When: 7.30pm on Saturday 26 April 2025
Where: Hallé at St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DG

PLEASE NOTE: This show is sold out! Note that there is no support act – with doors opening at 7.30pm and Mark’s set beginning at 8pm.

We’re excited to welcome Mark Eitzel back to Manchester!

Mark Eitzel is coming to Europe for the first time in eight years. In addition to older classics from American Music Club, which will be featured on a new box set due out in 2025, Mark will be playing songs from previous solo albums and a new vinyl EP.

Mark Eitzel has released over 17 albums with American Music Club and as a solo artist. The Guardian has called him ‘America’s greatest living lyricist,’ and Rolling Stone once gave him their Songwriter of the Year award. Originally formed in 1983, AMC released seven albums before breaking up in 1995. The band reunited in 2004 for two full-lengths, Love Songs for Patriots and The Golden Age.

Eitzel released Don’t Be A Stranger in 2012 on décor/Merge which was followed by his strongest solo album since the 90s with Hey Mr Ferryman in 2017. Mark has been spending the last seven years composing music for playwright Simon Stephens as well as working on the American Music Club reissues.

For this first full UK and EU tour in eight years, Mark will be performing solo acoustic.

This concert takes place in Hallé at St Michael’s – a former Roman Catholic church, which was founded in 1859 and became the heart of the Little Italy Community in Ancoats.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Book tickets now.

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When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 30 April 2025
Where: The Yard, 11 Bent St, Cheetham Hill, Manchester M8 8NF

We’re delighted to be working with Bay Bryan for the first time – for our first show at The Yard!

Bay Bryan has spent the past five months writing new songs and jamming them with the band, resulting in a second concept album, BAYARD, to start taking shape. Before the album is officially recorded, Bay’s band invites you into their ‘living room’ (at The Yard) for a single-date hometown performance of the in-progress songs and concept.

Channeling the closeness of an NPR Tiny Desk concert, and brought to life by Bay and brilliant musicians Pete Mitchell (drums), Matthew Campbell (guitar), and Sam Leigh (bass), this experience will be one to remember.

Following the introspective The Meadow, BAYARD introduces new outward energy, with funky grooves and a playful campness more commonly expected from Queen Bayard (Bay’s drag alter ego). Fans of Bay’s recent single Drifting will have an inkling of the new sonic flavour.

Bay’s live shows are an unforgettable mix of stand out vocals, layered songwriting and captivating storytelling with an authentic theatrical flair. If you’ve seen Bay and the band perform before, you know it’s an experience not to miss.

‘Complex songwriting sees arrangements rise and fall with all the drama of the Rockies from whence he came… a deft, fairylike elegance’ – Piccadilly Records

‘Bay’s ability to conjure imaginative, story-led songs… sets them apart from the crowd’ – Fortitude Magazine

Special guest is Ryan Buxton. Ryan Buxton is a Manchester-based singer-songwriter, guitarist, and self-confessed music nerd – makes sense of the world around him through his music. Whether with full band or flying solo, Buxton’s songs often grow from textured folky beginnings into haunting or dreamlike soundscapes to get lost in. He has recently released his EP Other Breaths, which you can check out on all platforms.

The Yard is an accessible and unique creative hub based in a regenerated old school building in North Manchester just a 10-minute speed walk from Shudehill tram stop. They programme an eclectic mix of intimate seated gigs like NQ Jazz, silent film and improvisation nights, dance nights, and more.

Book tickets now.

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When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 30 April 2025
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to be working with Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band for the first time!

At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana – just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky – multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter Ryan Davis’ Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded State Champion, long-running member of Tropical Trash, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Davis lays down his first proper ‘solo’ release with Dancing On The Edge – a rich, two-LP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage.

After a period of introspection spent re-immersing himself in his drawing and painting practice, as well as his newfound delvings into instrumental music, Davis’ sea change was imminent. ‘I wasn’t sure I would ever make another record of “song” songs,’ he says, ‘but last year I started writing again and it eventually took the shape of the record at hand. I worked painstakingly hard on the material. It felt virtually impossible to complete for a bulk of the time I spent trying to enter into it, but the process pulled me out of a strange place. I was eventually able to live inside of the songs enough to understand the world within them – to ultimately help shape them into what I understood them to be.’ Indeed, there’s a load of inspiration captured in the grooves with Ryan’s unfiltered, folk-traditioned approach to poetic twists-of-tongue meeting head on with sublime instrumentation.

Recorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like Joan Shelley, Catherine Irwin (Freakwater), Will Lawrence (Felice Brothers, Gun Outfit, John Early), Jenny Rose (Giving Up), Christopher May (Mail the Horse), Elisabeth Fuchsia (Footings, Bonnie “Prince” Billy) and Aaron Rosenblum (Son of Earth, Sapat), Dancing on the Edge draws backup perhaps primarily from Davis’ tight-knit drinking buddies-cum-cast of collaborators in Equipment Pointed Ankh (records on Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Torn Light) – a five-headed hive-mind from which he drew impetus for his own foray into more abstract and improvisational terrain these past few years under the Roadhouse alias. The results herein are melancholic, gentle, minimal yet colourful in mood: a lilting highway accompaniment of crisp instrumentation and a relaxed, amiable approach to vocals with rhapsodic wordsmithery. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as those of Souled American, David Berman, Kurt Vile and Comes A Time-era Neil should all easily find bounty.

While bare-boned and uncluttered in presentation, many of these pieces track over six minutes allowing a fair amount of expansiveness. Flashes of Orange percolates with synthetic and organic percussion while Davis ruminates on how ‘a steady drip falls from the ceiling to my forehead / a pitter-patter of my past mistakes’ as a Cale-esque violin chatters through impressionistic fields of pedal steel. It’s got an absence of recurring verses, replaced by an ever-unfolding story, words spotlighted by tasteful flanging synths and lovely key shifts as finally the titular hook lifts its proceedings up into the clouds. Other times the humour shines: tales of a jukebox that ‘only plays Sultans of Swing’ in Junk Drawer Heart, ruminations like ‘soon I’ll be seen as a problem for the neighbours / soon I’ll be seen as a trophy for the precinct’ in Free From the Guillotine, and of course the simple proclamation of A Suitable Exit being ‘I never asked to be born / I was only wondering where the door went to.’

Tracked and mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets (Pawtucket, RI) and mastered for vinyl by Tohru Kotetsu at Tokyo’s legendary JVC Mastering Center, Dancing On The Edge stares down into the navel of the American Experience underbelly with a fair amount of outward reach. Besides the Kosmische-synth and violin stabs reaching into a European element, stately organ swells build a musical bridge between 1969 Southern California and Felt’s latter era smooth moves, with layers of intelligent gesture taking this well beyond the realm of its archetypal indie troubadour/acoustic songwriter tag. Music and mint juleps never went down so well together.

Local support comes from Secret Admirer. Secret Admirer hope to create music that could have been written any time in the last 60 years. Front facing melodies and warming harmonies that speak as much of West Coast sunshine as they do Stockport rain.

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When: 7.30pm on Thursday 1 May 2025
Where: Gullivers, 109 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LW

We’re delighted to welcome Jeffrey Martin to Gullivers!

As a babe Jeffrey Martin sought out solitude as often as he could find it. He’s always been that way, and he has never understood the whole phenomenon of smiling in pictures, although he is a very happy guy. One night in middle school he stayed up under the covers with a flashlight and a DiscMan, listening to Reba McEntire’s That’s the Night that the Lights Went Out in Georgia on repeat until the DiscMan ran out of batteries. That night he became a songwriter, although he didn’t actually write a song until years later. After high school he spent a few years distracting himself from having to gather up the courage to do what he knew he had to do.

Eventually he found his way to a writing degree, and then a teaching degree. He wrote most days like his life depended on it, all sorts of things, not just songs, but songs too. He fell in love with teaching high school English, which was fantastic because he never thought he’d actually come to truly love it. His students were fierce and unstoppable forces of noise and curiosity, and for all that they took from him in sleep and sense, they gave him a hundred times back in sparks and humility.

All the while he was also playing truckloads of music. There was one weekend where he flew to LA while grading essays on the plane, played two shows, and then flew back home, still grading essays, and woke up to teach at 5am on Monday morning. It was around this time he started wondering if such a life was sustainable.

Alas, music, the tour life, was a constant raccoon scratching at the back door. Jeffrey spent nights on end sitting up in bed, and then sitting on the front porch, staring off into the dark, wondering if he could bear to leave teaching to go on tour full time. Eventually his brain caught up with what his guts had known for months. With tears in his eyes he announced to his students that he wouldn’t be back the following year, and that he didn’t feel right hollering at them to chase their dreams at all cost if he wasn’t going to do the same.

