Previews by Mike Davies

Saturday May 1

Joan Armatrading

Three years on from a return to her formative musical roots with  Into The Blues,  Joan’s now colouring that influence with the sort of rock edged pop melodies that characterised the likes of Me Myself I and Drop The Pilot. Self-producing and playing everything except drums, This Charming Life (Hypertension) is a muscular affair that sees her ripping out some hefty blues guitar on things like Heading Back To New York City, People Who Win and Best Dress On but also finding a place for the tumbling anthemic melody line of the title track.

With a synth riff pulse, Love Love Love filters jazzy soul into the blues boogie bedrock as she sings about past relationship naivete while the mid-tempo Two Tears has a familiar metronomic chug that erupts into characteristic Armatrading descending melody line and buzzing guitar and Virtual Reality, a complaint about the distancing nature technology has on relationships, recalls her knack of a catchy tumbling chorus.

Lyrically, it’s not the strongest work she’s ever produced and some of the songs don’t bring you back for repeat plays, but when she winds up with the gospel tinged Cry, singing “nothing you can do is ever gonna hurt like this”, you’re reminded of the vintage days of Show Some Emotion. This album isn’t in the same class, but there’s times when it sails close. 7.30pm. £24.50. Symphony Hall

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Saturday May 1

Misty’s Big Adventure

No disrespect to the home grown eight piece headliners who are marvellous purveyors of witty, highly listenable and smartly observed  cosmic lounge psychedelic jazz pop and hip hop beats and will undoubtedly provide a  hugely entertaining evening, but as the celebratory re-opening event of the refurbished mac, you might have expected a better known ‘name’ to attract the faithful and new punters alike to this first stand up gig.

Perhaps the overrun of the redevelopment has put a dent in the budget, but, while again not disputing musical prowess, Brummie acoustic folk singer-songwriter Vijay Kishore is little known or heard while veteran guitar and fiddle duo Kevin Dempsey and Joe Broughton are really appealing only to the hardcore folk crowd. Undoubtedly, good times will be had by those who attend, but as the rebirth of the city’s premier arts centre it does feel all a little underwhelming. 8pm. £14. Midlands Arts Centre

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Sunday May 2

Paul Curreri

Out of recording/touring action for over a year owing to a throat injury, during which time he produced ten albums, including wife Devon Sproule’s third, Curreri is finally back in musical action in his own right. 

This tour has him back out on the road spreading the word on his own latest release, California (Tin Angel), another acoustic based album that underlines both his deft fingerpicking talents (sparklingly so on the title track) and ability as songwriter.

Save for guitar, piano and vocal contributions by Sproule on a gently tumbling cover of Michael Hurley’s Wildgeeses, Curreri plays everything here, another reminder of his virtuosity. Stylistically the album swings between folk, blues and Americana, combining the genres here and there. It’s the blues that define the opening slow lope of Now I Can Go On, Here Comes Another Morning’s restrained hillbilly stomp and the Delta mud streaked The Line while you can hear the influence of JJ Cale on the Southern flavoured licks to the driving Once Upon A Rooftop and a piano backed Tight Pack Me Sugar recalls Randy Newman.

Elsewhere, other highlights are to be found on the plaintively sad 30s flavoured crooner When What You Do Don’t Do It Anymore, the Jesse Winchester toned country blues I Can’t Return and closing gospel blues shuffle, but everything here makes you more than grateful for his speedy recovery and new found laid back sense of contentment. 8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Sunday May 2

Katey Brooks

Over the past couple of years, the Bristol based singer-songwriter has been steadily making a name for herself with festival appearances at home and in Europe (she recently headlining the Bordeaux River Festival), supporting Newton Faulkner, Lou Rhodes and Martin Simpson, contributing to an Odetta tribute album and recording for Children in Need single all You Need Is Love.

Having released an EP four years, debut album Proof Of Life (True Speaker)  has been a long time coming. It's certainly worth the wait. Described as a singer of 'sad-eyed modern spirituals', she has a dark, oak-matured pure voice that at times calls to mind Joan Baez, most especially so on the opening strings and guitar laced You Will Be Free. On the other hand, the hushed, intimate Soft Sleeper conjures Liz Frazer from This Mortal Coil fronting The Cowboy Junkies for their Trinity Sessions album. Then again, the lilting township hued True Speaker suggests a meld of Tanita Tikaram and Thea Gilmore singing Paul Simon while her range and depth of expression on the soul-folk No-One But My Best carries echoes of early Armatrading.

None of these references should be taken to suggest Brooks is simply blotting paper for her influences. The echoes may be familiar but her voice is distinctively her own while, as she ably demonstrates with the desert bluesy Hunger, a stripped naked gospel infused Lines, and the bass, strings and piano accompanied yearningly heartfelt rootsiness of I Don't Want No Other, so too are her warm, enfolding melodies and confessional lyrics.

Having engraved her name in your heart with the slow building, softly pulsing eight minutes Is It Love, the showstopper that could feasibly bring America quivering to its knees, she ends the album with a simple, hymnal voice and guitar version of the traditional spiritual Michael Row The Boat. All you can say is, hallelujah. 7pm.  £1. Sunflower Lounge, Smallbrook Queensway

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Monday May 3

Don McLean

While there’s been the odd individual track, McLean hasn’t released a wholly satisfying album of strong original material since his self-titled third back in 1975.  It’s also those first three albums that contain the songs that audiences for his shows want to hear, classics such as Vincent, And I Love You So, Winterwood and, of course, American Pie.

The inconsistency of the past 35 years is readily epitomised by his current offering, Addicted To Black (Proper). Although neither of them have the same quality hallmark as his best known numbers, Promise To Remember is a decent Willie Nelson style country torch song while Mary Lost A Ring serves reminder that he’s an adept bluegrass player.

However,  I Was Always Young’s sluggish reminiscences of a lonely divorcee can’t hold a candle to the portrait of loneliness that is Empty Chairs while The Three Of Us, where a photo sparks a rambling remembrance of his childhood, parents and, er, the Indians that first settled on the family plot, is just sleep inducing. There’s also a pointlessly ‘freaked up’ rework of 2007’s In A Museum, one of the few lyrically sharp songs he wrote in the last decade.

Still, they’re not as unlistenably awful as the embarrassing Eisenhower tribute of This Is America, the lumpen, leaden rock n roll title track or the excruciating tale of  the princess and the paparazzi that is Run Diana Run, every bit as awful re-recorded as it was when he first released it five years ago. If he intends to inflict any of these on tonight’s audience, the news that he’s said this will be the last album he makes might get the loudest applause of the evening. 7.30pm. £32.50/£27.50.Symphony Hall

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Monday May 3

The Bluetones

Pic by Paul Heatfrield

After a tour playing everything off their 1996 debut Expecting To Fly, Mark Morriss and the boys are hitting the road on the back of A New Athens, their first new material in four years. Advance copies weren’t available in time, but live performances posted on line suggests something somewhere between the psychedelia garage rock of Into The Red, the jaunty Byrdsian folk pop of Carry Me Home and the mid-period REM touches of Half The Size Of Nothing and the title track, the latter one of the best things they’ve penned in a while.

All these new numbers figure in the current set list along with show opener Pranchestonelle and Culling Song, sharing the running order with fan favourite oldies Bluetonic, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Solomon Bites The Worm and, naturally, Slight Return. 7.30pm. £13. O2 Academy 2

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Monday May 3

States Of Emotion

Here as support Gloria Cycles, the Essex boys are touring their fairly rapid follow up to We’ll Fight Them On The Beaches. It’s the same battlefield, however, with The Unsung (Perfectly Blue), another brooding, chiming guitar serving of Manics and Oasis influences, this time with U2 providing the reservists.  Mind you, the heavy dark lipstick sported by the lead singer on the video suggests he may well have some Visage and Cure albums filed away under the bed too. 8pm. £5. Kasbah, Coventry

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Tuesday May 4

The Temper Trap

With the last two singles failing to register and the Conditions album losing steam without its meld of synth pop, folk and epic rock breaching the Top 20,  this must be one last concerted effort to try and capitalise on last year’s initial impetus. S There’s no indication of a new single to coincide, but don’t be too surprised if there’s not a  reissue of the much film and tv ad featured Sweet Disposition, their biggest and only hit to date, before too long.

They’re joined by fellow Australian, Sarah Blasko, a breathy, cotton candy voiced singer-songwriter who’s carved quite a name for herself back home. In a highly competitive girl pop market, it might prove a harder struggle here, especially given the relative failure of other talented Antipodeans like Lenka, Bic Runga and Sia to find a sustained audience.

Blasko’s touring on the back of last year’s Australian Top 5 album, As Day Follows Night (Dramatico), the default mode of which is stripped down lazy, airy, heat shimmering sensual jazzy pop with hints of tropical and Gallic influences. It’s at its best on the chanson waltzing Down On Love which sounds as though it could have come from some 60s French movie, a  desert whippoorwilling All I Want, the tango tinged Bird On A Wire, Spanish guitar backed  baroque melody Is My Baby Yours? and the lush six minutes of Sleeper Awake.

She’s not all about restraint, however. Bird on A wire is a rumbling jazz blues basement club finger-clicking sashay, Lost & Defeated borrows its mood from Simone’s I Put A Spell On You and No Turning Back adopts a purposeful thumping march beat.

