Dan Walsh Trio at Stop Cafe, Shrewsbury

Doors: 19:30-21:30  Tickets: £13.00  Box Office: 07790 265681

After two stripped back solo albums, Dan Walsh returns with a brand new album featuring the new Dan Walsh trio with award winning fiddler Ciaran Algar (Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar, Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys) and mandolin maestro Nic Zuppardi (Shackleton Trio).

After a successful first tour for the trio last year, the new material is now captured on record ahead of an album launch tour in May and festival appearances in the UK and Europe over the summer (as well as a solo tour for Dan in the USA). Four of the numbers were premiered on BBC Radio Scotland in mid-January with presenter Bruce MacGregor pronouncing Dan 'one of the most incredible musicians I've heard in years'. Once again, the album is produced by long-time collaborator Mark Hutchinson.

The new trio features virtuoso picking, sweet harmonies and imaginative arrangements. The album features Dan's trademark wide range of influences centred principally around Scottish and Irish folk and bluegrass. It features seven instrumentals including hard driving bluegrass-style 'Late Night Drive', Celtic influenced 'Tuesday Night Session' and 'Plan B' as well as an imaginative Indian-influenced 'Lydian Set' and an African flavoured number '80 Years Of Pleasant Half Hours'.

The five songs primarily focus on real life characters including a moving story of a homeless lady Dan met in Vancouver ('Life On The Ground') and a homage to a charismatic street cleaner in Dan's hometown of Stafford ('Same Time Different Place'). There's also a cover of classic bluegrass standard 'Sleep With One Eye Open'.

BBC Folk Awards Best Musician nominee Dan Walsh combines ‘virtuoso playing and winning song writing’ (MORNING STAR). Describing what Dan does is no easy task but at the heart of it is British, Irish and American folk music delivered with a healthy dose of funky grooves – all performed with his unique and dazzling take on clawhammer style banjo helping to challenge all preconceptions about the instrument. Add to all that poignant songs, astonishing musical departures and lively humour and the result is a truly memorable live show which has wowed audiences across the world from intimate seated rooms to huge dancing crowds in festival fields.

 

Section: