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The Urban Wood
Open mic sessions at The Urban Wood, 90 Colston Street, Bristol are by default very intimate and therefore friendly affairs. You enter through a restaurant / bar and then make your way to a room at the back. The room is about the size of a large sitting room, but don't be put off, although your immediate audience could be small, because of a large open window to the bar area, your overall audience could be much bigger and of course you never know who is sitting in there.
The session was hosted by James Dixon who is a very talented pianist and production engineer, very much in the Jazz funk vein, as you can find out by visiting his web site at www.myspace.com/jamesdaudio and the little I was able to hear of him playing live was music to my ears.
 | The session started at 9pm prompt and when I arrived, about five minutes later, the 'Countrymen' were already playing. One of the things I like about the music business is the characters and eccentricities you come across and these guys did not disappoint. The band comprises 'Uncle Phil' - guitar / vocals, Andy Prouse - Djembe and Sandy Brown aka The Vicar of Skaville - guitar / vocals. Their style was a mix of country, ska and I guess folk, whatever it was it was excellent and uplifting and I defy anyone to sit and listen without at least tapping their feet, just what we need in these days of recession! To find out more about the band visit www.myspace.com/akathevicarofskaville |
Having the unenviable task of
following the Countrymen was Geoff Pugh
- Guitar / vocals and Howard Sinclair
- Bass who supported him. Geoff is a history and politics teacher and told me he just did the open mic sessions for fun and this
came out in his performance, he certainly had an interesting and distinctive
style playing his own material. His last song was about his love life; well you
couldn't make it up - a true troubadour!
Last on was Susanah Lea I hadn't seen her since the days of The Old Down open
mic sessions, she opened with a couple of covers one by Cyndi Lauper and the
other by Leonard Cohen surprise, surprise I was not encouraged to go out and
slash my wrists! The song was 'First we take Manhatten', I have to say I am not
a great fan of the Leonard Cohen, but Susanah did the song justice. She has a
powerful voice and I was thinking she would do well singing country songs when she burst into a number of her
own self penned songs all of which were in the country genre, needless to say
she came into her own and you can see some of her work at Susanah Lea
The evening ended with a jam
with James and some of the other guys. For more information on this venue
contact Mark Venus at mark.t.venus@btinternet.com
 | Terry Clemmett - ‘Bombay Baba’ Well I’ve had a few CD’s across my desk in my time, but Terry Clemmetts’ ‘Bombay Baba’ EP has to be one of the best. It is very original yet quirky but most importantly maintains its commerciality which makes it a very saleable product. It has four very well crafted songs all of which tell a different story of urban life in the raw. The tracks, ‘Lady in Blue’, ‘Bombay Baba’, ‘Shooting Range’ and ‘Luceil,’ are all different and very well written with good melody lines which make them instantly likeable that together with good instrumentation and you can’t go wrong. The overall style of Terry’s music puts me in mind of post punk with hints of The Stranglers, The Motors, The Cure etc. There is also it bit of reggae and even a hint of hip hop, this together with Terry’s voice which is a cross between Steve Harley and Bill Nelson (Be Bop Delux) and a few others makes this an outstanding EP and dare I say it, a possible future classic - I say let’s have more!
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