Full of songs of love and pain, it’s music that asks you to listen and absorb rather than simply wash over, and as such chances are it’s going to bemuse the audience there for the headliners, but given a more intimate, sympathetic setting, she could well be in with a chance. 7.30pm, £13.50. O2 Academy

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Tuesday May 4

The Futureheads

Raising a defiant finger after being dumped by their label by releasing a knockout third album with This Is Not The World’s rampant three minute punk pop energy, the Sunderland boys return now with The Chaos (Nul), a state of the nation album that sees them getting back to basics while maintaining a firm hold on the experience they’ve amassed.

Full of the sort of energy you’d expect from a band just bursting out of the starting gates, they hit the road running with the title track’s riffing ska and New Wave flurry and barely pause for breath as they surge head down through The Jam influences of Stop The Noise, Heartbeat Song’s shades of The Beat, the jabbing punches of The Connector, a Kaisers-ish I Can Do That and, rather unexpectedly, drop a dab of Queen on to Struck Dumb.

While the songs to tend to sound all much alike with their chugging guitars and brief bursts of bounce along melody, The Baron shows they know how to tweak tempos and rhythms within a three minute rush while the blistering guitar fire of Jupiter also reprises Queen’s a capella multi-voice choral signature, a flourish they clearly like so much they do it again on the hidden bonus track. If they’re as fired up on when they step on stage, this is going to be like 1977 all over again. 7.30pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2

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Wednesday May 5

Kiss

It’s 37 years  now since Messrs Stanley, Simmons, Criss and Frehley made their debut wearing the signature character make-up that has defined their image. Ten years on from that, their fortunes in decline and with Criss and Frehley having quit, they released the glam metal Lick it Up and abandoned their make-up and costumes. A resurge in commercial success ensued with another platinum album selling streak with that and follow ups Asylum and Crazy Nights while Forever from 1989’s Hot In The Shade gave them their second US Top 10 single.

Since then it’s been a series of ups and downs, comings and goings and tragic losses, Criss and Frehley returning to the fold only to leave again, and the readoption of the make-up, the two replacements taking over the masks of the former members. Almost inevitably the 2002 Farewell Tour proved to be anything but.

However, with no new album since 1998, and only sporadic appearances in recent years, it looked as though they’d slipped into the ranks of rock nostalgia. No so, because they’re back for what may well be one final hurrah, the now over 60 Stanley and Simmons leading from the front with Sonic Boom (Roadrunner), an album that conjures their vintage 70s days of big arena rock anthems, pumping riffs, hammering drums and songs that are basically about sex and getting it on.

Perhaps inevitably, there’s no new Detroit Rock city, Rock & Roll All Nite, King Of The Night Time World or another Beth, but a Dio-ish Modern Day Delilah, the strutting Never Enough, Yes I Know and a swaggery Hot & Cold won’t disappoint the fans, even if the latter’s image of being seduced by an OAP Simmons is something best left not contemplated.

Chances are there’ll only be two or three at most of the new numbers in what’s likely to be very much a set of greatest moment reminiscences, one well worth digging out the old stack heels and white face paint to see just how far Gene’s tongue can flash these days. 7.30pm. £40. LG Arena

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Wednesday May 5

65 Days of Static

The eight minute Come To Me may feature buried in the mix vocals from The Cure’s Robert Smith, but otherwise We Were Exploding Anyway (Hassle), the fourth album from the Sheffield four piece remains defiantly instrumental, but now comes with a new emphasis on electronics and synths rather than the post rock progressive of yore.

Flexing their new muscles with the opening Mountainhead, this is an album informed by house, tribal rhythms and 90s electronica dance (the 10 minute Tiger Girl especially) alongside the classical colours evident on things like Piano Fights and parts of Debutante.

Instrumental albums always run the risk of becoming self-indulgent jamming bores live, but the hammering brutalism of Dance Dance Dance’s percussion drive and the pulsing strobe and metal rhythms of Crash Tactics should ensure limbs don’t get too much chance to ossify. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

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Wednesday May 5

Doves

Emerging from the ashes of Sub Sub back in 1998, the Mancunian trio have released a series of  increasingly awesome albums steeped in their mix of yearing balladry and widescreen epic rock, climaxing with last year’s personal masterpiece Kingdom Of Rust.

Drawing perhaps a line in the sand before embarking on possible side projects and considering where they go next as a band, they’re out touring the just released The Places Between (Heavenly), a 15 track ‘best of’  compilation that trawls through the past decade’s worth of recordings.

Maybe they agree with the mixed reviews that greeted  Some Cities because it’s represented by just two numbers, a remix of the dreamy Snowden and the Motown influenced mishmash of Black And White Town neither of which, most would agree, number among the band’s finest moments.

Rather better memories are contained in Sea Song from Lost Souls, The Last Broadcast’s anthemic Caught By The River and majestic There Goes The Fear and, from Kingdom, the darkly swirling Jetstream and the Leone desert country of the title track. There’s also a new number, the typically soaring Andalucia which sounds remarkably like the offspring of Love and U2 and should prove a highlight of the live set. 7.30pm. £18.50. W’hampton Civic Hall

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Thursday May 6

Gloria Cycles

Given they released the No Zeros singles back at the end of 2008, debut album Campsite Discotheque (A&G) has been a long time coming. Apparently it was postponed  because the producer of Brit rom-com My Last Five Girlfriends wanted to use their Dexysish jaunty Religious on the film soundtrack and trailer. The film’s director also shot their video.

They obviously believed that, as the press release rather optimistically puts it, the film would be the ‘surprise smash of Spring’. Instead it turned out to receive scathing reviews and vanished from the few cinemas showing it a week after opening to almost no punters.

Still, on the bright side, the dreamy folk tinged electro-soul Bag, featuring Jen Dalby on vocals, turned up on Skins and the Stranglersy punk pop Wonderbus featured on a Samsung worldwide ad.

They should invest the royalties because, while perfectly competent and well put together, the album isn’t about to have bank managers inviting them for drinks. The mod psychedelia of Astronaut Swapshop screams Who, Chancer is surf guitar indie dance with Rock the Kasbah Clash aspirations, the choppy guitar of New Law takes a knock at Labour’s nanny state legislation frenzy, and If I Wanted To Tell You rounds things off  with a sort of  lolloping folk pop singsong over interweaving vocals. There’s a hidden extra track where Dalby and lead singer Kenny McCraken croon a strings laced lullaby, but, unless you’re one of their Brighton home crowd, it’s hard to imagine getting too excited to hang around and discover it. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Friday May 7

Rihanna

Coming, as it did, in the wake of the end of her relationship with abusive boyfriend Chris Brown, it was inevitable that Rated R (Def Jam) was going to be a much angrier beast than Good Girl Gone Bad and its world conquering marathon No 1 single Umbrella. And, indeed, so it proved with its big slabs of dirty rock electric guitar, don’t mess with me beats, tough woman attitude, themes of rebellion, payback and (especially on Rude Boy’s bedroom blueprints) sex. Even if most of the tracks were written by male collaborators.

Bristling with spikes on G4L, Rockstar 101, the slouching electronica and dub reggae vocal delivery of Wait Your Turn and Fire Bomb even the ballads, Stupid In love, Cold Case Love and the soulful Russian Roulette conceal knuckledusters inside their velvet gloves.

As both riposte and catharsis, the album clearly allowed an arena to confront and unleash her demons, hopefully for the opening night of live show she’s still got a few of them prowling around the grounds.

Given that both Mama Do and Boys And Girls were No 1 singles and debut album Turn it Up (Mercury) has been a constant chart presence for some 32 weeks, it’s surprising that Pixie Lott has yet to make her headline tour debut. Indeed, these are the first string of dates she’s played since her first outing supporting The Saturdays last year.  It’s also the first opportunity for Birmingham audiences to see her in action and find out the well manicured dance pop of  Gravity, Band Aid, Jack and Turn It Up transfers to the live setting. Given the past two singles peaked successively lower, it might be an idea to make the move to her own spotlight soon before people start seeing her as the bridesmaid rather than the bride. 7.30pm. £45/£39.50. LG Arena

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Friday May 7

The Magpie’s Nest

The winner of Folk Club of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards has decided that since it’s a bit unrealistic to expect audiences around the country to come down to Islington for the night to sample the experience, they’ll bring the club to them. So, one of nine dates, they arrive in town headlined by club regulars The Long Notes, a Scots-Irish trio comprising fiddler/guitarist Jamie Smith,  banjo wizard Brian Kelly and accordionist Colette O'Leary whose eponymous debut album (JS) features a meaty stew of tunes, either self-penned or sourced from Brittany, Canada and their native lands. 

They scrub up well fusions of  jigs, reels, airs and marches like French Connection (a medley of Lisa Orenstein's and Lorient Tune), Eve’s Jig (which also embraces the trad Tommy People’s and Farmer’s Reel) and Room With A View, a set of three Smith compositions.

Although predominantly instrumentals based, they do throw in a couple of songs with guests Julia Reid and Ewan Robertson respectively handing the vocals on the trad ballad Bright Blue Rose and Phil Ochs classic When I'm Gone, though I’d suspect these won’t figure in the live set.

They’re joined by fellow Nesters Plaster of Paris, an acoustic boy (guitar)/girl (vocal) duo who mix together such influences as Billie Holiday, Django Rheinhart, Kate Bush and Johnny Cash on what they like to term ‘melodramatic popular song’. It’s an inviting brew though I feel duty bound to point out that while their slow gospel folk version of Sorrow is rather good, the song was originally recorded by The McCoys and was a UK hit for The Merseys long before David Bowie released it. The tour also features a local act as support, here taking the form of the ever splendid close harmonies of Little Sister.  7.30pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Saturday May 8

Black Eyed Peas

Reunited after assorted solo projects, the Peas have undergone something of a mutation from fun loving party animals to serious techno r&b dancefloor champions. From the moment the first few notes of Boom Boom Pow thumped out of the speakers, it was clear that The E.N.D was going to be beyond massive with its canny cocktail of pop, attitude, smut and infectious beats.  

Whether it’s the pelvic grind of My Humps, Pump It Harder and Rock That Body, the lush show tune with beats that is Fergie showcase Meet Me Halfway, the glam hip hop pulsings of I Gotta Feeling or the disco handclaps Shut The Phunk Up, they could get statues up and dancing. While it’s to be hoped Fergie doesn’t try to do her naff Jamaican accent live with Electric City, the show’s guaranteed to be pretty sensational, and that’s before you even start to think about costumes that make Funkadelic look conservative.

Getting the party going will be the nation’s favourite betrayed sweetheart, Cheryl Cole. Given the recent tabloid coverage of her disintegrating marriage, love cheat husband Ashley Cole and her dignified fortitude in the face of newspaper photographers, she’ll get an encore just for walking on stage. And will there be a dry female eye in the house when she launches into such now painfully ironic titles as 3 Words, Fight For This Love, Don’t Talk About This Love, Make Me Cry, and, of course catch me if I fall hit, Parachute. Whether you’ll hear here sing over calls of ‘go girl’ is another matter, but then given that the music is considerably less interesting than the baggage around it and is more of a testament to the wonders of autotune than Ms Cole’s vocal prowess in the flesh, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. 7.30pm. £49.50. NIA

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Saturday May 8

Harper Simon

Following in the footsteps of Jakob Dylan and Rufus Wainwright, now another scion of a famous father steps into the spotlight. At 37, he’s taken his time but Paul Simon’s little boy (named for mom Peggy Harper) arrives musically fully formed even if he’s not fallen too far from the tree with breezy, folk kissed melodies and an airy graceful alto that are dead ringers for the old man’s.

As well as playing guitar on The Audit, Simon Sr also contributes three co-writes to his son’s eponymous debut album (Tulsi); yee-hawing country bluegrass stomp Tennessee, the whimsical Ha Ha and the lap steel and piano waltzing The Shine which, intriguingly is also co-credited to his former step-mother Carrie Fisher.

He’s clearly got a well stocked Blackberry since other collaborators here include Sean Lennon (playing celeste), guitar genius Marc Ribot, pedal steel legend Lloyd Green, Joan (As Policewoman) Wasser on viola and, providing back-ups Inara George and Petra Haden, the daughters of the late Lowell George and jazz bassist Charlie Haden respectively. Even the cover art is by Tracey Emin!

Kicking up the dust with the stompy Cactus Flower Rag and hanging at the honky tonk for All I Have Are Memories and Shooting Star, there’s a lot more country to his sound than there is to Paul’s, but if Graceland or Rhythm of The Saints don’t appear to have filtered into the gene pool, it’s hard not to hear the solo acoustic bookends of  the trad folk blues All To God and the shimmering Berkley Girl or the skipalong joie de vivre of Wishes And Stars without thinking of those early S&G albums.

He may not yet have the gift for writing songs that will endure for decades, but this is a very promising, if slightly belated, start down the path.

Homegrown support comes from ecologically minded alt-rock outfit Shady Bard, emerging from virtual hibernation to preview material from their eagerly anticipated follow up to the superb From The Ground Up. First taster is (The Boy Who Cried) Volcano!, an urgent almost flamenco flavoured piano and drums driven number that’s part of a suite of songs telling the story of a village ravaged by fire. 8pm. £5. Flapper & Firkin

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Sunday May 9

Hole

Six years on since her solo album spluttered to the lower reaches of the Top 75 and 12 since the last Hole album, Courtney Love resurrects her former band, albeit with herself as the only original member. During that time, of course, she’s been rather more notorious for her myriad drug and legal problems than her music, all of which have seen delay after delay on release dates.

However, leaner, apparently cleaner and just as mean, she’s back now with Nobody’s Daughter (Mercury), an album that shows no inclination to move beyond her 90s rock noise and Guns n Roses influences or to reign in either her venomous defiance or self-pity. Or indeed her fondness for littering her lyrics of sex and self-destruction with spat expletives and the sort of attitude with which you really don’t want to mess.

She opens the album with the title track, sounding not unlike a strung out Marianne Faithful (a comparison that resurfaces on For Once In your Life) while a prowling guitar riff circles around her, before heading into the dumbrock punked up sneer of Skinny Little Bitch with its hints of the early Runaways. That same smash it down punk thrust drives Loser Dust and How Dirty Girls Get Clean, though the latter’s savage guitars are straight out of the Axl Rose school. As if to show she can write a hook laden bounce along melody along with the best of them, you get Samantha. As if to show she doesn’t give a damn, it also has a chorus that’s never going to get radio play.

Things are rather less effective when she straps on the acoustic and reflective self-absorption for Letter to God but she does deliver a punchy and unexpected country streak too with the plangent bruisingly aching Honey and Pacific Coast Highway’s meld of Petty and Young.

Her days as the poster girl for angry young women have probably passed, but the album shows she can still whip up a potent rocking brew and, if the band are firing on the same cylinders live, deliver a blazing stage set to go with it. 7pm. £21.50. O2 Academy

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Sunday May 9

Lightspeed Champion

Pic David Swanson

Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You, Devonté Hynes’ second album since the demise of Test Icicles, continues his journey away from thrash dance punk, this time eschewing the solo debut’s Americana to follow a pathway into indie chamber pop  and, on the lyrically punning The Big Guns of Highsmith, even Queen-like pomp rock complete with Greek Chorus.

Indeed, having name-checked Socrates there, he then throws Pythagoras into the mix for the horns and pizzicato strings of the jaunty equally London-phobic Faculty Of Fears.

There’s a definite whiff of Morrissey about both that and the triangle tinkling funky Marlene but, as if aware of the dangers of being pinned down by influences,  I Don’t Want To Wake Up Alone adopts the cabaret sway melodrama of a Marc Almond, Smooth Day (At The Library) slips into a cool jazz vibe, Sweetheart would seem to nod slightly in the direction of My Chemical Romance with a lick of Morricone, while Middle Of The Dark finds Todd Rundgren and Freddie Mercury holding hands.

As adept at going for the swelling anthemics with Dead Head Blues as he is mining the pop sensibilities of  the ukulele strummed There’s Nothing Underwater and a 60s hinting  Madame Van Damme or the Blur piano balladry of Romart, he manages to be a musical chameleon without shedding his own distinctive skin. How that translates into the live set is another matter, but at least he doesn’t give you chance to get bored. 7pm. £9. O2 Academy 3

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Sunday May 9

Jesca Hoop

A swift return for the Manchester based Californian after her triumphant Glee debut a couple of months back offers another chance to soak up the joys of sophomore album Hunting My Dress and its skewed takes on folk music. Mixing up Brit trad and Native American with

The Kingdom, painting with eastern shades for Feast Of The Heart, combining blues, nursery rhyme, gospel, swamp rock and 60s girlie pop on Four Dreams and kicking up an Irish jig on murder ballad Tulip, she’s a heady but intoxicating brew.

She’s supported by Manchester’s Kirsty Almeida, a rather different proposition whose current Spider (Decca) EP offers what she’d term voodoo pop on the title track, If You Can’t Make Me Happy curling along with what sounds like a tuba belching away while the scuffling brushed drums of  Shine A Light harks to sunny folk-pop. Debut album Pure Blue Green is along later this summer and she’ll be dipping into previews tonight.  8pm. £7.50. Glee Club

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Tuesday May 11

Gogol Bordello

It’s sometimes a bit hard to tell whether heavily moustachioed frontman Eugene Hutz has his tongue firmly in his cheek as he and the band romp through their Romany Gypsy punk,. Certainly, while they may be serious about the roots of their music they’re a lot less earnest than the Gypsy Kings and it’s not hard to image Ukrainian-born Hutz throwing back his head at the end of a particularly arch, camp tune and laughing throatily, even after singing about the ethnic cleanings squads in the Brazilian slums.

Having now relocated to Brazil, there’s a fair smattering of Latin mixed with the Eastern European on the aptly titled new album Trans-Continental Hustle (Columbia), a flamenco Spanish guitar plays behind the lusty In The Meantime in Panambuco which gets into a right frenzy as a samba whistle blows and there’s a tint of tango about Rebellious Love while it wouldn’t be hard to imagine adding Southern American flutes to Last One Goes The Hope, a track that sounds as though it could have  sat well performed by The Clash on Alex Cox’s Straight To Hell. That said, Sun On My Side might equally be a forgotten number from Fiddler On The Roof.

