her radar. So I downloaded a track and listened to it. It was like Franz Ferdinand meets musical theatre.

It couldn’t have been any more my cup of tea if it was served in a Denby mug and tasted of English Breakfast.

So I downloaded another. Loved that too. And another… loved, loved, loved.

Then I basically downloaded everything I could find that they’ve ever recorded. My two housemates, Gemma and Emma, were equally enamoured, and it became our household soundtrack to cooking the dinner and doing the dishes. It’s the sort of music that makes everything fun.

We kept an eye out for London gigs but when they came up, they always clashed with other plans. So when we spotted their Facebook post about a secret Surrey gig I got in touch, and that’s how we ended up at our first ever Songs From A Surrey Front Room.

What fortunate happenstance that was!

From the moment we wondered off the dirt track onto the farm, greeted by the sounds of laughter and the scent of pulled pork, we loved every second (that was despite our momentary panic that this wasn’t actually the gig and we were gatecrashing someone’s private party, and were on the verge of wondering into their kitchen and helping ourselves to their dinner).

We ate, drank and chatted until the band started, and the night got even better.

Felix and co. kicked off with You’d Better Be On The Inside Looking Out, which was ever-so fitting, as it was the sort of party that if anyone happened to be walking by (I don’t know how likely that is on a private farm) they definitely would have wished they were part of it.

The band then just played track after track of their wonderfully clever songs, interacting humorously with each other and with the crowd. By the time darkness fell, they were on the grass dancing with us during some tracks. And you couldn’t possibly not enjoy them – the lyrics are witty, the tunes are catchy and they just look like they’re having a brilliant time.

They even gave into the crowd’s demands for an encore, overcoming the fact they were missing their usual bass player and they’d already covered everything his stand-in knew. They ended up performing one the guy hadn’t played for two years, and he nailed it. And even if he hadn’t nailed it, we’d have all forgiven him because it was that sort of love-in.

The fun didn’t stop when the music did – afterwards we hung out by the kitchen waiting to buy t-shirts and have our picture taken with Felix bumped into the band by the kitchen and got chatting to them in a very cool, non-stalkerish way.

We hung out for a while longer, making lovely new friends before finally making our way back to our hotel through a field, stopping to pet a horse, which almost NEVER happens en route home from Brixton Academy.

Basically great food, smashing people and top music. Which is everything we want from a Saturday night.

You can find Felix Hagan and the Family online at felixhagan.bandcamp.com/
Twitter @felixhagan
Facebook www.facebook.com/felixhaganmusic

Guest post from Juliet

The house gig with Brooke Sharkey and Adam Beattie was the first I’d attended. It was everything I’d hoped it would be, and very much more. After a wonderful pizza (home-made with the quality, quantity and production-line professionalism one would not normally find outside a restaurant kitchen) we all sat down on Katie’s living room floor with glasses of wine and high expectations. On the “stage” area by the bay window stood Brooke, with a guitar, and Adam with a double bass. We fell silent and they began.

Brooke Sharkey with Adam Beattie on double bass Picture © Katie Smith

There is something about the sound of a double bass that is like a swift punch to the very soul. The stripped down beauty of Brooke’s whispery vocals against the dark heartbeats of the bass prodded at emotions the audience didn’t even know it had. My linguistic skills are hopeless at best, yet even when the lyrics were in fluent French – approximately half of Brooke Sharkey’s set – the combination of ethereal sound and heartfelt performance filled my wine-drenched consciousness with such empathy that, finding myself perpetually on the verge of tears of joy and tears of sorrow, I lost track of the fact I had no idea what on earth she was singing about.

Adam Beattie’s set, during which he switched to vocal and guitar and Sharkey took on the double bass, was no less powerful. Where she played the cut-glass folk chanteuse, his style of folk was masterfully tinged with blues and dark humour, and the combination of both performers, swapping roles and instruments as they went, created an alchemy that would be hard to capture on tape or film. The intimacy of the living room just added to the intensity of the experience.

