Our next show is on Thursday 6th December at The Hare and Hounds in Birmingham’s fashionable Kings Heath. We’ll be supporting guitarist and songwriter Malcolm Middleton.
Malcolm is best known for his work with the Scottish alternative rock band Arab Strap. Over the course of 10 years they released 6 studio albums before splitting amicably in 2006. Malcolm has continued to write and perform as a solo artist and has released six solo albums.
Both Malcolm and Independent Country will be playing acoustic sets. Tickets are available from Songkick.
We, the Independent Country boys of Birmingham, UK, are beyond excited to bring you this very good news….Our second album of country-fried indie covers will be with you this summer, and you can pre-order it right now, dagnabbit!
The album is out on Friday 17th August and comes in digital, CD, and vinyl editions. Here’s the artwork. Ain’t it pretty?
With a nod to Stanley Booth’s seminal chronicle of The Rolling Stones’ fateful 1969 tour of the US, “The True Adventures of Independent Country” tells the tale of a whirlwind 18 months for us. Honestly, when we started this band we had no idea of all the places it would take us: Leeds; Dorset (twice); Wolverhampton; Fancy London… and guess what – we’re just getting warmed up. We just might be coming to your town soon.
This album – the follow-up to our debut Trailerparklife (2016) – captures our rollicking, road-hardened live sound, only it’s topped off with flourishes of honkytonk piano from our hombre, Fingers Derville, the sweet backing-vocal tones of Kaytee De Wolfe, and the crazy fiddlin’ of Destroyer Hargreaves. We’re excited to tell you too that the album has been recorded and produced by the great Gavin Monaghan (Editors, Robert Plant, Ryan Adams) at his Magic Garden Studio. It’ll kick your face off like a mule eating Tennessee barbeque on the last bus back from a night at the Indie Disco.
Listen, though, kids. We’re less the dapper Gentlemen of Country this time out. We’re dusty, Dexedrine-dipped desperados. This record is the sound of a band well used to treading the boards of chicken wire-caged stages on the roadhouse circuit. Not that Islington’s Union Chapel, the bucolic Lunar Festival, or the Shiiine On Weekender at Butlins Minehead actually have chicken wire in front of their stages, but you get the idea…
Classic indie hits from The Smiths, Pulp, Artic Monkeys, My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream all get the patented Independent Country treatment, as if now in the hands of Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Neil Young’s Stray Gators or the Gram Parsons-inspired Rolling Stones. Here’s the full track listing:
1: William, It Was Really Nothing (The Smiths)
2: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor (Arctic Monkeys)
3: Do You Remember The First Time? (Pulp)
4: Wake Up Boo! (Boo Radleys)
5: International Bright Young Thing (Jesus Jones)
6: Come Together (Spiritualized)
7: You Made Me Realise (My Bloody Valentine)
8: This Is How It Feels (Inspiral Carpets)
9: Def Con One (Pop Will Eat Itself)
10: The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes (House of Love)
11: Rocks (Primal Scream)
To get you in the mood, when you pre-order either the digital, CD, or Vinyl version of the album, you immediately get a download of our barn-stompin’ version of Spiritualized’s “Come Together”.
The album itself lands on 17th August. In the meantime, keep ’em peeled for a single on 20th July – that one comes complete with a no foolin’, actual video.
So…what the hell are you waiting for? It’s finally time to come and get some. Roll up, roll up, bab, and be sure to tell your friends.
Order your copy of “The True Adventures Adventures of Independent Country” now.
With love from,
CHiPs, Doc, The Swede, Randy, Bobby P, and DJ Booth.
THE TL’DR DATES, FORMATS, LINKS
The True Adventures of Independent Country is released on 17th August 2018
Our next show will be a special ‘Farewell To The Flapper’ event in Birmingham on Wednesday 6th June – it will one of the last shows taking place in this much-loved Brum venue before the march of progress turns it into flats. Hey ho.
Support on the night comes James Summerfield, Ben Calvert and The Swifts, and Chris Tye, who together are worth the entry fee alone. Then we tread the boards, and may even dust off some songs from our former lives as 1990s/2000s indie kids. It’s be emotional.
The show is being put on by Birmingham Promoters, and full info below is taken from their event page.
In the meantime, you can broadcast your intention/hope of attending to friends and family by clicking the relevant buttons over on the Facebook event page
See you there, kids.
Full details…
Independent Country are a 6-piece band from Birmingham, UK, who play Country versions of classic Indie tunes.
Our debut LP, “TrailerParkLife”, was released in December 2016 and features new versions of songs by Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, New Order, Teenage Fanclub, and others. Jim Reid from The Jesus and Mary Chain recently described our version of ‘Blues From A Gun’ as ‘the best thing I have EVER heard’.
Our 2nd album, “The True Adventures of Independent Country” will be released in summer 2018. It will feature songs by Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, The Smiths, Inspiral Carpets, Spiritualized, and more.