Meant to be experienced on balmy nights by a crackling fire as men dance round in circles, arms round each other’s shoulders, swilling and splashing jugs of  beer, kicking over chairs and tables, the band belt it out with unbridled gusto on the likes of the accordion lurching Companjera, a rattling Uma Menina Umba Cigana, and Break The Spell’s punk polka dancing frenzy.

The problem is, it’s all just so determinedly relentless that, after a while, you just start to feel exhausted and wish they’d take a breather and play a slow smouldering gypsy ballad so you can gather your reserves of energy for the next foray into the Slavic mosh-pit.

   Given the night in store, it would perhaps be wise not to get too carried away by opening act, Mariachi El Bronx, the side-project alter-ego of LA punk outfit The Bronx. They’re over here to promote last year’s eponymous debut album, a collection of songs penned during and sometimes inspired by their tours around the world, sung in English but delivered in full jubilant Mexican mariachi style with trumpets, strings,  guitarron and accordion.

I'm no expert, so I'll take their word for it that the album embraces several different facets of mariachi; norteno, jorocho, wasteka, bolero and corridos among them. What I do know is that they make a damn fine noise, whether conjuring heady border romances with Sleepwalking, Quinceniera  and the strummed My Love or singing of self-determination (Slave Labor), exploitative religion (Silver Or Lead),  prison love letters (Cell Mates), retribution (new single Holy), outlaws (My Brother The Gun) or, on the deceptively lilting Despretador, paedophilia. Can't imagine that getting them many wedding gigs, though. 7.30pm. £16. O2 Academy

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Wednesday May 12

Marina and the Diamonds

Born in Wales of Greek descent, Marina Lambrini Diamandis was the name everyone was dropping before Elli Goulding took over the new next big thing baton. Her debut album, The Family Jewels (679), is  certainly a lot more musically interesting that Goulding’s, citing such diverse influences as PJ Harvey, Britney Spears, Patti Smith, Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits and, as is evident with her swooping and soaring staccato vocals, Kate Bush. Or perhaps, given the eccentric operatic Hermit The Frog, that should be Lene Lovich. 

She certainly has a distinctive melodramatic vocal style that can, at times, distract from the songs themselves, but both infectious melody and confidently opinionated personality shine through virtually everything here; from the Sparks shaded Are You Satisfied? and bitchy Hazel O’Connor-ish calorie-bimbo baiting Girls to the Annie Lennox gospel soul feel of Numb and the Queen inflections of Oh No.

Surprisingly, although the album peaked at No 5 and has spent over 10 weeks on the chart, she’s not yet found the big hit single. The showbiz mocking Hollywood stalled outside the Top 10 and the Radio Ga Ga meets chiming Eurythmics electro pop quivers of I Am Not A Robot (which walks all over anything by Florence and The Machine) has proven unexpectedly sluggish, though hopefully the glorious disco pop Shampain will put that to rights next month. Meanwhile, this intimate first visit to the city should provide a memorable taster for an autumn return trip to the Town Hall in October. 8pm. £10. Glee Club

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Wednesday May 12

Trembling Bells

They certainly don’t let the grass grow under their feet. After staking a  claim to many a 2009 folk music best of list with their Carbeth debut, the Glasgow based four piece return with a swift and even better follow up in the shape of Abandoned Love (Honest Jons).

Fuelled by the break up of singers Alex Neilson and classically trained soprano Lavinia Blackwell, the album marries together Fairport folk rock (Adieu England), Shirley And Dolly Collins (Man Is As A Garden Born), Fotheringay’s medieval inclinations (the surely no double entendre intended All Good Men Come Last)  and the reed prog folk of Dr Strangely Strange and ISB (September is The Month Of Death, Did you Sing Together) with the Americana influences evident on Love Made An Outlaw Of My Heart and the chorus friendly 60s folk-pop flavoured stand out Baby, Lay Your Burden Down.

There’s not a hint of fustiness in sight, Mike Hasting’s dirty, psychedelic guitar work likely to cause panic in your average folk club, while, with its lap steel, horns and shakers, You Are On The Bottom (And The Bottle’s On my Mind)’s cross pollination of revival tent and barroom is ample evidence of their playful side.

With a set that will mix up material from both albums, hopefully including the wheezing I Took To You (Like Christ To Wood), the part Yorkshire, part Appalachian I  Listed All Of The Velvet Lessons and the liltingly anthemic Willows of Carbeth from the debut, this has the makings of one of the month’s best gigs and a stepping stone to the larger venues they deserve. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Wednesday May 12

The Bewitched Hands

Hailing from Reims in France, The Bewitched Hands On The Top Of Our Heads, to give them their full name, comprise six hommes and one femme and make melodic, harmonising psychedelic folk pop with a liberal dose of early 70s influences. So, pretty much a Gallic Polyphonic Spree really. There seems to be little additional information about them out there in webland, other than they’ve been well received at French festivals, remixed Dan The Automator’s Rapper’s Delight and they’re about to release their presumably self titled debut album (Savoir Faire).

A couple of singles have already trickled out, the dreamy pulsing Hard To Cry with its infectious repeated  chorus and the anthemic march along Work, while tasters of the breezy 60s folk pop Birds And Drums and Underwear, another dose of soaring Polyphonic melodious pop suggest that an overdose might be bad for the teeth but, taken in sensible quantities, could well add a touch of sunshine to the summer.

They share the bill with The Shoes who, not to be confused with the 80s American guitar pop New Wave outfit, are a French electro club duo who, judging by People Movin’, may well have heard a Temptations record in their formative years. 7.30pm. £5. O2 Academy 3

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Wednesday May 12

Gretchen Peters

Born in New York, raised in Colorado and resident in Nashville, having been behind  pop and country hits for such names as Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, Faith Hill, George Strait and regular collaborator Bryan Adams, Peters  is probably better known as a writer than a singer in her own right. However, she’s released five studio albums over the past 14 years as well as a a live collection and a joint project with Tom Russell, all of which show she’s every bit as good behind the microphone as she is the pen.

She may not be a household name, but it’s testament to the awareness and following she has over here that this is an all request tour. To make things a little easier to call out for favourites, however, she’s also released Circus Girl (Scarlett Letter), a best of compilation drawn from her album back catalogue.

Disappointingly, it omits This Used To Be My Town, a  wistful tale of a twelve year old's rape and murder sung, Lovely Bones fashion, by the victim but there’s 15 choice cuts here, five of which come from her Secret Of Life debut, including the compilation’s heartbreaking title track, lost love lament On A Bus To St Cloud and the ringing country-rock gem Independence Day.

Elsewhere there’s the Parton-ish This Town, the poignancy of The Aviator’s Song’s tribute to her dad, If Heaven’s death faced with acceptance and the kick off your shoes groove of Sunday Morning. Any of these alone would be worth the price of admission for what is guaranteed to be a very special night.

For the real fans, the album also comes as a special 2 disc edition, the second featuring a 16 track treasure trove culled from demos (Out To Sea, Ships), guide versions for the session musicians (Circus Girl, Jesus On My Dashboard), bonus tracks (an acoustic Let That Pony Run), and previously unreleased songs (Tattoo, Mother Jones) alongside four live numbers, none of which have ever appeared on a studio album.  8pm. £16. The Robin 2, Bilston

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Thursday May 13

Jamie Cullum

Wed to Sophie Dahl earlier this year and having achieved his highest US chart position to date, life is clearly sweet for the British pint sized jazz swing star. The only blip has been the disappointing performance of current album The Pursuit (Decca) back home where it failed to follow Twentysomething and Catching Tales into the Top 10.

However, this current tour should reignite interest and prompt those who find it a little too experimental to give another listen to his re-imagining of Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music as a Herbie Hancock style piano and acoustic bass groove, the improvisational jazz piano break and new verse he brings to Cole Porter’s Just One Of Those Things, and a moodily reflective brushed percussion take on If  I Ruled The World

The lengthy beats and jazz funk midsection of the sprightly pop Music Is Through is a fine example of how Cullum fuses the contemporary with a 70s jazz vibe. Indeed  there’s a lot of pop influence here, the skittering Wheels, the handclapping, burbling organ Latin vibe of You And Me Are Gone and the slinky Mixtape conjure thoughts of Billy Joel and John Mayer while We Run Things is a cocktail of hip hop, big band and Stevie Wonder.

With a set that’s always likely to spring a surprise cover or two (a Hendrix here, a Radiohead there) and a fair sample of earlier crowd favourites to keep things flowing, this promises to truly scorch.

The night also afford the first taste of  the major venue circuit for support Eliza Doolittle, the Miley Cyrus-like daughter of theatre director John Caird and Les Mis singing star Frances Ruffelle, whose debut EP revealed a leaning to girlie-voiced jazz tinged airy summery 60s pop with the whistle and skipalong Rollerblades, a tropical undulating Go Home and the slight bluebeat flavours of Money Box.