Jeffrey Martin tours full time now. He is always making music, and he is always coming through your town. He misses teaching like you might miss a good old friend who you know you’ll meet again.

‘[In Thank God We Left The Garden,] Martin has delivered one of the finest albums of recent times, which if there is any justice should elevate him to the very forefront of the current crop of confessional singer-songwriters and sit high in all the end of year top ten lists’ – Americana UK

‘Reminiscent of early Nathaniel Rateliff and John Moreland, and prime John Prine, there’s no reason here to doubt that Martin might one day eclipse them all’ – Mojo

Local support comes from Doad. Based in Manchester, Doad dedicates time to writing and recording songs with the aim of bringing even a molecule of peace to people who feel they are living in a world that is deviantly spinning into an accelerated state of entropy. Just kidding: pair these songs with a tired body, they could give you something back.

Book tickets now.

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 2 May 2025
Where: The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

We’re delighted to be working with Austin Stambaugh for the first time – with special guest Ben de la Cour!

Ohio balladeer and story writer Austin Stambaugh is enriched with an authenticity that is magnetically keen. A modern pioneer of folk storytelling, his work has been called ‘timeless and nuanced’ by Lilly Hiatt who wrote, ‘enjoy with the lights low’. Folk singer Tim Easton wrote: ‘Austin Stambaugh is the best flatpicking songwriter you’ve never heard of, and I’ll stand on Steve Earle’s coffee table in my Redwing boots and say it.’

Stambaugh’s aesthetic is derived from his fascination with plain-spoken speech, timeless standards, and terrifying compositions that hold a listener in suspense. His artistry is displayed in his highly acclaimed studio album Midwest Supernatural (2023). Co-produced by Benjamin Tod of Lost Dog Street Band, the record resonates with critics and fans alike and led to collaborations with seminal modern folk archive Western AF, as well as supporting Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band on tour.

The following spring of 2024, Austin released electric visions of live recordings with his band The Electric Weepers. Elusive and shadowy, heavy and aloof, their debut document Way Down Here On Earth (2024) is released to East Nashville’s independent punk label Anti-Corp Records, and is the premier model of the obscure country music sound that stems from the northeast Ohio region.

Originally from northeast Ohio, he is now located in Nashville, TN, where he is busy writing and recording records. When not fronting his band The Electric Weepers he performs solo for audiences both regionally and internationally with a Martin D-35 uniquely his own.

Special guest is Ben de la Cour. Ben de la Cour’s visceral songwriting grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. Weaving evocative stories of desperate characters with his signature ‘Americanoir’ sound, de la Cour shines a raw, empathetic, and at times bleak light on the human condition.

After receiving praise from American Songwriter, Twangville, The Telegraph and NPR for his 2023 release Sweet Anhedonia, de la Cour returns with his heart-wrenching sixth album, New Roses. A collection of what he describes as ‘“night songs,’ the album marks a sonic evolution into stranger, heavier, synth-inspired territory. This shift adds new layers to his delicately fingerpicked story songs, creating something that is at once soaring and beautiful, hammering and claustrophobic, yet ultimately hopeful and resilient.

‘A friend took me to see Ben de la Cour at a little hole in the wall in Nashville. It didn’t take long to realise I was in the presence of greatness. He has much to say, and knows how to say it as only a true poet can. You owe it to yourself to check him out. He is important. You need this bright young talent now more than ever. We all need Ben de la Cour.’ – Lucinda Williams

Buy tickets now.

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When: 2pm until late on Sunday 4 May 2025
Where: In the cafe at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Crescent, Salford M5 4WU

Hey! Manchester collaborates with Red Deer Club to curate a stage at this year’s Sounds From The Other City!

Celebrating two decades of programming the best emerging artists and genres from across the UK, SFTOC returns with an eclectic lineup curated by a diverse group of independent local promoters, selectors and tastemakers. The festival will once again take place in unconventional venues across Salford, with 15 stages around Chapel Street and The Crescent, from pubs and churches to concert halls and in-between spaces.

This year – our 15th year in a row – we return to the cafe at Salford Museum and Art Gallery! 

To find out more about Sounds From The Other City – and to buy tickets (giving access to all stages) from 7 February – visit Soundsfromtheothercity.com.

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When: 7pm on Thursday 8 May 2025
Where: Low Four Studio, Deansgate Mews, Great Northern, Manchester M3 4EN

We’re delighted to present this intimate show with Federico Albanese!

