Well here we are again with another weekly rambling about the livestreams I managed to catch over the last week. As it appears that the restrictions are being lifted very slightly down south it seems to be that the streams are slightly fewer in quantity at the start of the week but thankfully the quality is still of a very high standard.
Monday for me started with a wee catch up of a stream from Kira Mac. This lady has been pretty busy coping with her day job and it was great to see her again and I was very impressed with her cover of Kellie Picklers “A little Bit Gypsy” Kira is such a fun loving and bouncy character she just brings a smile to your day with her music. The one constant over the last few weeks on a Monday night has been the highly polished performances from The Rising. This week’s theme was movie week and the adaptability of Chantelle was highlighted one again as she and Chris worked through the ages to cover many movies and genres. Emilia Quinn took over the Belles and Gals platform to display her music and covers and again Emilia has a very entertaining personality about her.
Tuesday for me started with Scotland’s own Robyn Taylor and she had me gripped with her rendition of The Judd’s “Love Can Build A Bridge”. There is always a cheeky glint in her eye during her performances which just draws you in. SaraBeth and Glen are Tuesday night stalwarts and just keep going as long as someone requests a song whether it be an original or cover. These two also do a Stage It stream on a Sunday but unfortunately Glen was feeling unwell so this weeks one was cancelled, so best wishes to Glen for a speedy recovery. Jessica Lynn popped up for one of her many streams this week and she never fails to amaze me how good she is. More to follow on that note later in the lookback.
Georgia Nevada is certainly taking advantage of this lockdown period and is starting to establish herself as a fast growing act on the scene and is producing some fantastic displays and I hope at some time I will be able to see her live when gigs return on a live stage. Alan West popped up on screen for a while and it is the 1st time I have managed to watch him, even although it was a very quick look in for me, I love his older style of performances. It was the lovely Megan O’Neil next for me and her latest single Ireland is such a tremendous song and with her Irish lilt she has a great demeanour about her and it’s a pleasure to sit and listen to her. The last in this series of The Homebird Sessions Series 2 from Elaine Lennon featured music and chat with American singer songwriter David Starr. Elaine has established herself during the last few months as a very accomplished interviewer during her shows and has such a lovely manner about her she certainly seems to put her guests at ease. Her music is also so pleasing to the ear and I’m very proud to say that over the last few years Elaine has come to be a personal friend of mine and many of my friends as we meet at gigs.
Thursday night just would not be the same without the slagging going on between Jade Helliwell and Luke Thomas. These two are like an old married couple. (Jade I am still hinting to him for you) The music will never be secondary to the banter as they cover some great tracks interspersed with Jades own original music. Late night entertainment for me was an overseas stream from Lockeland. These guys as I’ve said before were a fantastic addition the the Millport Country Music festival in 2019 and produce some great harmonies as well as Kyndons great solo vocals and their latest single “Made For Mornings” is a great track.
Friday means only one thing. Get the Pour Me A Strong One T shirt on for later as we wait for Kezia Gill but before that Megan Erica Lee was live for a few songs and she is another of the youngsters who are keeping the conveyor belt of talent coming. Megan is also part of the Blue Genes band along with her parents. I managed to pop on occasionally to catch some part of the streams on the Total Country Podcast featuring many great acts. Although I didn’t catch full sets from many it was lovely to see the variety of music supplied by artists I saw snippets of such as Becky Lawrence, Bob Fitzgerald, Poppy Fardell, Harriet Rose, Kelsey Bovey, Alan Finlan, Emilia Quinn, Danny McMahon, Royal South and Jessica Lynn. My usual Friday night highlight has to be the weekly stream from Kezia Gill. This week it was a fantastic stream in which she told of her musical journey from being on stage with her dad, to her time in Lanzarote to the present and along with music this created a fantastic 2 hours of emotion and excitement. The Friday Night Crew certainly get to see Kezia at her best. Jessica Lynn popped up again with an impromptu stream where we all tested her musical knowledge with requests from all genres of music. I was introduced to a trio of guys from the south on Lockdown Buddies a few weeks ago and I’ve become a fan of their music and I would thoroughly recommend you had a listen to Essex Country who streamed from their kitchen and were very good, again their harmonies are excellent. I was incredibly thrilled to get a notification of the new YouTube post from Tennessee Twin who had taken the time to dedicate their weekly sofa sessions track to me. This was a tremendous cover of the “Chicks” song Travelling Soldier.
Saturday came along with a livestream from Morganway and it was nice to see that with restrictions lifting slightly they had managed to add another couple of their band to the stream and the great fiddle playing from Nicole J Terry certainly adds that extra something to the already great sound of Kieran and SJ. Scott Ashworth went live on the Facebook page for Mitchells Deli from St Andrews and produced what we are accustomed to from him as in an exceptional mix of music both old and new. Next it was the turn of a young lady who has that great knack of delivering her music with attitude and expression and a voice that is so distinctive. If you can’t guess who I’m speaking about then let me tell you. Izzie Walsh has all these qualities in abundance, and it was great to see her again. Lock down buddies had an administrator’s night and I managed to catch a bit of the stream from Diane Barbour and she was certainly worth catching. I believe Diane was possibly going to be supporting a couple of our great Scottish acts a t a venue in Inverness before the event was postponed. Diane was also joined on her spot by her daughter and this proved to be a nice duet of the song Shallow. Katee Kross and Ross David Baron were back live from their living room with another Saturday stonker of a show and Katee always comes up with some great covers along with her own music. Kezia Gill enchanted us again with her extremely talented voice this time with a set from the Raglan Road Irish bar and she certainly had us all singing along to her Irish themed songs.
The last day of livestreams for the week started for me with Sarah Yeo, Donna Marie and Tennessee Twin with their Songs and Stories collective and this week their guest was Gareth Nugent. Laura Oakes themed her weekly Sunday stream which was a Lockdown Jukebox 80s special. I can never praise Laura highly enough and again I wish she could only get the credit that her performances deserve. The next stream deserves so much credit as Gary Quinn, Jade and Luke, and Kezia took the afternoon to perform 2 songs from each of the others repertoires and my goodness the interpretations put into these songs brought a new dimension to what already were fantastic songs. My sympathy (well not really) must go to Gary as the others all took the mickey out of his usual onstage song introductions. The concept of this stream was fantastic, and I do hope that something similar will be on the cards soon. Lock down buddies threw open their platform to another scot Chris Andreucci who is making a name for himself both at home and overseas. Chris has been busy during lockdown and has come up with some great new songs. Jorvik Radio let Geoff Meads and Victoria Mills aka Tennessee Twin take over their platform for a time and they too have been very busy writing new material and showcased a song that had just been completed around midnight the night before. My week of entertainment was completed with a fantastic paid gig over on YouTube by the incredible Jessica Lynn. Many people may not know it, but Jessica is a trained classical pianist and this stream was a completely new experience for me as she did every track on the piano. Requests were coming flying in and if she did not already know the songs requested, we were treated to a small snippet of them if she was able to find chords and music online. Hearing some of her much-loved songs played on piano instead of guitar or full band sound put such a great spin on them. Her latest track “Run To” is an exceptional track but to hear it played on piano was something totally awesome.
Well as another Lookback finishes all I can say is, until next time Keep safe and thank you to all who take time to read and comment on these reviews.