Melting Vinyl: Bringing the cream of live music to Brighton.

Devon’s West Country, Jim Causley celebrates over a decade as an acclaimed solo artist and performer with a brand new studio album Forgotten Kingdom, released by Hands On Music. The album is his first album of entirely self-penned material. His first three solo albums all largely comprised traditional songs and his fourth, Cyprus Well, drew on poems written by Jim’s late relative Charles Causley and set to music by Jim.

Forgotten Kingdom is a broad collection of songs inspired by Causley’s native Westcountry, mixing ancient history with the songwriter’s own personal history and experience of the world. Themes range from the Saxon invasion of the area, the Celtic diaspora, to very personal explorations of love and geographical identity. This is certainly Causley’s most musically ambitious work to date.

Remarkably, given the prominence of his native West County in his music, Forgotten Kingdom is the first occasion Jim has actually recorded an album in his home county of Devon. Working alongside award-winning co-producer Mark Tucker, this was a project Causley has long dreamt of creating. For this decennary celebration, Jim has invited some of his closest musical friends to join him as guests. Among them are long-time collaborators James Dumbelton, Nick Wyke & Becki Driscoll, all three members of Show of Hands on whose label (Hands On Music) the album is being released; contemporaries Seth Lakeman, Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin, Miranda Sykes & Rex Preston, Kathryn Roberts, Lukas Drinkwater and Jackie Oates a.o.

Since the release of his debut album in 2005, Causley’s unique voice and persona have helped him become one of the most well-loved and respected figures of today’s contemporary roots and folk music scene. A prolific collaborator, Causley is hugely admired for his work with iconic groups The Devil’s Interval and Mawkin:Causley as well as playing, touring and recording alongside Waterson:Carthy, John McCusker, Eddie Reader, Graham Coxson, Shirley Collins, Michael Morpurgo, Show of Hands, Kate Rusby, David Rotheray of Beautiful South fame and many more.

During the past decade Causley has been nominated for no less than five BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, won the Spiral Earth Singer of the Year award in 2014, presented his own folk music show on BBC Radio Devon and in 2015 he worked with BBC TV historian Dr Sam Willis to create the music for his show ‘Highwaymen, Outlaws and Villains’ and was asked to perform his song ‘Pride of the Moor’ on BBC TV’s Countryfile – Dartmoor Special.

“Jim Causley and his fellow folk musicians bring it to life with real zest, his deep baritone voice soaring as he sings.” **** 4 stars The Telegraph

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Support comes from:
Laura Hockenhull

Laura was brought up in Keighley, West Yorkshire. She has been singing in folk clubs for 15 years as a solo performer and in duos with fiddle player, John Dipper and guitarist, Damien O’Kane. Since moving to Brighton ten years ago, Laura has been singing with local band, The Long Hill Ramblers, performing mainly old-time American music at festivals and clubs across the UK. Laura will be performing a range of unaccompanied folk songs from both sides of the Atlantic.
“What is amazing is the quality of her performance, her ability to interpret songs in a new and refreshing way.” – Nigel Schofield (Free Reed Records)

DJ set from Chris T-T
Emerging from roots in late 1990s lo-fi and London-centric psych-folk, Chris T-T first gained acclaim for sarcastic, city-obsessed urban alt/folk music, including attacks on mainstream artists such as Dreaming Of Injured Popstars and minor hit Eminem Is Gay. Later he developed into an influential figure of UK song, straddling punk, psych-pop and English folk, inspiring a generation of successful home-grown artists.