XXIM Records is proud to announce the release of Blackbirds And The Sun Of October, the new album from Italian artist, producer, pianist and composer Federico Albanese. His fifth studio album, and the follow up to his debut release for the label, the 7-track EP, Days Of Passage, Blackbirds And The Sun Of October was inspired by – and entirely written and recorded in – Albanese’s home region of Monferrato in Northern Italy. ‘It’s an album about coming home, and reconnection,’ he says. ‘Above all, about heritage.’

This release, his first full length album for XXIM Records, marks a new chapter in his already stellar career. Restlessly creative, Albanese’s ever-evolving quest for new sounds and experimentation has been more extensive than most.

After an early childhood playing piano, he became interested in jazz, picking up the clarinet, before a teenage fascination with punk rock bands led to him learning bass guitar. Later still, he devoured the new-age music of the late 90s, immersing himself in the works of artists such as Brian Eno and William Basinski.

Swirling all that together, and having moved to Berlin from his native Italy, Albanese wrote and recorded four albums over his eight years there; each focused on a specific theme, and each adored by critics and fans alike. But for Blackbirds And The Sun Of October he felt a change was required, both thematically and geographically. ‘I started my whole career in Berlin, my children were born there, and I have a deep connection with all that, but it will never be my home,’ he says. ‘And as beautiful as Berlin can be – it’s a very beautiful city – it’s a different kind of beauty to Monferrato. The northern Italian countryside in the fall is a whole different story.’

This return to his home turf in autumn 2022 – being back in the picturesque countryside, and feeling, as he says, ‘profoundly connected to this place’, proved inspiring in so many ways. ‘There’s a sense of freedom about returning that seeps into everything you do – including music.’ His compositions started to reflect the deep, natural beauty that surrounded him – the colours, the wildlife, the changing of the seasons – but also the rich history, and the many myths and legends passed down through generations over thousands of years. ‘This place breathes history,’ he adds. ‘It’s very romantic in that sense.’

This new chapter proved to be a significant evolution in Albanese’s work. His previous albums often explored themes of memory, inner worlds, and imaginary landscapes, with each album having a distinct, thematic focus. In contrast, Blackbirds And The Sun Of October draws directly from the physical world around him – the history, nature, and beauty. ‘I can sense the freedom in this music,’ he says, ‘and there’s more positivity in it. I can feel it’s something different that before.’ He talks about the music flowing out of him, naturally, a reflection of his surroundings, and how emboldening this was.

That freedom – and the reflection of his heritage and his return to his roots – also led him to employ a rich tapestry of musical influences, blending classical music with more contemporary sounds. Yet the natural beauty of the Italian countryside initially posed a challenge – how to create something that matched the beauty already present around him? Pushed to explore new directions and ideas in his music, Blackbirds And The Sun Of October includes compositions that feel timeless, drawing on the classical traditions of the region, alongside more modern, experimental pieces. ‘I felt freer to do things that I normally wouldn’t do, like adding drums, or writing a suite for just piano and cello that could be 400 years old.’

So we have the quiet, plaintive piano and strings of The Prince and the Emperor, based on the tale of Knight Aleramo and Emperor Otto I from the 10th Century AD, and the bright, hopeful Adelasia, inspired by the Princess who so charmed Aleramo. There’s a fragility here too, soft moments of gentle beauty that glow like sunlight on dew; the delicacy of A Story Yet To Be Told and Song For the Village, or the calming tranquillity of Wallpaper Of Dreams.

Then there’s the title track, a more modern, bustling composition built around an ascending piano line and steady drums, a hint of darkness swirling around in the background. It was, says Albanese, the first thing he wrote on his arrival to Monferrato, just as the autumn colours were coming into bloom; serendipity dictated the title.

‘Blackbirds and the sun of October is a title that just felt right from the start – I wanted to find an image that could perfectly capture the essence of the place and time where the album began to take shape,’ Albanese explains. ‘The blackbirds, the autumn light – there was a sense of magic in those moments that I wanted to translate into music. It conveyed all the elements that made this album what it is.’

This show takes place at Low Four – a recording studio situated on Deansgate Mews in the Great Northern warehouse. This intimate venue features a fully stocked Cloudwater bar.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now.

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When: 7pm on Friday 9 May 2025
Where: YES Basement, 38 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB

We’re delighted to be working with Amelia Coburn again – plus special guests His His!

Amelia Coburn is darkness and light. Her acclaimed debut album Between The Moon And the Milkman, produced by Bill Ryder-Jones, showcases her as a truly singular voice in the world of music.

