We’re so happy to announce that we are expecting a baby to arrive some time around May Day! We have officially become ‘a couple’ after a few years of performing, touring and working together as a professional folk/country duo and have now moved in to a magical, anciently rustic, wood-burner fuelled, 11th century bolt-hole, 20 minutes outside Bristol and are getting ready for some extra company. We don’t know what we’re having yet but are pretty sure it is going to be either a boy or a girl.

For those who aren’t so fussed about babies – 8 months ago I would have fully empathised! – we have both been writing some great new songs. Sam was prolific in morning sickness, sitting up in bed to write four crackers in three otherwise horizontal and nausea-filled weeks. I meanwhile feel I have found a whole new lease of life as a songwriter even if I only have two 3/4 songs to show for it! It’s been a long time since I’ve really wanted to write and a long break has done me a lot of good.

We have the perfect setting now to play music, living in an open-planned space full of sheepskins, the afore-mentioned burner and even a baby-grand piano. Realistically we’ll have to see how much we manage to play over the next six months but the plan is to get the baby used to it as early as possible! And we have a complete home-recording set-up already for when we feel moved to step in that direction. Meantime you can stay in touch with all our new live and other recordings on our soundcloud page at http://soundcloud.com/sam-and-henry

More soon and much love to you all in the meantime, thanks for visiting our page!

On days off we cycled to the nearby lakes, played music and delighted each other with flashmob performances of our latest pieces. Our open stage night was explosive. Such an honour to perform with Candice in the front front row, slapping her knees with delight.

Henry and I worked in the Cafe. Here’s a very swedish photo of us in our cupcake aprons! We were serenaded each evening in the cafe with maestro Pete on piano and many others who joined in. It’s amazing to watch talent flourish in such a held, safe and supported way.

The tragedy in Norway happened the day before the retreat ended.  It was profound to hear the news from Candice the next day and be reminded after all the fun we’ve had of the real reason we are here. You can listen to her talk here: Ramping up the era of great benefit – Day 10.

Much love,

Sam

Buttercup, the Sweet Savage

Sam and i are back in Diesel Daisy again for a festival and radio shropshire roadtrip. We arrived in Hay-on Wye the day before our gig in the acoustic tent at ‘HowTheLightGetsIn’ festival in search of a river to swim after a hot drive from London. Local advice landed us up wild camping for the night in a rugged kind of no-man’s land on the banks of the Wye in amongst a wealth of buttercups. We met up with fellow performers and dear Bristol friends, Troubadour Hook, for dinner in town, caught the mighty Universal Vibration and headed back through electric fences to pure night-time, riverside enchantment in the forms of fire, sounds of the river, reflections in the water and finally rain.

We were woken at 7am by a pack of 8 or so wild horses licking the dew roughly off our tent. What began as a surreally beautiful way to awake turned a little sketchier as the tent took a few rough tugs from the horses’ searching lips and eventually a giant triangular tear to the roof. In spite of this, and having seen off the non-plussed horses, we withstood a rainshower with the tent’s remaining inner-shell performing admirably, before waking up with an exhilarating, glide down the shallow but fast-flowing Wye. Gig’s looking good as i write, nice cosy sofa-filled tent serving delicious sweet chai. Half an hour to the town of books then off to meet Genevieve Tudor in Shrewsbury for a live session on Shropshire fm at 7pm. To listen live, click here: Listen Live to BBC Radio Shropshire on iPlayer

What a lovely time we had on our tour! Highlights included ‘Acoustic Haven’ in Totnes (an incredibly intimate gig in a beautifully grand old room in Bowden House run by our friends Doug and Clare), The Betsey Trotwood in London (so lovely to catch up with old friends) and The Cube Cinema in Bristol.

For each of our gigs we played a half hour opening slot. We then invited friends and audience members to perform and finished off with another Sam and Henry set. For our bigger gigs it was great to give our friends a chance to play and for the smaller ones it was brilliant to introduce this random element that seemed to bring the night alive and had us all fully attentive! It seems to create such a special atmosphere opening things up like this and each night worked out beautifully.

I’ll be heading off to Sweden on Sunday for the Spring Gathering at the Balanced View Centre in Skane. I’m so inspired by the Balanced View teachings and I’m very excited about hanging out with the community there. For more information on this visit www.greatfreedom.org.

Henry and I have so loved playing together in India and on this tour and we’ve written quite a few new songs. Here’s one of them: True Love.mp3

Once we’ve collected a few more we’ll be ready to record our first Sam and Henry album. Can’t wait.

Much love,

Sam

Rachel' Swing

This past month meanwhile has yielded more rich experiences from our musical adventuring together. We played a memorable halloween gig to a delightful crowd of recovering zombies in The Canteen on Sunday 31st October, christened Hamilton House’s events’ space in style with the rest of the Coexist Music Collective on the barn-storming, post-Guy Fawkes Night ‘open day’ on Saturday 6th November and were featured in the Bristol Fringe Festival down at ‘The Harbourside’ on Wednesday 24th November.

The fringe was held over two nights to coincide with Music South West, a brilliant event pulling together all artists and industry representatives from the region. Sam and I loved listening to legendary manager Chris Morrison (Thin Lizzy, Damon Albarn, Gorillaz) share his wholesome wisdom with us borne out of such a long time spent in the good end of the business. Very encouraging to know that people like him exist, fighting artists’ corners and backing them to get on with crazy projects like ‘Monkey’ ! Met a whole host of other inspiring characters over these two days and have big plans to work with Bristol Music Foundation, who hosted these two days, on future touring projects and other collaborations with Coexist Music.

