Saturday 20th February 2021
Kyla Brox Duo + Simon Robinson
Our February Lockdown Livestream was another wonderful evening of music. Thanks to all those who tuned in, donated, commented and shared on social media! Massive thanks once again to Arts Council England for the funding support.
Watch the gig again on YouTube here:
When planning this six months ago, we had originally hoped to film at and live stream from our beautiful local community venue, The Carlile Institute in Meltham, but the current UK lockdown restrictions make this impossible. We had anticipated this possibility, and when programming the gig we were careful to select a couple of brilliant duos, each of whom lives in the same household.
Award-winning Mancunian singer-songwriter Kyla Brox has been described as “the finest female blues singer of her generation”. Winner of the 2018 UK Blues Challenge and the 2019 European Blues Challenge, Kyla was also crowned Best Female Vocalist in the European Blues Awards 2019. Kyla is the daughter of cult blues artist Victor Brox and multi-talented singer Annette Reis, and has been a gigging musician since the age of 12, first in her father’s band and then as a solo artist. With many albums and numerous international tours under her belt, Kyla is regarded as one of the very best soul-blues singers the British Isles have produced. As well as her full band, Kyla regularly performs in a duo with her husband, virtuoso acoustic guitarist Danny Blomeley. When he was young, Danny fell in love with the blues, and at the age of 12 he found himself wielding a bass guitar on stage with legendary Bluesman Victor Brox. That’s where he met Kyla, and together they spent the next nine years honing their craft in the Victor Brox Blues Train, until The Kyla Brox Band was formed. Opening the show will be talented Leeds-based banjoist, guitarist and singer Simon Robinson. He will perform a set of old-time Appalachian tunes and folk/Americana songs alongside gifted fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist Mick Russell. Simon recently released his second album When The Sun Goes In. In normal times he regularly performs live both solo and with the Redwood River Band. Since the outset of the pandemic Simon has been running regular Lockdown Singaround sessions on Zoom, and he also works with various organisations to bring live acoustic music to care homes and schools. Simon and Mick’s set will feature footstomping traditional tunes and evocative songs.
Funding support from Arts Council England
We want to acknowledge the generous support of Arts Council England via their Project Grants: Supporting Grassroots Live Music funding. This helped to underwrite our Fall into Autumn virtual festival and these February and March 2021 livestreams. This support has been crucial to help True North Music survive this time of no real-life tours and concerts, and has enabled us to pay all the participating musicians a reasonable guaranteed fee. We still need your help though, and will be requesting donations to help us balance our budget, cover all costs and pay the artists as much as possible – so please make a donation if you can!