Blind Willie McTell celebration

Country blues fans and Dylan hardcore will be heading for a Farringdon (central London) pub on Sunday 4 November where Michael Gray will be helping celebrate Blind Willie McTell and his repertoire with young bands performing McTell covers.

Gray will introduce a couple of the bands and give a few short readings from his book, Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Bloomsbury, July 2007).

Event organiser Alastair Harper describes the bands like this:

* Congregation: Beautiful Carter Family via Zeppelin, two-souls-one-guitar-one-bass-drum-one-stunning-female-voice lineup

* Train Chronicles: Lightspeed Champion member and strange Dylan/Robert Crumb hybrid

* Extradition Order: Indie garage blues warriors

* Spinmaster Plantpot: Cockney, diminutive rapper

* Li'l Lost Lou: Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson offspring

* The Cedars: Americana blues conquerors

* David Cronenberg's Wife: twisted Fallish literary dorks . . .


Details: Sunday November 4, 3pm. Hand Me My Travelin’ Shoes: An Afternoon Of Offbeat Willie McTell Music & Readings. The Betsy Trotwood, 56 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3BL. 0207 253 4285. Admission on the door: £6, or £5 with the flyer.


Gerry Smith