We’re wrapping up the year with a tiny little collective xmas performance in the Stoke’s Croft Museum this Friday. If you’re passing through, look out for us between 8-11pm, playing in the window and dancing with the bear…

Sebastian and Catherine

This was truly a rare treat.  Sam and I had both liked the sound of what we heard from Catherine’s website and were delighted to be asked to support her.  Plus for me there was a draw simply because she was from Portland, Oregon.  I met a few very cool people from there when I was in San Francisco and Burning Man in 2008 and have it tagged in my mind as somewhere I must one day visit!  Anyway, the treat came in several forms.  Firstly wonderful and hospitable sound-man, Rich, and his front AND side monitoring (speakers that enable you to hear yourself better) – very spoiling and easy to play through, rendering our own set a real pleasure.  Rich also furnished us with our first ever live recording together which we are currently pouring over, critically, and debating whether to post online or not!  Another boon was the attendance of some new friends in town for Great Freedom’s ‘Extract The Power’ week, great to be able to play to some of them whilst they were in town.

But the real magic was hearing Catherine, playing with exquisite support from her lovely English husband, Sebastian.  They sung into one mic – an effect and an image Sam and I immediately resolved to steal! – wrapping their vocals and guitar-play lovingly around one another in such a beautiful and intimate way.  Sebastian played the role of ultimate accompaniment to Catherine’s lead, doting on her every vocal inflection and drifting in and out of the spotlight as and when required to lend ukelele, guitar or harmonica solos to her gorgeous songs.  Sam’s gone off with the CD they swapped us, but I won’t let her have it all to herself for long!  Genuinely, this is up there for me with unwittingly finding myself on the same bill as a then-unknown Midlake in my Marcel’s Permanent Wave days in Bush Hall.  Mesmerising and an honour to hear and make the acquaintance of this lovely and supremely gifted couple.  Even MORE reason now to one day go to Portland!  Check them out at: catherinefeeny.com

The Harbourside

Lush red curtains, dark wooden stage, warm, candlelit space, drinks and snacks served to us on stage by loving French waitresses, beautiful sound from cheery, if tardy, sound-man Gaz and a delightful little crowd too for this late evening session down on Bristol’s evolving waterfront. We lost a few punters shortly after the sound check (which received huge applause!) due to starting quite a bit after advertised but the room was busy enough nonetheless for most of the set. Sam managed heroically in spite of day-three cold, opting for much lower harmonies than usual, which was fun, if surprising, on occasion, and was forced coughing from the stage at one point to get some water. I regret taking this opportunity to ask her over the microphone to order me another pint of Sunrise. It seemed entirely logical in the moment, she was walking towards the bar…! The crowd were understandably (mock-)outraged and I was forced to think fast and play them a new song of major personal torment written earlier this year called, ‘Nowhere I Can Be’, to try and win some sympathy back in my favour. Bar staff were lovely to us as always, punters piled their coins into the bucket thanks no doubt partly to Claire Milne‘s awesome powers and the evening took a turn for the unexpected at the end of the show when we were approached by a figure who’d been sitting by himself all night, drinking straight gin and paying very close attention to the whole set. More on that at my personal site (Sam went home to bed – boo!)

The Greatness of the Magnificence Doors night

Jesse D Vernon’s ‘Greatness of the Magnificence’ returned to Bristol’s Cube Cinema on Friday night. This one was a tribute to the band, ‘The Doors’. We decided to do our own version of, ‘Break On Through’ which starts off as a woozy speech-song and finishes in a riotous frenzy…!

The night started out showing the recently released documentary on Jim Morrison/The Doors. Henry and I sat at the back and were transfixed by both the footage and the facts.  Apparently the drummer was the only actual musician when they formed, Jim hadn’t ever sung before and the guitarist had only been playing for six months?! On top of this they had no bass player, leaving the keyboard player to use his left hand for all the bass lines and restricting him to his right to create those incredible signature melodies. ‘Light My Fire’ was the first song the guitarist ever wrote and a matter of months later it was number one in the US charts. Incredible!

Most remarkable of all though was Morrison himself. The film revels in his extraordinary, natural magnetism, whether strolling around various beautiful 70s American side-walks in the sunshine or writhing around on stage surrounded by a ring of coppers and his wildly besotted fans. His gripping, drugged-fuelled performances were completely unpredictable, not least for the band, and in the end what made him seemed to destroy him and he died at the very young age of 27.

Recovering from a cold, I was dosed up on codeine for our performance – Morrison himself no doubt would have been proud! Was a treat to play our version of ‘Break On Through’ to a warmly appreciative audience and it seems destined to become a welcome addition now to our regular set.  There were other memorable performances from a trio of kids called ‘Two Greens & One Blue’ (Love Street), a profoundly heartfelt and moving turn from Johnny Angel (Riders On The Storm) and a virtuoso performance from legendary local choir master, Sam.  Coexist Music Collective were also well represented by Tony and Pete from Troubadour Hook (Alabama Song) and Jesse himself leant masterful lead to the core house band.

Last night we came up to London for a gig at the Unitarian Church on Upper Street in Islington. This is where Henry had his album launch night earlier this year. Reverend Andy Pakula compered an evening including a performance poet, a jazz pianist/singer and a piano-accompanied performance painter and dancer. Apart from a few friends we’d invited, the audience was mostly from Andy’s congregation. What a joy to play to such a quiet, attentive audience?!  It was a rewarding, ‘under the radar’ sort of way for Sam and Henry to return to London and we’re already planning our own ‘official’ debut night back in the Smoke, hopefully this side of Christmas.  All in all a very enjoyable and inspiring weekend!