LATEST NEWS 2010
VOTE
FOR THE WILDCARDS AT THE BRITISH BLUES AWARDS
We Are Through To The Finals of The British Blues Awards!!!
Please take a moment to cast your final votes in the
categories below.
VOTING CLOSES ON 31st JULY 2010
THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON 11th SEPTEMBER 2010
VOTE
FOR THE WILDCARDS AT THE BRITISH BLUES AWARDS
BECCA LANGSFORD DEBUT ALBUM
Vince Lee is currently working on Becca Langsford's debut album. Recording
started in May 2010 at Ladywell Studios, Becca's brother Tim
is engineering the project and plays drums and percussion on several
tunes. Patrick James Pearson has been in to record violin parts on one of
the songs.
Vince plays guitar, lapsteel, ukulele, washboard, kazoo, jug, percussion
and sings a few duets with Becca. So far the material has taken a country
blues
vibe with songs by Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton and Bonnie Raitt.
Plans to record part of the album at PMC are taking shape. More info
soon...
www.myspace.com/beccalangsford
2010 FESTIVALS
12th March - The Wildcards @ JEPPIS BLUES FESTIVAL (FINLAND)
1st May - Vince Lee & The Big Combo @ BARBICAN JAZZ
& BLUES FESTIVAL
3rd May - Thomas Ford Album Launch @ BARBICAN JAZZ
& BLUES FESTIVAL
7th May - Thomas
Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ MOULIN BLUES FESTIVAL (HOLLAND)
28th May - Thomas
Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ ASHBURTON BLUES FESTIVAL
30th May - Vince
Lee & The Big Combo @ PLYMOUTH VOLKSFEST
19th June - Thomas Ford &
The Dirty Harmonys @ WINTERWELL FESTIVAL
20th June -
Thomas Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ SALTASH REGATTA
26th June -
Thomas Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ KINGSBRIDGE FESTIVAL
2nd July - The
Wildcards @ ASHBURTON CARNIVAL
3rd July - The
Wildcards @ SUMMER BREEZE FESTIVAL
16th July - The
Wildcards @ THUNDER MUSIC & BIKE FESTIVAL
25th July -
Thomas Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ PORT ELIOT FESTIVAL
31st July -
Thomas Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ LEOPALOOZA FESTIVAL
22nd August -
Thomas Ford & The Dirty Harmonys @ SALTASH FESTIVAL
27th August -
The Wildcards @ (GE)VARENWINKEL FESTIVAL (BELGIUM)
28th August -
The Wildcards @ BETHUNE RETRO FESTIVAL (FRANCE)
26th September -
Vince Lee & The Big Combo @ TAVISROCK & BLUES FESTIVAL
16th October -
The Wildcards @ BUCKFASTLEIGH BLUES FESTIVAL
THE WILDCARDS NEW ALBUM
'WHEN THE MOON SHINES BRIGHT'
Now Available at www.rootscd.com
More Info at
www.wildcardsweb.com
LATEST NEWS 2009...
THOMAS FORD & THE DIRTY HARMONYS ALBUM
LAUNCH MAY 2009
Thomas Ford (b. Simon Thomas Langsford, 4 July 1985) Is a
talented young blues musician based in the South West of England. Thomas has
been busy playing shows around the UK since early 2008 as a hard-hitting
one-man blues band. He sings and plays National steel guitar, blows rack
harmonica and stomps on a tambourine strapped to a suitcase! He was
Influenced from a young age by his father, Ian Langsford – founder member
of legendary Plymouth blues band ‘The Legal Eagles', Being raised in a
musical family with strong links to the blues has certainly rubbed off on
him, as anyone who has witnessed his energetic live shows will tell you!
DEBUT ALBUM – SEPARATION STREET
Thomas Ford’s outstanding debut album ‘Separation Street’ is due for
release in Spring 2009. The disc will feature performances from Tom’s
sister Becca Langsford on vocals and his brother Tim Langsford on drums.