Making her chart debut with Skinny Genes, another whistling accompanied sprightly bounce that sampled from Andy Williams’ Butterfly (itself a steal of Singin’ The Blues), she’ll be showcasing these and numbers from her upcoming album, including a preview of forthcoming single Pack Up. As Henry Higgins might say, “I think she’s got it.” 7.30pm. £40-£22.50. Symphony Hall

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Thursday May 13

Francis Rossi

Playing live without Rick Parfitt for the first time in 42 years, the Quo frontman’s assembled an eight piece band for his debut solo tour, including both Freddie, son of Quo bassist John Edwards, and his own offspring Nicholas on guitars. It’s all in aid of One Step At A Time (EarMusic),  his second solo album in 14 years, featuring material that apparently weren’t right for Quo.

It’s hard to see why not, since they pretty much follow the same country hued boogie rock blueprint that’s characterised their hits over the past  thirty years. He’s even done a new version of Caroline, albeit sounding a little more like a country blues bar band this time around.

He promises to throw in some Quo classics, but really, given that in another life tracks such as the choogling Sleeping On The Job, Tallulah’s Waiting, Crazy For You and the more ballad styled One Step and the anthemic If You Believe could easily be part of a Quo greatest hits, I doubt anyone would be too disappointed not to ride a Paper Plane or go Rocking All Over The World. 7.30pm. £19.50. B’ham Town Hall

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Thursday May 13

Stornoway

Recently here as part of the Twisted Folk tour, the Oxford sextet return as headliners to launch debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill (4AD), a fine collection of salty, summery folk pop flushed with strings and brass and redolent of Fleet Foxes and Belle & Sebastian. Formed at university where members variously studied duck ecology and Russian literature, they bring a strong degree of wit and intelligence to proceedings without sounding mannered in the slightest.  Lead single Zorbing chugs along nicely like walkers on a clifftop hike before suddenly introducing a burst of Northern soul brass while I Saw You Blink is built on a  train rolling rhythm and a trad shanty vocal delivery that suggests they’ve paid attention to The Proclaimers, Fuel Up introduces organ to a fisherman’s swayalong and We Are The Battery Human finds them bringing bluegrass banjo to something that might have come from Oklahoma or Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.

Back with the train wheels rolling, Watching Birds is a ramshackle punky folk blues affair with a speak-sing vocal, The Coldharbour Road’s strings impart a vaguely Japanese air to its English folk moods and, introduced with tolling bells, Long Distance Melody is all very bucolic pastures and rippling streams.

Not in the same league as Mumford & sons or Noah & The Whale, and the flattish vocals can become a bit wearing after a while, but for now their weather forecast looks promising. 8pm. £9. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Friday May 14

Michael Bublé

Giving him his first UK No 1 album, last year’s Crazy Love (Reprise)  has kickstarted a positive  Bublé  fever that sees him not only packing in the LG Arena tonight, but back for two shows at the NIA in October. Seen last year as one of the non diva posturing X-Factor mentors, he’s certainly on blistering form, the album opening with an epic big ballad version of Cry Me A River that sounds like it came from some 50s gangster film noir before easing into a  nightclub swing All Of Me, a classic mellow cover of Georgia On My Mind that rates up there alongside the one by Ray Charles, and a 50s doo wop take on 30s chestnut All I Do Is Dream Of You. Ron Sexsmith’s Whatever It Takes is even recast as a bossa nova in a  duet with the writer.

Elsewhere he turns his smooth style to the evergreens Stardust and a late night at the piano bar reading of You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You, but it’s not all jazz. The title track finds him at home with Van Morrison’s warm Celtic soul, Haven’t Met You Yet is contemporary adult pop, Hold On nods to McCartney while Heartache Tonight reinvents the Eagles number as brassy swing with slide guitar, and Baby You’ve Got What It Takes snakes old school r&b.

He’s been compared to Sinatra, Darin and Bennett, but while there’s elements of all three, he’s got a style of his own that has become a benchmark for those that follow in his footsteps.

Contributing to Stardust, New York vocal septet Naturally 7 also provide the night’s opening slot with numbers from their VocalPlay (Festplatte) album with its mix of hip hop, gospel, rap, funk, r&b and soul. What sets them apart, however, is the fact that they’re an a capella outfit who specialise in beatboxing, so that everything that sounds like drums, horns or strings is actually made with the mouth rather than instruments.  As itchy 70s Motown meets hip hop of  768, Catchy’s  body popping beats smooth, the Philly soul Ready Or Not and the close harmony R&B pop balladry of You’re Beautiful and SOS  show, they also have the songs to go with it. Of course, you really have to see them live to appreciate what they do and, unless you’re already a massive Bublé fan, forking out for a ticket just to catch the support act might be a bit expensive.  Be assured though, they’ll be back.  7.30pm. £80/£50. LG Arena

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Friday May 14

Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed & The True Loves

Boston born but moving to Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta after leaving school, Reed found work at legendary blues radio station WROX and started gigging around the local juke joints, earning his nickname from wearing his grandfather’s newsboy hat. Eventually moving to New York, he was soon drawing the crowds to the hottest clubs with his revival of old school R&B. The word’s spread and last year he was nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the UK’s Mojo Awards.

He’s here now, sporting his distinctive quiff and promoting his first major label album Come And Get It (Capitol), a dozen cuts that parade his love of 60s Stax/Volt soul and provide a welcome male answer to the Duffys and Winehouses. He’s solid rather than spectacular, and no one going to be hailing him a new Otis Redding, but, backed by fat brass and strings, he can sock out the sort of soul swagger that had them sweating like a raging river back at those 60s soul revues featuring the likes of Wilson Pickett.

Sam Cooke is an obvious influence on the opening Young Girl while Name Calling, one of the album’s strongest cuts, marries Betty Wright and Sam & Dave, the lushly orchestrated Pick Your Battles imagines Otis soundtracking  some 40s romance, the sax burping Tell Me What I Wanna Hear is perfect Soul Train party pop and the aptly titled Explosion is a screaming Pickett meets Brown rip snorter. Take your best tail feather and be ready to shake. 7pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

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Friday May 14

Grace & Danger

Beverley Martyn

After last year’s tribute to Nick Drake, the second English Originals weekend tips the hat to the late John Martyn. Beth Orton returns from last year, here joined by Eddi Reader, Badly Drawn Boy, rising new star Krystle Warren, and local boy Scott Matthews. However, what’s really going to get the fans trembling with anticipation is an appearance by Beverley Martyn, John’s ex-wife and musical partner with whom he recorded 1970 albums Stormbringer and The Road To Ruin before the label decided to market him as a solo act. Herself a former associate of Drake, the Coventry born singer retired from the music business following their divorce during the making of the album that provides the concert’s title, only resurfacing nine years ago with comeback album No Frills. She’s due to release a follow-up later this year which will include Reckless Jane,  a previously unrecorded number co-written with Drake, suggesting she’d make a welcome addition to the next round of Way To Blue performances too. 7.30pm. £25-£18.50. B’ham Town Hall

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Friday May 14

Leddra Chapman

The Essex singer-songwriter returns for her second appearance of the year, still working her way through the acoustic folk pop of debut album Telling Tales, highlights of which would have to include the intimate Wine Glass and Picking Oranges and Jocelin with its echoes of Dolores O’Riordan. As she’s probably getting tired of juggling the set list to keep things fresh, there may be a few new tryouts in there too. 8pm. £8. Glee Club

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Friday May 14

Ali Campbell

Last year the NIA, today a rather smaller capacity outing to persuade disaffected UB40 punters that he’s the best side of the split. In fact, given the recent Flying High, that may well be the case. It’s still the trademark reggae pop lite, but numbers such as the politically veined

Nothing Ever Change,  summery  50s flavoured My Happiness and Vision’s optimistic anthem about South Africa are up there with the best stuff he’s done over a lengthy career. 7pm. £22.50. O2 Academy

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Friday May 14

Diana Vickers

Proving another success from the 2008 series of  X-Factor, her dance floor debut single Once steamed straight to No 1, a feat now emulated by accompanying album Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree (RCA). The promo sampler emphasised the dancier side of things with My Hip, The Boy Who Murdered Love and Ellie Goulding co-write Remake Me & You but while Hit, a summer perky Jumping Into Rivers and the Owl Cityish You'll Never Get To Heaven go down a similar path, those who are a sucker for her tremulous voiced balladeering will be pleased to know there’s an equal balance on the full album. The strongest of these come with the fragile acoustic Four Leaf Clover, big voiced stadium sweller N.U.M.B and slow building closer Chasing You, any of which is likely to get the crowds raising mobile phones aloft.

At the end of the day, the songs themselves don’t do justice to that unique voice and, competent though they are, she needs writers with a little more nous than Goulding and Nerina Pallott if she’s going to rise to the Leona Lewis leagues, but for now this cherry tree is well worth a punnet. 7.30pm. £12. Wulfrun Hall

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Saturday May 15

The Pipettes

There’s been a fair few changes on Planet Pipette since the release of their debut album four years ago. Gone are the polka dot dresses along with drummer Jo Lean and singers RiotBecki and Rose Elionor Dougall, leaving just Gwenno Saunders from that line-up, now joined by sister Ani and anonymous backing band The Cassettes for follow up Earth vs the Pipettes (Fortuna Pop!). Out too is the original Spectorish girl pop to be replaced by the current vogue for 80s sounding electronica and glitter ball disco.