I would passionately recommend buying the music of both Brooke Sharkey and Adam Beattie, even more so seeing them play live. And if you are ever lucky enough to be invited to visit Katie’s front room for future gigs, I recommend you go. Music, atmosphere, company and pizza get full marks from me, and I look forward to the next one.

Brooke Sharkey

Website: http://www.brookesharkey.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/brookesharkeymusic/

Twitter: @BrookeSharkey

Adam Beattie

Website: http://www.adambeattie.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Adam-Beattie-and-the-Consultants

Franky and the Jacks. Photograph © Nicholas Upton

Having dismally failed to blog about our last house gig of the year with Kal Lavelle and Billy Lockett (which was excellent, I should say), I am determined not to let our January show with Franky and the Jacks pass without comment.

It’s been almost exactly one year since the inimitable Gideon Conn had us all beaming from ear to ear in our front room on a bitterly cold and snowy January evening; and what a year it has been! We’ve been privileged to host some of the most talented singers, songwriters and musicians out there, while our community has grown into a small but enthusiastic cohort of committed front room fans.

Fast forward one year and we’re in another front room in Surrey, waiting to hear a band that I first saw at Wilderness Festival in 2012. To say that I am excited to be hosting them here is to downplay my emotions. They are one of those rare bands that make my heart soar every time I see them play. They are, as a friend put it, “a Katie band, through and through.”

I’m always a little bit anxious when it comes to putting on these shows – there is nothing more exposing than putting your music tastes up for other people’s judgement. And it’s been a while since I last saw Franky and the Jacks (or FatJ for short) play. What if they aren’t as good as I remember?

Silly question, of course. From the opening notes, Franky Doody and his band took us on an exhilarating rollercoaster through a set that had me exhausted just watching! They play with total conviction, relentless energy, and they all look like they are having a bloody brilliant time doing it.

The bottle of bourbon they effortlessly demolished during the performance added to the party atmosphere, but their playing never faltered. These guys are great showmen, and they are gifted musicians too. Their sound is a unique melding of many musical influences – gypsy, swing, jazz, folk and country – that is impossible to categorise. In their own words, their sound is “better explained by a metaphorical battle between musical genres. In other words there begins a fight between folk and jazz, folk is badly injured and as he trips and is stumbling to the floor, jazz seizes the opportunity and kicks him hard in the ass. Folk lets out an almighty cry and it is precisely this cry that is the sound of FatJ.”

Their set was mostly original songs, penned by Franky, including Big Red Bastard, Party Pooper, Hold Your Tongue, and the touching Back for More, written for a musician friend in a coma after having been hit by a police car. There were some covers too: the Yiddish classic Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen (dedicated to newly weds Ché and Charlotte), and Townes van Zandt’s Waiting Around to Die.

Franky Doody’s vocals have a wonderful tension to them that I can’t quite describe (“strangulated, but in a good way” according to a friend), switching from soulful to growling, and from pleading to teasing.

Jack John Beale plays violin with a freedom that (as a sometime/would-be violin student) I am deeply envious of, adding the wonderful gypsy-feel to the sound. Sax McGuiness’ harmonica playing (along with some interesting dance moves!) had us all whooping with delight, while Tom Rosenfeld held it all together beautifully with the double bass.

In an evening full of highlights it’s hard to pick a favourite moment, but their penultimate song ‘Who Knows What Tomorrow Will Bring’, was a solid thirteen minutes of joy. They left the stage area to play amongst us, getting everyone up on their feet (yes, even the teenagers), and gave us a highly entertaining outro to finish up.

I want to say lots more about the songs,the performance, and the genuinely wonderful vibe they created for us, but I simply don’t have the vocabulary and this blog may never get finished. Franky and the Jacks, please come back for more!

