Previews by Mike Davies

Wednesday August 4

The Raghu Dixit Project

Contemporary Indian Folk Music is the tag, Dixit a master of Indian classical dance as well as a feted musician and composer. Forget the usual Bollywood factory and the formal Indian classical tradition, Dixit has crafted a folk-rock fusion that draws as much on funk, reggae, and rock as it does Indian folk, with songs about emotions and experiences everyone can recognise. Well, assuming you understand Hindi or Kannada, since they’re the languages in which he mostly sings.

However, you don’t have to be a linguist to appreciate his soulful, warm voice, acoustic guitar playing or the accessible melodies and rhythms of the playfully upbeat Khidki, Mysore Se Ayee and the reggae tinged Hey Bhagwan or the balladeering Ambar. There’s a couple of numbers where he mixes in some English, the prog-folk raga  No Man will Ever Love You, Like I Do or the infectiously poppy I’m In Mumbai, Waiting For A Miracle which, with its Cornershop-like chorus, could well prove a radio hit. It’s also one of several tracks on the self-titled album to feature the inspired Celtic flavoured folk violin of Project member Manoj George who should add plenty of extra fire to the live show. I think booking them for the mac outdoor arena or Moseley Folk Festival next year would be good ideas.

Support comes from local singer-songwriter Chris Tye who, after something of a low gigging profile, will be previewing material from his upcoming sophomore album, Matchbox Stand.  8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Wednesday August 4

Arcadian Kicks

Fronted by Rebecca Wilson with sax player Rebekah Pennington on backing vocal duties, the press release likes to describe the Birmingham five piece as Garbage meets Ronettes. You’d be hard pushed to hear any of the latter, but you might just detect a hint of the former on catchy debut single 19 Days (One Beat). Produced by Mike Chapman, it’s swaggery indie-rock blues with both strummed acoustic and electric guitars though Wilson’s inexplicably adopting a decidedly non-Brummie Lily Allen note to her voice. Flip side Standing In The Road is more punky blues, a sort of Blondie/White Stripes cocktail, and an album’s due later in the year. 8pm. £5. The Rainbow, Digbeth.

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Thursday August 5

Silver Apples

Back in 1967 New York, Simeon Coxe III, an artist turned singer who played a homemade synth, joined forces with drummer Danny Taylor to form an avant garde electronic/psychedelic duo which, with their droning rhythms and free-form drumming, would pave the way for Krautrock acts like Neu and Can and, decades later, prove major influences on such names as Suicide and Stereolab.

Feted as one of the hippest names on the musical underground, they released two solid selling albums before their label folded and the band went into storage for 26 years, resurfacing in 1996 after interest was restimulated following a German reissue. Although Taylor wasn’t involved, Simeon released the single Fractal Flow and the following year  resumed lived work to huge critical acclaim. New albums Beacon and Decatur followed along with A Lake Of Teardrops, Simeon’s collaboration with Sonic Boom before, in 1998, he and Taylor finally got back together for the release of long lost third album The Garden and a series of reunion shows.

Taylor passed away five years ago, but Simeon, still partially paralysed from a 1999 car crash, continues to record, albeit in mostly collaborative projects and perform solo under the band name, all of which brings us to tonight’s gig, part of a short UK tour that should bring out the 60s space rangers and modern technoheads alike. 8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Thursday August 5

Rachel Harrington

Having missed Birmingham out on the last tour, the Oregon singer-songwriter finally comes to town, accompanied by Rod Clements, with songs from debut album The Bootlegger's Daughter and follow up City Of Refuge, two starkly simple collections of  Appalachian hued folk, blue grass and old time country delivered in a world weary voice that variously hints at Dolly, Emmylou, Gillian Welch and  the McGarrigles.

She’s got a rich repertoire to draw upon, not least Shoeless Joe,  Karen Kane, a number inspired by memoirs of Alaskan Gold Rush prostitutes, a honky tonk waltzing homage to Raymond Carver and the mandolin trilled Under The Big Top with its metaphor about living life on the high wire. There’s also a good chance she’ll be previewing a couple of new numbers from her currently in progress third album, so you might want to put your advance orders in now.  8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Friday August 6

Goodnight Lenin

Discovered via a video of them playing in a kitchen, the increasingly acclaimed Birmingham acoustic raggle taggle folk quintet variously cite Johnny Flynn, Fleetwood Mac and Burt Bacharach among their influences. At least two of those can be heard rippling through debut single Crook In The Creek (Static Caravan), a perky springheel skittering romp that bounces along  on harmonies, Slim Chance-like mandolin, guitars and skiffle percussion. Demos of the early Dylanish slow waltzing Wenceslas Square and the Simon & Garfunkel-ish Broken Bricks suggest they’ll soon be giving the likes of Mumford and Son a run for their money. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Monday August 9

The Roseville Band

Led by Andy and Stevie Jones, the sextet  have been dubbed ‘the Welsh Kings of Leon’. That’s rather overstating things, but it’s certainly the case that, while the country influences are there on debut album Little Eyes In The Universe (Tri-Tone), there’s much more of a rock edge to their music than anything else.

The main stumbling block is singer Andy Jones’ voice, an adenoidal Southern but Welsh warble that, if you’re feeling uncharitable, sounds like  Joe Pasquale before his voice broke. It’s an acquired taste, but once you get used to it, you’ll be surprised to find it lends a distinctive charm and somehow the songs wouldn’t sound the same without it.