Thing start badly with the dis0posable disco and awkward stylistic shifts of From Today but pick up promisingly with Captain Rhythm’s cross between Norman Greenbaum, the Glitter Band and The Ronettes but then there’s more watery soul funk on Finding My Way and the sub Three Degrees meets The Hustle of Ain ‘t No Talkin’, sluggish Philly soul conga I Vibe You and the cheesy Eurotechno nightmare that is Need A Little Time.

Still, they sound as if they’re having fun, especially when they go for the ABBA with I Always Planned To Stay, dig out the Stock, Aitken and Watermans for Thank You and relive those Level 42 basslines with the Latin sway of Stop The Music, and, if they happen to dig out some cheesey B movie space suits for the stage show to go with the album’s vague sci fi feel then perhaps you will too. 7pm. £8. O2 Academy 2

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Saturday May 15

The Graham Coxon Power Acoustic Ensemble

A part of the Nick Drake tribute at last year’s English Originals, Coxon returns this year with his own headlining show based around The Spinning Top album and its theme of the journey from cradle to grave.

Steeped in English pastoral folk influences and littered with fingerpicked guitar, woodwinds and assorted string things, it mines the tradition emblemised by the likes of Syd Barrett, Drake and Jansch though while Caspian Sea conjures the psychedelic folk of early Floyd and In The Morning wears its Incredible String Band influences proudly, both Humble Man and If You Want Me show he can still turn on a squally guitar when the mood takes.

Featuring video projections to illustrate the music and joined by guests that include Martin Carthy and Robyn Hitchcock, it promises to be another night to remember. 7.30pm. £22.50. B’ham Town Hall

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Sunday May 16

Dinosaur Jr

Reunited five years ago when J Mascis and Lou Barlow finally buried the hatchet, the trio showed they’d lost none of their fire with comeback album Beyond. But that sounds positively pallid alongside last year’s follow up, Farm (Jagjaguwar), which has them in blistering form, guitars cranked up, throaty and fuzzed as the riffs recall Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their rust burning best. Opening track, Pieces, is vintage Dino riff rock, rolling along with a confident swagger that only comes from a band who know exactly where they’ve come from and who they are.

And that’s just the first nugget in the mine as they rip out stormer after stormer with the tumbling chunky I Want You To Know, a wah wah screaming Over It, I Don’t Wanna Go There’s concrete melting distorted guitar solo, the country veined anthemic swirl of Ocean In The Way and the plangent aching slacker balladry of  the early REM-like Plans and a bluesy Said The People. They sound like a band with an unstoppable sense of purpose, aware of the influence they’ve have had on 25 years of alternative rock but also out to prove their legacy has a future as well as a past.

Pic Casey Howard

They’re touring with a band who happily admit their influence, Idaho’s Built To Spill. Fronted by the crooning vocals of Dough Martsch, they’re parading material from their seventh album, There Is No Enemy (Warner), another Young shaded set of indie rock guitar chimers though, as perfectly illustrated by Life’s A Dream, the seven minute Done and the hurt stained Things Fall Apart, with more soft corners than the headliners.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they don’t chew it up and spit out too. Listen to the urgent rush of Pat, a song about a lost friend, the strident march of Good Ol’ Boredom and the almost baroque feel of Planting Seeds while Hindsight comes with a  positively lilting pop melody. Having lost their way slightly in recent years, it’s good to see them back on the path. 7pm. £18. O2 Academy

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Sunday May 16

Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit

Half brother to actor/singer Jerome Flynn and following pretty much the same career path (though he’s got a lot more cred on the music front), two years ago Flynn was being touted as God’s new gift to Britfolk with the release of debut album, A Larum. Things haven’t quite lived up the predictions, but that’s not for lack of talent. A marriage of pastoral British folk and banjo backwoods Americana with tales of vagabonds and bruised lovers not to mention some pretty nifty fingerpicking, it was a fine calling card, the promise of which should  hopefully be confirmed by next month’s follow-up, Been Listening (Transgressive).

Advance copies weren’t available, but taster track Kentucky Pill, with its cocktail of tropical lilt, mariachi brass and Brit trad, bodes well to serve up material that can stand proudly alongside proven gems like Wayne Rooney, The Wrote & The Writ and Hong Kong Cemetery. 8pm. £10. Glee Club

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Sunday May 16

Erland & The Carnival

The year’s second West Mids appearance by the new outfit headed up by Orcadian folk singer-guitarist Gawain Erland Coope and featuring former Verve guitarist Simon Tong. Their self-titled retro psych folk debut album pulls together reworked trad material alongside self-penned numbers, turning Jackson C Frank’s My Name Is Carnival into as Lee Hazelwood spaghetti western theme, giving William Blake’s The Echoing Green a folk beats groove while spreading Joe Meek influences over The Sweeter The Girl. They’re here this time to plug new single, You Don’t Have To Be lonely. Perhaps they’ll also explain why the chorus rips off I Predict A Riot and put through a Stranglers mill. 7.30pm. £7. Slade Rooms, W’hampton

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Sunday May 16/Monday May 17

Westlife

Rather like fellow Irish boy band Boyzone, they’re experiencing diminishing musical returns the more albums they release. Having run themselves into a big piano ballad corner, current release Where We Are (RCA) shows the problem in coming up a consistent winning streak of memorable stadium anthems without sounding like you’re forever repeating yourself to increasingly less impact.

Pretty much everything here follows the same formula, the yearning verse, the big swelling chorus and the dramatic finish, all delivered with earnest sincerity and arms reaching skywards. But out of 13 tracks, only What About Now comes within spitting difference of their early glories while the likes of As Love Is My Witness and How To Break A Heart sound like desperation.

Significantly, it’s their second album not to make No 1. The first, six years ago, saw the break away from the blueprint and release an album inspired by Sinatra and the Rat pack. It wasn’t their biggest success, but it showed a band willing to try something different. Perhaps they need to flex their muscles again and put the comfort zone aside once more before it suffocates them. 7.30pm. £38. LG Arena

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Monday May 17

New To Q

Promoted by the ailing music mag keen to at least give an impression of being down with what’s happening this pulls together three rising indie names in the hope that at least one of them has sufficient following to pull an audience.

That job falls to Newcastlesoul-psych six piece Detroit Social Club who made a hefty impression last year with the Oasis-Queen-Arctic Monkeys mash of juggernaut blues riff debut single Sunshine People. The solar flares are surging again with Kiss The Sun, the swirling, surging Gregorian Monks meet The Cult lead track of their recent EP and the opening number of debut album Existence (Fiction). As a statement of intent goes, it’s hefty challenge to follow, but the band do it comfortably with the sweeping orchestral heft of Northern Man where Lennon influences glow, the marching beat of Black And White that builds to a raucous squall over a swampy blues background, the loose limbed bass throb of the Nirvana-ish Chemistry and Silver where they tap into a stoned blues mantra groove vaguely reminiscent of Zep’s Eastern textures but decorated with a tinkling musical box figure. I’d swear that’s a sitar sawing away behind the dark, lizard like sway of Rivers And Rainbows too.

Chant friendly gumbo rock n blues new single Prophecy shows their goth blood with firm echoes of The Mission distilled through the church of U2 and, even of the band aren’t playing there, could well be the song dominating this year’s Glastonbury speakers. Catch them now, no room this size can contain them for long.

Next up are Goldhawks, a London quintet with a thing for the big music approach of The Waterboys but without the Celtic twilight mystical soul trimmings. A debut album follows next month, but for now current single Where In The World (Vertigo) suggests they lean more towards the pop friendly inclinations of a Take That than the Echo & The Bunnymen comparisons that have been bandied around.

Finally, fresh from supporting Hole,  there’s Tiffany Page,  a 23 year old who lists Babes In Toyland, Richard Hell and, inevitably, Courtney Love among her influences while Walk Away Slow (Mercury), the title track of the upcoming album, suggests The Velvet Underground fronted by Chrissie Hynde.

Sporting a low slung guitar and a  potent pair of  lungs, she cuts a charismatic live figure and the likes of the chugging bluesy On Your Head with its circling chorus hook, sleaze riffing Hope He Doesn’t Know About You and the contrasting tenderness of piano ballad You Won’t and 7 Years Too Late with its hints of early Cher by way of Shirley Manson are ample evidence that she can walk the walk as well as talk the talk. With a set that could well throw in her acoustic bluesy cover of Muse’s Supermassive Black Hole, she’s clearly a name to watch. 7.30pm. £8.50. O2 Academy 2

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Monday May 17

Peggy Sue

Fronted by Rosa Slade and Katy Young  with Olly Joyce on drums, the Brighton trio first release after signing to Wichita was  the brooding but lollopping moss hung indie folk of Watchman. Now, fresh from touring with the likes of Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling, they’re out on their own headline dates to promote the debut album, Fossils And Other Phantoms, a similarly musically minded collection of battered heart and endings aftermath songs that seem destined to spawn a sheaf of Po’ Girl and Gillian Welch references.

They’re not, to be honest, quite as good as the similarly inclined Smoke Fairies, but they do have a grit lacking in many of their counterparts, barbed lyrics and eruptions of scathing guitars bringing an extra edge to their haunted everglades cooing vocals. Long Division Blues unfurls like a cat extending its claws before striking, Yo Mama is all goblin folk trundling while Green Grow The Rushes is a spare, stark strung out acoustic blues, though not the trad tune from which it takes the title.