Other members include Vince Lee (guitar, lapsteel, ukulele, vocals) and Al
Wallis (bass) from internationally acclaimed blues & roots band - The
Wildcards. Thomas wrote the majority of the tunes on the album including the
title track ‘Separation Street’.
I
first met Thomas Ford at a local gig in my hometown Plymouth, he was beating
out some footstompin’ blues on a Harmony Arch-tone guitar and blowing
serious harmonica. I remember being impressed by his performance and was
glad to see a young guy playing the blues and getting it right. We soon
became friends and ended up playing live together on a regular basis.
Thomas
had just started working on this album when i met him and invited me to play
on the record.
Separation
Street is a collection of original songs recorded in a makeshift studio by
his brother Timmy Langsford who also plays drums on the disc.
Thomas
shares vocal duties with his 19 year old sister Becca Langsford, an
outstanding blues singer with a mature and powerful voice.
The
Dirty Harmonys line up also includes my long-time bass player Al Wallis and
Patrick James Pearson who played anything he could get his hands on. He
added saxophone, organ, percussion, violin and backing vocals.
This
is an impressive debut from a
young blues musician who proves himself a thoughtful songwriter with dark
humour attached to every line he sings. His music has a timeless simplicity
that will leave these tunes swimming around in your head for days
- Vince Lee
THOMAS
FORD & THE DIRTY HARMONYS ON MYSPACE
BIG COMBO FESTIVAL DATES 2009
BIG COMBO FESTIVAL DATES 2008
DARTMOUTH FESTIVAL Saturday 17th
May - 4pm - The Big Combo
(featuring George Comer and Paul Harris)
ASHBURTON BLUES FESTIVAL Saturday 31st May - 1pm
(Vince
Lee & Al Wallis Blues Duo) - The Red Lion pub
POLPERRO FESTIVAL Monday 23rd June - 9pm
(Vince
Lee & Al Wallis Blues Duo) - The Blue Peter
MAKER FESTIVAL Saturday 2nd August - 9pm
- The Big Combo
(featuring George Comer and Paul Harris)
WILDCARDS
TOUR WITH THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS
We are very excited to announce that The Wildcards will
be touring in Germany with the legendary Fabulous
Thunderbirds during April 2008! Full details of the dates are now
available on our shows
page. This will be a great opportunity for us to appear at some new and larger
venues and we're looking forward to winning some new German fans!
BUY OUR ALBUMS
ON ROOTSCD.COM
Brand new UK based on-line cd mail
order company specialising in roots music launches in April 2008
The finest independent blues, jazz, rockabilly, folk
& world music artists on the planet!
Great artists like:
The Radio Ramblers, Big Boy Bloater & His Southside Stompers, Thomas Ford
& The Dirty Harmonys, The
Electrophonics, Jo' Buddy, The Wildcards, Vince Lee & The Big Combo, The
Nightporters, Lynette Morgan & The Blackwater Valley Boys, The Bonneville
Barons, Two Timers, Folk Uke, JD Smith, Tony Jameson & The Jamesons, Paul
Garner, Cordwood Draggers, Mitch Woods, The Lazy Jumpers, The Western Aces,
Junior Marvel, Helge Tallqvist & Groovy Eyes, Arson Roulette, The
Tennessee Boys, The Hi-Q's, The Hometown Gamblers, The Truly Lover Trio,
Johnny Carlevale, Gerry Hundt, Sidestreet Reny, Wentus Blues Band, Memo
Gonzalez & The Bluescasters and many, many, many more!
The list grows by the day!
Rootscd.com is aimed at selling the music of quality
independent blues, rockabilly, jazz, folk and world
music artists to worldwide customers.
RAISING HELL
VOTED 7th BEST BLUES ALBUM 2007
Blues Matters! Magazine voted The
Wildcards latest album 'RAISING HELL' as the 7th best albums of 2007.