Since our debut live show in the summer of 2016 we’ve played festivals all over the UK and have supported artists such as Karl Blau, Cale Tyson, and The Surfing Magazines. With a repertoire of over 40 songs – and counting – we can play either full-band sets that’ll tear the house down on a drunken Friday night, or else a laid-back acoustic show that will provide the ideal soundtrack to a regretful, hungover Sunday.
Chris Tye is a singer-songwriter who makes beautiful harmonic pop music with roots in a folk and jazz tradition. He is a sublime guitar player with a complex sense of rhythm, and a talented and ambitious composer and arranger of his music. But perhaps what strikes the listener first is his hugely distinctive voice, expressive and versatile, veering from melancholy to ecstasy, which at times recalls such important musical influences as Nick Drake, John Martyn, Grizzly Bear, The Beatles and Paul Simon.
After early releases Somewhere Down the Line(Headwrecker Records) and Matchbox Stand he released his ambitious debut album The Paper Grenade in November 2014: urban folk music on a huge canvas, intimate, anthemic and built for the big stage.
Chris is well-known on the Birmingham’s revitalised music scene, where he collaborates with diverse artists including Sam Redmore and Michael Clarke, and he has played to full venues across the country as a headline act as well as supported artists including Amy Winehouse, Fionn Regan and Ben Howard.
While making experimental theatre at Dartington College of Arts, Ben picked up a guitar and started writing his own songs immediately. Influenced by British folk, early 90’s Indie and US Psychedelia, audiences and reviewers alike have been charmed by his understated lo-fi post-folk sound that has melodic, narrative, songwriting at the core.
Having played a show at Union Chapel in November 2013, Ben took a year-long hiatus to write. The single The Sea, The Sea marked his return. The single was self-recorded and self-produced by Ben in his home studio and was mastered by Pete Maher. (Paul Weller, Damien Rice, Beady Eye) Within five minutes of the track being uploaded to BBC Introducing, it was playlisted for the following Friday.
‘This ghostly single makes a beautiful introduction. If you like Bon Iver, Midlake or Fleet Foxes then this was made for you.’ Brum Notes
Ben’s spent the last four years writing, recording and occasionally playing his songs at poetry nights in London houses. As well as returning to stage acting. There are new songs aplenty, including an EP that’s been recorded and mastered and all ready for release on vinyl in 2018.
The Birmingham-born alt-country singer-songwriter James Summerfield played with John Peel favourites Buick 6 (later The Toques) throughout the mid- 2000’s which saw them collaborate with Julian Wilson (Grand Drive), Simon Alpin(the late Willard Grant Conspiracy) and Neil Coddling(Suede). Since going solo James has released 6 studio albums, toured twice with pal Scott Matthews, collaborated with Rankin Roger (The Beat) and the late Paul Murphy(The Destroyers).
“Paced like Gillian Welch at her Bible-black best” – Uncut “One of the finest exponents of moss-hung backwoods Americana you’ll find in the UK” – The Scotsman
Our next show will be something a little bit special. We’re currently putting together a stripped-down, acoustic performance for the Hexagon Theatre at MAC Birmingham. It will take place on Friday 27th April, tickets are £11 (£10 concessions) and are available here. The show is open to all ages.
The Hexagon theatre is an intimate space, with 80 seats that loom in a steep semi-circle above and around the stage. It’s a great place to see a show. Here’s what it looks like…
For this gig we’ll temporarily become a 7-piece as we’re being joined by Nigel Darville, the keyboard wizard who played so beautifully on our 2016 debut LP, “TrailerParkLife“, and who has recently added some equally great parts to our new record, “The True Adventures of Independent Country“, out this summer. Here’s Nigel leading us in on our version of New FADS’ ‘Big’
Support on the night comes from our good friend, the fantastically talented James Summerfield. He’ll be old playing songs from his tremendous back catalogue, and also tunes from his latest record, “Doubt”.
For those who have never seen us play a more ‘sedate’ show, here’s how we lined up at London’s legendary Union Chapel for a similar show a year or so back:
Our next show is going to be an outdoor affair, roaring into the Easter weekend at the Prince of Wales in Birmingham’s fashionable Moseley Village with our pals, The Destroyers.
It’s on Thursday 29th March at 6pm. Tickets are £10 and available from the pub or from The Destroyers’ online shop.
We’re hoping to rope in Destroyer Leighton to join us for a few songs, by way of a sneak preview for his fabulous fiddling on our new record, out this summer (more news on that soon)
Our next show is likely to be a belter. We’re playing this Saturday, 17th March, as part of a doozy of a bill down at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath.
Top of the pops will be Bob Log III, with support from Black Mekon, Independent Country, and others. The £11 early bird tickets are now sold out, but £13.75 tickets are still available via this here Skiddle link.
In the meantime, here’s Bob Log III doing his thing.
Independent Country have been added to the bill of the 2018 Lunar Festival. We’re playing the Pink Moon Meadow stage on Sunday 29th July.