They certainly have plenty to offer. Opening track Boxer is a slow, deliberate swagger with circling guitars that makes them sound like a cross between the Faces and the Stereophonics, Out Of Control picks up the boogie pace with some blaring soul brass  while the goodtime The Mission suggests they might have come across a Southside Johnny album at some stage. It flags midway, but it rides to a strong finish with the TexMex flavoured border ballad On Our Way, Bring Down The Old Empire’s horn driven alt-country twang and the anthemics of  reverb guitar crowd singalong ballad Burn All Your Bridges where shades of Spector and Mink DeVille take it swelling to the heavens. 10pm. £3. Kasbah, Coventry

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Friday August 13

Tunng

There’s been a few changes in the Tunng camp since the last album. Sam Genders, the band’s founding member, singer and songwriter, has left, they’ve acquired a new lyricist, collaborated with Malian blues outfit Tinariwen, revisited their early experiments with electronics, moved Becky Jacobs into the vocal spotlight and found their inner folksy pop sensibilities.

On And Then We Saw Land (Full Time Hobby), nowhere is that more evident than on  opening track Hustle, an acoustic shuffle of piano, guitars and banjos with an African lilt and the shared breathy vocals of Jacobs and Mike Lindsay. Summery and sunny, it skips along with a feelgood groove that carries over into It Breaks, trad folk feel melody coloured with clattering percussion and itchy rhythms.

The trad influence is there too on October with its Pentangle-like raggy waltz rhythm and the largely a capella shanty These Winds, while, in contrast, a five minute The Roadside shows the Malian influence in its glistening busy bee pizzicato keyboard line, gradually fleshing out to embrace electronic shudders and the instrumental By Dusk They Were In The City edges towards the fringes of progressive folk.

Closing up shop with Weekend Away which slides between samba, synth pop and saloon bar vaudeville, it may take a while to persuade those who subscribed to the first three albums but there’s a spell here that should prove ultimately hard to resist. 8pm. £13. midland arts centre

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Thursday August 26

Eels

It may be nine years since Mark Everett last troubled the UK single charts when Souljacker stalled at No 30, but he’s sustained a large, loyal following that’s seen every one of his albums enter the Top 40, right up to last year’s Hombre Lobo and follow up End Times, the first two parts of his concept album trilogy.

The first, a largely uptempo pop coloured rocker with numbers like Prizefighter, My Timing Is Off and the crunchy Fresh Blood and Tremendous Dynamite, dealt with desire while the second was a darker, introspective and more stripped back affair dealing with divorce and ageing through such songs as In My Younger Days, I Need A Mother and A Line In The Dirt.

He arrives now on his first tour since 2007 to complete the picture with Tomorrow Morning (E Works), still reflective but, informed by new love, altogether rather sunnier with titles like In Gratitude For This Magnificent Day, I’m A Hummingbird, the jaunty fuzz blues My Baby Love Me, a gently cascading Spectacular Girl and the gospel handclapper single Looking Up.

If that doesn’t convince he’s a cheerier puppy, then how about the drum beats driving This Is Where It Gets Good, a sun bursting Oh So Lovely and the simple strummed folksy pleasures of I Like The Way This Is Going.

There may not be anything to repeat the infectious singalong success of Mr E’s Beautiful Blues, but with a set list likely to focus on the three albums you’ll still be going home thinking goddamn what a beautiful day. 7.30pm. £20. O2 Academy

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Thursday August 26

I Blame Coco

Sting’s daughter steps out on her first headliner in advance of her debut album, The Constant and following the recent release of electro rock single Strange Machine. Past releases Quicker and Caesar both suggest she’s assimilated her father’s staccato rhythms and world music interests but fed them through a dance haze. An energetic, physical performer, doubtless she’ll be showcasing album tracks like In Spirit Golden, Party Bag and Tourn Your Back on Love though whether Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a Neil Young cover or not remains to be seen. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Friday August 27

Caitlin Rose

Releasing her debut EP, Dead Flowers, earlier this year, the Nashville singer-songwriter’s being hailed as one of the brightest new stars on the Americana scene. She rides into town astride Own Side Now (Names), a debut album that finds her giving old school country a contemporary eye while brushing hands with blues and soul.

Beguilingly simple folk-country opening track Learnin’ To Ride shows Iris DeMent comparisons are not misplaced while her keening tones on the similarly old school bruised broken heart ballad Sinful Wishing Well also hint at a young Loretta. Elsewhere the obvious comparison is with the coy little girl purity of Zooey Deschanel, notably so on soulful 50s waltzing torch ballad For The Rabbits (written when she was just 16) and the handclapping, brass backed uptempo rocker Shanghai Cigarettes.

That bouncy side of her comes out too on clomping saloon bar boogie New York City, the choppy harp blowing Nashville country of Spare Me, loping cathouse blues Coming Up and a country twanged cover of Fleetwood Mac’s That’s All right.

However, it’s on the wearier numbers she shines best, the vulnerable slow waltzing  country rock title track mining the spirit of Patsy Cline to tug at the heartstrings between sips from the beer glass. It’s early days yet, but with a playfulness and lack of front to go with the voice, fingerpicking guitar and songwriting abilities, this Rose looks like proving a remarkable and enduring bloom. 8pm. £6. Glee Club