If that sounds like a snake’s caress, Careless Talk Costs Lives with its lyrics tumbling over themselves and the medieval informed colours of Fossils are far more dangerous embraces and both Matilda and The Remainder lull you into a woozy fog before slashing at the throat with jarring dissonant blades.

They can come across as a little samey played back to back and they’d be advised to remember that less can be more when they’re arranging the next album, but there’s much here to intoxicate. 8pm. Free. The Yardbird, Paradise Place

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Tuesday May 18

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood

When the two legends took to the stage at Madison Square Gardens in February 2008, it had been 39 years since they’d last played together in the one and only tour of short-lived supergroup Blind Faith. A lot of career water’s gone under the bridge since then but the pair clearly enjoyed renewing the experience, so much so that they’re now on a 16 date European tour, of which this is the opening night.

Joined by Chris Stainton on keyboards, bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Steve Gadd, the set list is apparently decided on the night, so, given their extensive back catalogues, it really could feature pretty much anything from the last four decades.  Well, except perhaps for anything Cream, nothing by whom found its way into the Madison Square shows. Winwood’s a little less touchy about his Traffic legacy however, so there’s a good chance of hearing Dear Mr Fantasy and No Face No Name No Number, though calls for Hole In My Shoe won’t be appreciated. You can. however, be pretty sure that  Blind Faith will be well represented with Had To Cry Today, Well All Right, Can’t Find My Way Home and subsequent Clapton staple Presence Of The Lord all strong contenders. 

Both performers have come through lacklustre patches where the passion seemed to have been missing, but if they’re trading guitar licks tonight lie they did back in 2008, then there’ll be little chance of nodding off during the solos. 7.30pm. £75-£50. LG Arena

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Tuesday May 18

Sarah Macdougall

Pic Eric Wong

Swedish born but based in Canada, alt country singer-songwriter Macdougall marries the Scandinavian folk influences of her homeland with rootsy Americana. The success of this combination can be found on Across The Atlantic (Copperspine), her first official release, which jumps from the opening Ballad Of Sheri where she sounds like Mary Hopkin playing klezmer in some Stockholm cellar bar to Ramblin’, a lovely, fragile helping of backwoods log cabin folk with weeping pedal steel and a world weary aching voice.

She’s more persuasive on the lower register songs like the title track, the slope along I’ve Got Your Back and the hymnal slow waltzing I’ve Got Sorrow than more uptempo numbers such as Cry Wolf, a mazurka-like Hundred Dollar Bills and the equally Eastern European tinted Crow’s Lament, but either way you should be in for a good night. 8pm. £8.50. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

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Wednesday May 19

Alicia Keys

There can be few artists who’ve been in the chart simultaneously with the same song, but different versions. Keys can claim that distinction following the success of Empire State Of Mind, recorded both as collaboration with Jay-ze on which she provided the ‘New York’ chorus hook, and on her own as Empire State Of Mind (Part II).

The latter version’s lifted from current album The Element Of Freedom (RCA), one which sees a departure from her familiar piano soul to explore more beats based R&B and drum programming. Centring around songs about loss and separation, it’s something of a disappointment with the singles Doesn’t Mean Anything, and Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart coming up short in comparison to past hits. Of course there are moments that shine, notably the strutting sassy Beyonce duet Put It In A Love Song, a chunky funked This Bed, the big building Wait Till You See My Smile and the stand out Philly soul ballad Love Is Blind where those early Nina Simone comparisons still stand up. But who would have thought you’d find yourself describing songs on a  Keys album as plodding, soulless and boring, which is precisely what Distance And Time and Un-Thinkable are.

She said the album was an experiment and a risk, and it’s clearly one that didn’t pay off. If your lucky she’ll keep selections to a minimum and give the crowd what they’ve come to hear with the likes of Fallin’ No One and Karma, and then get back in the studio and refocus on what she does best. 7.30pm. £40/£35. NIA

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Wednesday May 19

Jace Everett

If you saw  sex and vampires drama True Blood, you'll be familiar with Everett's Chris Isaak aping (oh, come on, listen to Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing again) theme song Bad Things. That'll be sufficient incentive to check out the rest of the man's Red Revelations (Wrasse)

album where, opening with the snakeskin rock n roll of Possession,  you'll find further (though not quite as obvious) Isaak comparisons, the man favouring a  similar twangy bluesy countrified sound but with a darker overall edge. 

He's got a smoked growl of a voice, giving the lust soaked Burn For You that rockabilly hiccup (no doubt swivelling the hips to the Ellis McDaniels  rhythm), swaggering through the Southern barroom rock n soul boogie of More To Life as he looks to 'get a little action', getting swampy with One Of Them (where he seems to be gargling the lyrics while doing a voodoo Johnny Cash) and running down the slide guitar frets for Little Black Dress where the Black Crowes, the Stones and Huey Lewis pass the bottle round.

Damned If I Do and Slide Away take the pace down, the former into a whisky whispering late night noirish country torch prowl with steel guitar and tremolo arm, the latter a bluesy drinking session with some jazz cellar combo, but it's the beefy bad boy material that (suggesting he's also a fiery live act) is going to ensure he's still be very much among the living when True Blood has had a stake through its ratings. 8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Thursday May 20

The Quails

Hailing from Teignmouth, this bunch are undeniably enthusiastic and play with the urgency of someone in need of the nearest lavatory. However, their sophomore album, Masters Of Imperfection (Like The Sound) is a little more than a diluted recycling of their influences, most evidently the Kaisers, Killers, the Arctic Monkeys and even the bombast of The Darkness.

Guitars chug, riffs do what they were designed for and the songs dutifully either play the moody indie ballad card (Shining Star and the piano led Transmit, Evade, Escape) or churn over the rock strut and swagger (That Other World, For The Good Times, Master of Imperfection) then, to show their diversity, they slip a reggae lope into Argentina, hop  tempos over Fever and even rustle up a cowbell for Games With The Devil. Nothing really sticks over and like their name they may be game but there's very little meat on the bones. 8pm. £5. Actress & Bishop, Ludgate Hill

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Thursday May 20

Martha Tilston

Back in harness after maternity leave, she returned to live work last year but  Lucy And The Wolves (Squiggly)  is her first set of recordings since 2006's Of Milkmaids And Architects. Mercifully, while she references the babe in her arms on the upliftingly optimistic 350 Bells, she's resisted the new parent temptations of writing sentimental songs about the offspring, but there's plenty of earth mother here as she weaves natural world imagery through poetic love songs flavoured with the smoke of English woodlands, dappled with pastoral trad and hints of Appalachian streams.

Opening track, The Cape, finds her behind piano, its classical arrangement and her tremulous voice conjuring a trad folk Kate Bush while equally chilled moods percolate through Rockpools with its striking images of being a silkworm in the fingers of a sweatshop and of nature running an evening class in the language of decomposing youth. No moons and Junes here, then.

Restless reflections on life line the spare folk blues Who Turns, the vagabond heart of Wil Swimming beats with the blood of trad chestnut The Rover, Old Tom Cat recalls the early work of Leonard Cohen with its rippling acoustic guitar and the air of sipping absinthe in Paris back street cafes while the spirit of Joni Mitchell surely informs the playful Americana folk of My Chair and the giddy romanticism of Lucy.

With the trad Searching For Lambs recorded acapella in a wood with crows providing the backing, it's a hushed, leafy affair but she still finds a place to stir up the blood on the closing seven minute Wave Machine with its prominent drums and a swirling fiddle capturing the restless water imagery. Keen to re-establish her musical presence, the album's likely to dominate the set list but, I can't imagine anyone having any problems with that. 8pm. £8. Taylor John's House, Coventry

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Saturday May 22

Fuzzbox

Formed  back in 1985, We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It were Birmingham's own all girl DIY glam New Wave group where enthusiasm and image meant more than musical ability. Making an immediate impression with their debut single XX Sex and Rules And Regulations, they scored their first Top 40 entry with Love Is The Slug from debut album Bostin' Steve Austin.

Then they moved from the locally based Vindaloo label and signed to WEA, following up with second album Big Bang which saw them reinvented as a dance pop outfit and scoring three Top 30 singles with Pink Sunshine, International Rescue and Self.

But then the bubble burst. A fourth single bombed and a follow up album fizzled out mid-way over musical differences, singer Vickie Perks going on to a solo career as Vix while the other three quit the business.

However, a one-off reunion for 2008's Pride Festival has led to a more permanent rebirth and although drummer Tina O'Neill remains retired, original members Vix, Maggie and Jo are back along with new members Sarah Firebrand and Karen Milne.

Well aware that fans emerging from the woodwork only want to hear the old favourites, that's exactly what the set list will be, although alongside revivals of Spirit in The Sky and Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Pola Dot Bikini they will be showcasing their comeback single, a breathy voiced dance cover of ancient M hit, Pop Musik (Gotham) that could well see them back into the club charts if not the mainstream one. 7pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

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Saturday May 22/Sunday May 23

Rod Stewart

After trampling over the Great American Songbook with the finesse of a buffalo, the prospect of Rod tackling an album's worth of soul classics would understandably fill you with trepidation. And as Soulbook (RCA), his sixth consecutive album of covers,  shows, rightly so. He says he's waited his whole life to do this, which begs the question why he didn't do it when he was singing for his passion rather than his bank account.

