Opening the weekend – Friday night live band to be confirmed
Returning to AARG to headline our Saturday night is the one and only Ali Affleck who will be selecting a band especially for us. A long time favourite of local swing and blues dancers, Ali is sure to get everyone up on the dancefloor. Early jazz historian Ali has earned her solid reputation as the quintessential ‘go to’ vocalist for authentic trad Jazz / prohibition era blues and, as she is also an American and a swing dancer, Ali is uniquely placed to deliver this music with authority. Representing the Pioneers of early music (particularly the forgotten heroines!) Ali’s fresh interpretations breathe new life into this highly specialized music.
In a change to our usual live music programming, our bonus late night set on Saturday night comes from a non-blues artist that we recently discovered: Brodie Barclay. We saw Brodie supporting rising blues star, Buffalo Nichols, and couldn’t resist dancing to his songs. Brodie started out singing on dance tracks for DJ’s and producers across Europe then used the pandemic to start recording his own music. He uses golden guitar lines with gentle vocals as the building blocks for his beautiful songs. Expect lyric driven songs with moody melodies to take you on a storytelling journey through Brodie’s big hairy heed.
Brodie has just released his debut EP and you can have a listen on Spotify here: Brodie Barclay – Crumbling EP
Closing out the weekend, on Sunday night we have a couple of superb musicians, Derek Smith and Jim Harcus. Derek Smith is the front man behind the Edinburgh based, electric blues rock band Main Street Blues, and has also been performing acoustic blues for over 10 years. Jim Harcus has played blues harp / harmonica with many Scottish bands including Wang Dang Delta, Radiotones and Main Street Blues and also plays button accordion. Together they will play a wide range of styles and tempos for us, a good mix of blues and roots material.