We've been picking up a lot of
interest from the cream of blues World's press, with present and forthcoming
reviews and interviews in Blues Matters (UK), Blues In Britain (UK), Back To
The Roots (Belgium), Block (Holland), Blues News (Germany), Blues Revue
(USA)....the list goes on! Blues
Matters are running a major interview with us that's ear-marked for issue
42 (February 2008).
BLUES MATTERS! REVIEW
The Wildcards – Raising Hell (2007)
Listen to the entertaining lyrics or
just let yourself go to their urgently-swinging, amazingly-accomplished and
undeniably-cool blend of jazz, jump jive, blues and rockabilly, given a
wickedly ‘voodoo’ edge with Louisiana and Caribbean influences bubbling
up all over, and you can’t fail to be bowled over by its startling
originality. This well-recorded CD (a worthy successor to fine 2004 debut
“On Fire”) captures their thrilling many-layered live sound so well that
new delights emerge with every playing and you get the feeling it’s never
going to be far from your record player.
Their impeccably empathetic playing
is enhanced by great arrangements and a unifying concept feel symbolised by
the eerie cover drawing of four leering skeletons playing instruments atop
an old-style hearse providing fair warning of the dark delights within. At
the album’s greasy heart lies a magnificently woozy version of the blues
standard ‘St James Infirmary’ with an electrifying half-way lurch into a
musical mayhem worthy of Screaming Jay Hawkins or Louis Jordan. Yes, it’s
that good.
With a striking air of brooding
menace, lots of dark humour and an entertaining musical and lyrical wit way
beyond most bands, the Wildcards are surely poised on the edge of real
acclaim. Listen to the sophisticated calypso and Latin touches on the
Squirrel Nut Zippers’ ‘Hell’, the deliriously carnivalesque version of
Louis Jordan’s ‘Run Joe’, the scarifying ‘Hoodoo Preacher’
(composed by harmonica-player Gary Primich, with whom they toured last
year), and the suitably staggery rhythms of the band original ‘Drunk’.
There isn’t a weak track on the album, their own material easily matching
their well-chosen covers, though they may have saved the best till last with
the epic Vince Lee original ‘Hard Luck Tale’, featuring eerie keyboards
from guest Paul Harris. A class act.
Dave Kingsbury - Writer for Blues Matters, Blues In Britain.
2007 - END OF
ANOTHER YEAR PLAYING THE BLUES
This has been a pretty tough year... The last 12 months have
seen some serious bad juju goin' on although music has somehow kept things
together.
We have gained another extended member of The Big Combo -
George Comer on tenor and baritone saxes.
George is an old friend of the band and joins Paul Harris on
Hammond organ for regular shows with The Big Combo
We have had some knockout gigs with this line-up so expect
more of the same for 2008.
We spent a lot of time in the studio throughout 2007, The
Wildcards second album 'Raising Hell' was released in October 2007 and is
gaining great
reviews all over the world. 2008 should see the band
reaching a much larger audience with festival dates booked in Holland,
Finland, Sweden, Belgium and all around the UK.
I was also involved with our good friends Benny 'Guitar'
Carr and The Hot Rats debut album recorded at our favorite studio at The
Plymouth Music Collective.
The album which I helped produce 'Red Hot Mama' was released
in March 2007 and the band have seen their gig-list expanding as a result.
Lookout for
The Hot Rats second album in 2008. Al Wallis and myself have
been doing some shows recently with legendary New Orleans style piano
player
Diz Watson and one of my oldest musician friends Julian Rout
on drums. Julian can play a New Orleans rumba better than anyone else I know
and we
always have a blast playing together. We will surely be
performing together on a regular basis from now on!
First priority this year is to finish The Big Combo's second
album. The album will include George Comer on saxes and Paul Harris on Hammond
organ
Check back soon for more...
GARY PRIMICH
RIP 1958 - 2007
This year we lost one of our biggest influences in today's
blues scene.
GARY PRIMICH - From Austin Texas was one of the worlds
finest blues musicians. Gary was a genius harmonica player and songwriter who
inspired us
to cover many of his tunes and turned us on to some very
cool music over the years. There are two of his songs included on The Big
Combo's debut album.