You can find Franky and the Jacks in all the usual places:

Facebook

Twittter: @Frankynthejacks

Website:www.fatj.co.uk

And you can also buy their first ep here http://frankyandthejacks.bandcamp.com/

Skunk-Boy Project,
winner of The Idler Ukelele Player of the Year
Picture ©Katie Smith

On Friday night we caught up with one of my favourite front room alumni, the ridiculously talented Nate Swettenham, also known as The Skunk-Boy Project. Nate was in London to take part in The Idler Academy’s Ukelele Player of the Year competition.

Anything hosted by The Idler founders, Tom Hodgkinson and Gavin Pretor-Pinney, was always going to be a quirky and gently shambolic affair. These are, after all, the men who eschew the work ethic and promote idleness as a noble pastime. Tom and Gavin are great exponents of the ukelele, and this event was ostensibly to promote their new book, The Ukelele Handbook.

What the evening lacked in organisational detail was more than made up for in charm and conviviality. Oh, and the most amazing Hendricks G&T, served in tea cups.

Just five ukelele players took to the stage, one of them virtually. First up was Val via video singing about Valium (her anxiety too great to appear in person, it would seem), followed by a talented 13 year old from Brighton, a comedienne with a love song about Gordon the Traffic Warden, and then the inimitable Ukelele Eric. Eric gave us the most extraordinary cover of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance complete with hip wiggles – a definite improvement on the original.

Last up was Nate, singing Love is Many Things – one of my favourites of his. Still only 21 and in his final year at university, Nate’s songwriting skill already shows incredible maturity and there can only be good things ahead for him in his music career. His songs are charming, witty and intelligent, but most of all, they leave you feeling a bit warm and fuzzy (or was that the G&T?). The other competitors were great, but it was lovely to see Nate walk away with the prize at the end of the night.

You can find Skunk-Boy project on Facebook www.facebook.com/skunkboyproject

Or listen on Reverbnation www.reverbnation.com/skunkboyproject

Late last year I came up with the crazy idea to host gigs in my front room. Our daughter is off to Zambia with her school in the summer of 2014 to do voluntary work, and she needs to raise what seems like an impossibly huge sum of money to fund the trip. House gigs are not a new concept – while they are still rare in the UK, there is a long tradition of musicians playing in people’s homes in the US. Giving my friends an unforgettable experience in exchange for their donation seemed a very agreeable way to fundraise.

To put this all into context I should say that I am fanatical about music, especially live music. Very few of my friends, however, share my almost geekish love of it and I really wasn’t sure many people would ‘get it’ when it came to taking a punt on coming to see someone they’d never heard of play in my front room.

And I definitely wasn’t sure that we could persuade quality musicians to play here.

When Gideon Conn agreed to come and play for us in January this year, we really had no idea where this would lead. (As a total aside, if you have never seen Gideon play, please make sure you make a point of doing so – I can guarantee this talented singer/songwriter will leave you beaming from ear to ear).

I’ve been thrilled and staggered by just how completely my friends, and the artists who have played here, have embraced the concept.

Since Gideon graced our front room in January 2013, we’ve played host to an incredible array of talent: Skunk Boy Project, Billy Lockett, Gabby Young and Fiona Bevan. They will be followed by some equally wonderful artists over the coming months (see the events calendar for more details).

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Every artist who has played has committed wholeheartedly to the event, giving heart and soul to stunning performances and often treating us to exclusive first plays of new songs.

We all feel honoured and privileged to see these musicians in such an intimate setting, and I have a sneaky feeling they feel the same way.

There is nothing quite like experiencing music this close and personal, and everyone who has come has taken away a memory they will treasure for ever, and an investment in an emerging musician’s career.

I take an almost maternal pride in watching the careers of the musicians who play here develop – it’s a thrill to see them get press coverage, radio play, slots in big festivals and venues and even record deals.

My front room gigs are all private, and you can only come if you know me or one of my friends. But I know that there are many artists out there who would be love to play more front room shows. If you think you could be a front room host and would like to know more about what’s involved, please drop me a line.

And if you are a musician looking for places to play, please feel free to get in touch. I always love to hear new music.