Here’s the Lunar Festival line-up announcement in full:
**LUNAR FESTIVAL 2018 LINE-UP ANNOUNCED!**
Many of you have been waiting a long time for this, especially since we took a year off in 2017! So, we’re very proud to reveal our 2018 line-up. Malian music legends Amadou & Mariam, electronic party pioneers Basement Jaxx, acclaimed cinematic pop duo Goldfrapp and legendary punk band The Stranglers (Official) headline the weekend – arguably our biggest line-up of artists yet, perfect for our fifth anniversary!
Don’t forget to check our the rest of the festival programme beyond the music – the weekend is absolutely jam-packed. Thanks to partnerships with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Space Centre and the Glee Club Birmingham, we offer a whole host of theatre, science and comedy workshops and shows.
General Sale Tickets go on sale THIS FRIDAY (23rd Feb) at 10am and are available from our website.
To really get to know our 2018 programme, head to our website and look through all of our Seven Elements (Learn, Listen, Taste, Relax, Laugh, Move and Create). There’s more activities, music, workshops, shows, interviews and talks than you can shake a stick at! http://lunarfestival.co.uk
Our next show will be with the marvellous Cale Tyson on Thursday 1st June at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath. Tickets are £12 and available from Skiddle.
Here’s a video of Cale in action. You can also hear his new single, Compromised Land, over on Spotify. We’re looking forward to playing with him and his band.
On Saturday 13th May we’ll be playing an acoustic show at the inaugural Independent Birmingham Festival, which takes place at The Bond in Digbeth between 12-6pm. We’re onstage at 1pm, playing some stripped-down versions of songs from our recent TrailerParkLike LP. More info on the festival below.
On Saturday 13th May (12pm – 6pm), the inaugural Independent Birmingham Festival will be taking place at The Bond, Digbeth, showcasing the very best of Birmingham’s independent restaurants, bars, pubs, street food traders, retailers, artists, designers, producers and more in a day-long celebration of all that is great about our city.
Having begun life as a website and guide to independent culture in Birmingham, actively encouraging people to explore Brum’s lesser-known aspects and rediscover their city, Independent Birmingham then went on to create the Independent Birmingham Membership Card. The IBcard is now owned by over 15,000 people, acting as a key to the city and entitling cardholders to fantastic discounts and deals at over 95 of the very best independents in Birmingham. The website and the Independent Birmingham Membership Card both act to encourage the people of Birmingham to support local, celebrate the unique and to Believe In Birmingham.
The festival will take place between 12pm – 6pm at The Bond, with restaurant pop-ups, street food, cocktails, craft beer, local artists, designers and retailers showcasing why Birmingham is so great throughout the day.
Line-up (so far): The Church, El Borracho De Oro, The Warehouse Cafe, Baked In Brick, Low ’N’ Slow, Rob Wood (showcasing drinks from The Wilderness, Smultronställe, The Loft and Zindiya), The Cuban Embassy, Buddha Belly, The Victoria, Ross Jukes, The Bournville Waffle Company, Clink, Quarter Horse Coffee, Boo Boo Coffee, Twist, Peel and Stone, Anderson and Hill, Cheval Blanc, Brumhaus, Dot Moth, Connolly’s, The Birmingham Whisky Club, The Chocolate Quarter, Zen, Vincent Van Doodle, Pin Game and many more.
Our debut record, ‘TrailerParkLife‘ is now available. You can now buy/stream the record in services such as Spotify, iTunes and elsewhere. You can also stream the album in full on our Bandcamp page, where the record is also available in CD and limited-edition, lathe-cut vinyl formats.
The album features 10 brand new, country arrangements of classic Indie and Britpop tunes from the likes of Happy Mondays, Blur, Oasis, New Order, Teenage Fanclub and others. The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s Jim Reid recently described the Independent Country version of his ‘Blues From A Gun‘ as ‘the best thing I have EVER heard’.
We hope you enjoy the album. It’s been a lot of fun to make. Here is a video for one of the tracks, our version of The Stone Roses’ Made of Stone.
Chris Tye is a singer-songwriter who makes beautiful harmonic pop music with roots in a folk and jazz tradition. He is a sublime guitar player with a complex sense of rhythm, and a talented and ambitious composer and arranger of his music. But perhaps what strikes the listener first is his hugely distinctive voice, expressive and versatile, veering from melancholy to ecstasy, which at times recalls such important musical influences as Nick Drake, John Martyn, Grizzly Bear, The Beatles and Paul Simon.
Ben Calvert & The Swifts 
The Birmingham-born alt-country singer-songwriter James Summerfield played with John Peel favourites Buick 6 (later The Toques) throughout the mid- 2000’s which saw them collaborate with Julian Wilson (Grand Drive), Simon Alpin(the late Willard Grant Conspiracy) and Neil Coddling(Suede). Since going solo James has released 6 studio albums, toured twice with pal Scott Matthews, collaborated with Rankin Roger (The Beat) and the late Paul Murphy(The Destroyers).