He heard about us covering his songs and approached me
about doing some shows together in the UK.
This resulted in a two week tour starting at The Blues bar
and Grill in Plymouth and taking us from London to France, Belgium, Holland
and Luxembourg.
We learned a lot from touring with Gary, he was an amazing
talent and a real blues road warrior.
As a tribute we recorded Gary's song Hoodoo Preacher for The
Wildcards latest album 'Raising Hell'
When he heard our version he told us he preferred it to his
own which was the highest compliment we could have wished for!
THE WILDCARDS NEW ALBUM -
RAISING HELL 18/10/07
THE
WILDCARDS NEW ALBUM 'RAISING HELL' RELEASE DATE 18th October 2007
The Wildcards new album 'Raising Hell' due
for release on 18th October 2007.
We have now got four official launch dates
for the new album
Thursday 18th October - The Royal Oak,
Malborough, Nr Kingsbridge
Friday 19th October - Mojo's Bar, Torquay
27th October - The Rod and Line - Tideford,
Cornwall
Take a look at Vince playing the new Eastwood Stratotone H44,
Twin Tone and Airline Tuxedo guitars on Youtube. There is some live footage of The Wildcards at The Running Horse
in Nottingham and a clip of The Big Combo performing Dallas Texas at The Barley Sheaf, Liskeard...
Checkout the favorites section
Harmony
Guitars
Stratotone Newport and H62 Archtop
I
have recently become the proud owner of two extremely rare Harmony guitars, on
the left - 1957 Harmony H42 Stratotone Newport and a 1955 Harmony H62
Artist archtop.
These
are primo blues guitars made in Chicago in th 50's, photo taken at Gary
Primich recording session for Triple R Blues Radio, Holland.
Ben
Carr and the Hot Rats
Debut album "Red Hot" out
soon...
Well
2006 has been a very busy years so far. I have been in PMC Studios with Benny
Carr and the Hot Rats, Ben asked me to produce and appear as guest musician on
their debut album "Red Hot" so I had to say "Yeah!"
You can read more about this on Ben Carr's website here www.bennyguitarcarr.co.uk
Benny
"Guitar" Carr and the Hot Rats - At PMC Studios
Left
to Right - Aidan Sinclair, Vince Lee, James Carr, Tom Carr, Doc Collins, Tim
Carr, Ben Carr
Gary
Primich & The Wildcards
We
have already done several shows in Europe with The Wildcards this year. We've
toured Belgium, Holland and Finland (With The Wentus Blues Band) but the best
is yet to come. We will be touring throughout Europe for two weeks in October
with harmonica ace Gary Primich, Gary contacted me after hearing The Big
Combo's album. We covered two of his tunes on the disc "Dallas
Texas" and "Cold Hand in Mine" and he liked 'em so much we
started talking about the possibility of touring together. We will be playing
three shows in the UK. You can read more about this on Gary Primich's website
and The Wildcards site
www.wildcardsweb.com
Gary
Primich & The Wildcards European Tour
www.garyprimich.com
Tuesday 17th October - UK - The
Blues Bar and Grill (with Vince Lee and Al Wallis)
Wednesday
18 October - UK - Malborough (South Devon) The Royal Oak
Thursday
19 October - UK - Basildon - New
Crawdaddy Blues Club
Friday
20 October - UK - London (Sutton) - The
Boom Boom Club
Saturday
21 October - France - Tremblay-en-France - Espace Caussimon
Sunday
22 October - Details Coming Soon
Monday
23 October - Details Coming Soon
Tuesday
24 October - Details Coming Soon
Wednesday
25 October - Belgium - Brussels - CC
Nekkersdal
Thursday
26 October - Belgium - Details Coming Soon
Friday
27 October - Luxembourg - Luxembourg City - Sang-A-Klang
Saturday
28 October - Details Coming Soon
Sunday
29 October - Holland - Dongen - De
Gouden Leeuw
Monday
30 October - Belgium - Ertvelde - The
Maple
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