Unbound by one mood or modern trends she pairs daring but instantly memorable melodies with unusual chord movements and exquisite arrangements. Populated by the people and places she has encountered on her global travels and in the darker corners of literature and art Amelia views her songs as a soundtrack to her stream-of-consciousness, ‘opening up new paths, new clearings and new valleys with every listen’.

Her distinctive, crystal-cut vocal delivery and expressive stage persona has captivated audiences far and wide. Whether headlining sell-out solo tours or sharing the stage with esteemed acts as diverse as Saint Saviour, The Trials of Cato, or the late Steve Harley, her ‘beguiling stage presence’ continues to earn her fans from across the musical spectrum.

Having graced stages both as a solo artist and, more recently and increasingly, with a full band at prestigious events such as Cambridge Folk Festival, Focus Wales, Reeperbahn Showcase and Wilderness Festival, as well as various other festivals across Europe (France, Belgium, Germany and Finland), Coburn’s magnetic performances never fail to earn her new fans. A finalist in the BBC Young Folk Awards and most recently awarded Tees Valley Artist of the Year, she continues to impress and grow at a grassroots and industry level.

With her album charting in the UK and recent national airplay from BBC Radio 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 Music, as well as support from BBC Scotland and Ireland’s BBC Ulster and RTÉ1, Coburn can count the likes of pundits Mark Radcliffe and Tom Robinson as fans, as well as musicians Paul Weller, Paul Heaton and David Gedge of The Wedding Present.

Amelia returns to touring in 2025 opening for Jim Moray on his UK tour and for four dates with indie-folk legends The Levellers, as well as a headline tour in May and June where she will give glimpses of new material that may make up her second album.

Tour support comes from His His. His His is the project of Toronto-based artist Aidan Belo. His His began in the autumn of 2020. It is inspired by nostalgia and analog recording techniques. During the COVID-19 pandemic Belo constructed a makeshift studio in the empty space of an old wooden barn located on his family’s farm. Everything is tracked onto 1/4 inch tape and cassette to help achieve a warm, saturated sound.

‘Sports the projects signature tape warbled guitar and the gossamer soft lyrics of singer-songwriter Aidan Belo, reminiscent of home recordings from indie giants like Phil Elverum or Lou Barlow” – IfItBeYourWill.ca

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When: 7.30pm on Friday 9 May 2025
Where: Hallé at St Michael’s, 36-38 George Leigh Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DG

We’re excited to be working with Hayden Thorpe and Propellor Ensemble – plus Helen Gayna!

Hayden Thorpe is best known as the former frontman and chief songwriter for the much-loved band Wild Beasts. He returns to the stage with his beautifully singular third album Ness, made in collaboration with best-selling nature writer Robert Macfarlane.

Hayden will perform Ness alongside members of Propellor Ensemble, promising to be a sonically spectacular and transformational live show.

Tour support comes from Helen Ganya. Brighton-based, Scottish-Thai musician Helen Ganya (previously releasing music under the moniker Dog In The Snow) experiments with existentially-driven lyrics and off-kilter sounds to create a layered musical landscape. In her latest album polish the machine (Bella Union), she stretches away from the suburban nightmare, seeking a cathartic reprieve that looks beyond the ordinary. Her next album Share Your Care is released in February 2025.

This concert takes place in Hallé at St Michael’s – a former Roman Catholic church, which was founded in 1859 and became the heart of the Little Italy Community in Ancoats.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

Buy tickets now. 

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When: 7pm on Sunday 11 May 2025
Where: The Met, Market Street, Bury BL9 0BW

We’re excited to welcome Jerron Paxton back – this time, to The Met in Bury!

Growing up in Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton would sit with an ear by the radio, eagerly absorbing the nuances and history of Black American traditional music that connect him to his ancestral roots in the South.

A songwriter, inheritor of tradition, and a walking, talking jukebox, Paxton approaches his craft with equal part wit and reverence, with a knack for leg-pulling and cracking wise.

Things Done Changed is an album of original songs that sound beamed in from nearly a century ago, when jazz and blues were performed as a means of both personal and cultural survival. Lick by lick, Paxton builds a bridge between generations gone and generations to come, singing the heartaches and joys of the past and present.

The Met is situated in the heart of Bury – a short tram ride north of Manchester city centre.

This is a 14+ show. Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

This show is a co-promotion with The Met.

Buy tickets now. 

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