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The Delines to play delayed Pocklington Arts Centre concert on February 15 2022

The Delines in their rehearsal studio in September 2018. Picture: Jason Quigley

THE Delines, Willy Vlautin’s retro country-soul band from Portland, Oregon, have rearranged their Covid-postponed February 23 gig at Pocklington Arts Centre.

They will head to East Yorkshire on February 15 2022 instead, with the promise of new material on their first British travels since their sold-out 2019 itinerary.

Looking forward to The Delines’ 8pm gig with a full band line-up, Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) director Janet Farmer says: “We’re delighted that we’ve been able to reschedule The Delines to perform live here as part of their delayed European tour.

“We know they’ll absolutely be worth the wait and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming the band and our audiences back for an evening of superb live music. We know our audiences cannot wait to experience live music once again, so I’d encourage you to book your tickets now to avoid disappointment.”

The Delines – Vlautin and Sean Oldham, both formerly of Richmond Fontaine, vocalist Amy Boone, Cory Gray and Freddy Trujillo – were working on new songs in the months before lockdown and expect to finish their follow-up to 2019’s The Imperial shortly.

The cover artwork for Willy Vlautin’s sixth novel, The Night Always Comes

Meanwhile, award-winning novelist Vlautin, 54, will be releasing his sixth book, The Night Always Comes, on April 6 (or June 6 in Harper Collins paperback, according to another website).

Nevada-born Vlautin, who was Richmond Fontaine’s lead singer, guitarist and songwriter from 1994 to 2016, was inspired by a Paul Kelly song, based on Raymond Carver’s So Much Water So Close To Home, to start writing stories.

In his latest, he explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives. At the core of his story is the dangerously tired Lynette, who is caught between looking after her brother, working two low-paid jobs and trying to take part-time college classes.

Every penny she has earned for years, she has put into savings, striving to scrape together enough to take out a mortgage on the house she rents with her mother.

Tickets for The Delines cost £20 at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk. The support act that night will be Los Angeles singer-songwriter Jerry Joseph, 59, who released the album This Beautiful Madness last August.

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The Delines to play Pocklington Arts Centre on February 23 with promise of new songs

The Delines’ Willy Vlautin and Amy Boone in a Madrid bar

YOU can’t make a beeline to The Delines at Pocklington Arts Centre on July 28, but jot down February 23 2021 for the Covid-enforced rearranged date.

Willy Vlautin’s retro country-soul band, from Portland, Oregon, returned from a three-year hiatus last year, enjoying two weeks at number one in the UK Americana charts with The Imperial, a record picked as Rough Trade’s album of the month and Uncut’s Americana album of the month.

The long lull in recordings was a result of lead singer Amy Boone’s need for three years of treatment and rehab after both her legs were broken severely in a car accident in Austin, Texas.

The artwork for The Delines’ 2019 album, The Imperial

The band vowed to “hang in there until the ship was ready to sail again”, their spirit sustained by knowing they had most of The Imperial’s material in the can already. Their sophomore record, the follow-up to June 2014 debut Colfax, surfaced eventually on January 11 2019 on Décor Records. A sold-out UK tour ensued that year.

The Delines are led by Vlautin, novelist and lead singer/songwriter for Richmond Fontaine, who disbanded in 2016, and Boone, co-founder with her sister Deborah Kelly of the Texan group Damnations.

In the line-up too are Freddy Trujillo, from Portland, on bass; Vlautin’s Richmond Fontaine cohort Sean Oldham on drums and multi-instrumentalist Cory Gray, rounding out the cinematic, late-night country-soul sound on keyboards and trumpet.

Amy Boone and Willy Vlautin: New songs in the pipeline

The band had been working on new material over the past months before the Coronavirus lockdown, those songs “set to be finished shortly” and sure to feature in next February’s gig.

That night’s support act will be Californian singer, songwriter and guitarist Jerry Joseph, who has just recorded his new album, The Beautiful Madness, with Drive-By Truckers, featuring Jason Isbell by the way, for August 21 release on Décor.

Ticket holders will be contacted by the PAC box office to offer them a transfer or refund. Tickets are on sale at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.