KACY & Clayton are the first act to be confirmed for The Band Room’s 2020 concert programme at Low Mill, Farndale, near Kirkbymoorside, on the North York Moors.
Promoter Nigel Burnham has announced a 7.30pm shows for Friday, when the Canadian duo will be supported by Arborist. Given the capacity of only 100, he recommends booking at thebandroom.co.uk/gigs or on 01751 432900.
“I think our gig on January 31 – Brexit night! – could be the alternative double bill of the year,” says Nigel. “Kacy & Clayton brought the house down when they played here last March and we’ll be rolling out the red carpet for their return, this time with a full band line-up.
“Support act Arborist, from Belfast, are getting fantastic reviews for their debut album, Home Burial, too.”
Kacy & Clayton, from Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, are returning to Low Mill after releasing their fifth album, Carrying On, last October. “In the band are Kacy Anderson – alias the missing link between Sandy Denny and Emmylou Harris – and her second cousin Clayton Linthicum, a multi-talented guitarist who could have played on The Byrds’ Sweethearts Of The Rodeo album if he’d been around at the time,” says Nigel.
“Some call them ‘folk roots’, others ‘psychedelic folk’ or ‘cosmic alt-country’. Honestly! They’re destined for great things. Their fourth album, 2017’s The Siren’s Song, was produced by Americana icon Jeff Tweedy; they’ve toured with Wilco and The Decemberists and been mentioned in the same hallowed breath as Grievous Angel-era Gram Parsons and country rock pioneers Buffalo Springfield.”
The next date in the Band Room diary is York troubadour Benjamin Francis Leftwich on March 6: his first North Yorkshire gig since the very contrasting York Minster nave on March 29 last year.
“We’re delighted that Ben, such a peerless super-cool singer-songwriter, will be making his long-awaited debut here,” says Nigel, who will welcome Wounded Bear as the support act.
Leftwich, who lives in North London these days, released his third album, Gratitude, on March 15 last year with a launch gig that night at an even more intimate solo show, playing to 50 at FortyFive Vinyl Café, in Micklegate, York.
The Band Room will kick off a new year buoyed by the Lonely Planet travel guide placing the moorland hall at number seven in its survey of Britain’s Quirkiest Music Venues. To discover where else made the list, go to lonelyplanet.com/articles/quirkiest-music-venues-uk.
“People travel from across the world to see gigs in this picture-perfect Yorkshire hut,” writes Lonely Planet’s Lucy Lovell. “The wood-panelled Band Room was originally built as a brass band practice room in the 1920s, and aside from new management and a well-curated line-up of bands, little has changed since then.
“There’s still no bar, so don’t forget to bring your own drinks, and enjoy chatting with others who made the journey across the North York Moors.” All very true, except that the pedant police would point out the Band Room used to house silver band practice sessions, not brass band ones.