Of course, those for whom he can do no wrong will be enraptured by his husky smooth versions of What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, If You Don't Know Me By Now and Rainy Night In Georgia. The bulk of the songs here are similar slow ballad. He even slows down the intro of It's The Same Old Song to a piano backed croon before picking up the tempo.

At which point you realise why ballads make up the bulk of the track listing, since, short of a karaoke at the old folks home, it would be hard to imagine more lifeless, soulless renditions of  (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher, Love Train, Only The Strong Survive or an attempt to Stax up Sam Cooke's Wonderful World.

With the exception of an appearance by Stevie Wonder on My Cherie Amour, which has always been an overrated, syrupy sickly experience, the duets add much needed life to You Make Me Feel Brand New (Mary J Blige), Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson) and especially the old Everlys hit Let It Be Me which, thanks to Jennifer Hudson, is the album highpoint.

The good news, of course, is that audience expectations for the old hits means he'll probably only find space for a couple of these. Maybe you can get to the bar and back by the time he's finished. 7.30pm. £70/£60. NIA

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Sunday May 23

Mark Knopfler

Although chart placings have never equalled those of Dire Straits, save for Shangri-La everyone of Knopfler's solo albums has made the Top 10, and even that peaked at No 11.  Released last year, Get Lucky (Vertigo), the album on which this tour's based is no exception and is pretty much representative of where he's been at musically over the past decade.

 Listen to the opening of Border Reiver and you could be back in the Celtic mist of Local Hero and, when he's not playing the blues as on something like the laid back and loping You Can't Beat The House, that air of romanticism permeates the stories of the characters that inhabit these songs.

Whether that's on the lush orchestral waltzing Monteleone, a love song to a guitar that could have come from some 30s big screen love story, the fingerpicking folk Get Lucky, a nostalgic Before Gas And TV  or the country tones of The Car Was The One, this time the object of affection being a Ford Cobra  sports racer.

The mood throughput is pretty much warm and relaxed, even on the threat-tinged Cleaning My Gun, So Far From The Clyde's allegorical lament for the collapse of the shipyards or the poignant Remembrance Day.

Knopfler's requested set lists aren't revealed in order to maintain an element of surprise as to what you'll hear, but you can bank on a sizeable sampling from the album (Piper To The End's tribute to his Black Watch piper uncle, killed in battle at the age of 20 in 1940 would make a perfect finale to send you home) as well as reworked Straits classics and a sprinkling from the other solo albums. Either way, this is understated genius at work. 7.30pm. £37.50. LG Arena

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Sunday May 23

Po' Girl

Departed founder member Trish Klein's place taken by Awna Teixeira and with multi-instrumentalist Benny Sidelinger completing the line-up alongside Allison Russell, Deer In The Night (Po'Girl Music)  may be their fourth album but is, essentially, also a debut. Not that roster rearrangements have changed things a great deal, the sound still very much the self-styled urban roots fusion of gospel, jazz and old time Appalachian folk while (on Things We Believe In, especially) Teixeira and Russell's voices entwine like Spanish moss and cypress trees.

With glockenspiel providing a musical box backing, gospel influence and lullaby feel, Russell's title track sets the mood before new girl Awna makes her bow on the clarinet coloured bluegrass n jazz Dig Me A Hole, then slide guitar puts in an appearance for the swampy ennui of Bloom  with squeezebox and fine de siecle carnival/cabaret moods swaying along for a Randy Newmanesque Gandy Dancer.

With lyrics that, on songs like the husky honeyed Isobel and the folk-pop Grace, rummage through such dark thematic undergrowth as  childhood trauma, emotional despair and battered hearts, it's not built for wide grins but that doesn't mean the melodies necessarily have any less spring in their step.

Gasoline is a twangy front porch slopealong, No Shame shuffles with a slow gospel blues boogie, How The Poet Goes has the musical vibe of some Western cathouse entertainer giving the cowhands the tease while the barman tinkles the ivories, and One Little City slips into a sly offbeat rhythmic lurch with a cajun accordion while clarinet, bass and brushed percussion croon another jazz lounge lullaby.

Topping off the self-penned tunes with a metronomic darkling trad folk cover of Julie Miller's All My Tears, this isn't just a rekindling but, arguably, their finest album yet. Of course, preview tasters of the forthcoming Follow Your Bliss may require future reassessment of that.    8pm. £13. Glee Club

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Sunday May 23

FM

Formed in 1984 from the ashes of NWOBHM casualties Samson and Wildlife, the band made their live debut in 1985 and played their final gig a  decade later, leaving behind seven albums, only one of which (Tough It Out) ever made it into the bottom reaches of the Top 40 and a string of singles that never quite made it that far.

Second division big hair rock with strong Bon Jovi inclinations, they could be relied on for a catchy melody, some bluesy hard rock and the odd  rocked up cover like their version of Heard It Through The Grapevine.

Even so, it's hard to imagine there was a great demand for a reunion among anyone other than their most ardent fans. Nevertheless, Pete Jupp, Merv Goldsworthy and Steve Overland have returned from the original line up and added a couple of new names to make up the numbers. Now they're trying to restoke old flames with a set that'll be made up of fan favourites like Frozen Heart, Bad Luck and That Girl alongside tasters from comeback album Metropolis (Riff City).

It's no huge departure from their former AOR style, guitar solos arriving in their expected place, vocals soaring on the choruses and the radio play chasing pop sensibilities of Days Gone By and Bring Back Yesterday mingling with the harder struts like Don't Need Nothing and Flamingo Road for the air guitar brigade and the obligatory stadium anthem (Still The Fight Goes On). It's unlikely to see them do now what they failed to achieve first time around, but at least they can underachieve with a sense of pride. 7pm. £15. O2 Academy 2

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Sunday May 23

Lights

The little girl-voiced Toronto electro-pop kitten went down well at last year's V Festival, but she's not exactly  been a regular on the UK touring circuit. Things may change now her debut album, Listening, finally gets  a release on these shores after being available for some eight months in America and Canada. Unfortunately, review copies weren't around, so the only substantial thing to go on is the lead single, Saviour (Warner), a rather catchy bubble of  pulsing pop that nods to both her self-professed Bjork and ABBA influences, though the rippling synth surely is a touch of Yazoo. Brief samples of other tracks advise you to keep ears peeled for the anthemic notes of River and The Last thing On Your Mind, mid-tempo ballad Drive My Soul and the dance friendly pop of Lions, Ice and Second Go. If the album lives up to the tasters, then Florence and La Roux had better start watching their backs. 7pm. £6.50. O2 Academy 3

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Sunday May 23

Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart

The couple's appearances over here are few and far between, but it's always good to welcome back Steve's sister and her husband. Especially so this time since it's their first tour since the release of Town Square (Gearle), a double album featuring 32 acoustic versions of material from both their shared albums and her solo releases.

Put together by popular demand after the response to the bonus acoustic CD on 2003's Never Gonna Let you Go, it's a basic voices and guitars in harmony approach that doesn't let anything else get in the way of their sound or their songs. Reaching back into her solo work, there's a lovely old school country waltzing version of Dancin' With Them That Brung Me, a bluesy duo take on the Bobbie Gentry-ish Wedding Night, Weekend Runaways, and, naturally, Simple Gearle. Stuart's Songs From A Corner Stage is represented by Lorraine, Ragged Suitcase and the blues Boss Is Watchin', but most are trawled in from their three albums together, with particular highlights including The Old Watch, Me And The Man In The Moon and Town Square itself.

With the gig following the same format as the album, it'll be a down home, casual sort of affair with plenty of chat but, with some of the songs now having seen service on four different albums, perhaps next time round a studio set of new material wouldn't go amiss. 8pm. £8. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

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Monday May 24

John Mayer

He fills stadiums in America but here his albums fail to make the top 30 and he’s still never had a hit single. It’s hard to explain why. Fuelled by his break up with Jennifer Aniston (titles include All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, Friends, Lovers Or Nothing, Perfectly Lonely and the war metaphor heavy Heartbreak Warfare), current album Battle Studies (Columbia) is a perfectly fine collection of tasteful glossy bluesy tinged AOR pop that, on such numbers as  War Of My Life, Who Says and Do You Know Me, variously conjures comparisons to Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and Jack Johnson while a Robert Palmer styled cover of Robert Johnson’s blues classic Crossroads is ample evidence of his guitar chops.

He has a warm, wittily self-deprecating personality, he has the looks and he clearly has the talent, all he needs is that one break through single and the pin up posters will be all over the place. For now, though, this seems a rather ambitious venue to try and pull off.

Support comes from Ellie Goulding whose debut album, Lights, plummeted from the top spot after one week but is at least still hanging around the bottom reaches of the Top 30 and will likely get a revival boost with the release of new single, Guns And Horses, though the chances of that emulating Starry Eyes seems pretty remote. 7.30pm. £31. LG Arena

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Monday May 24/Tuesday May 25

Crowded House

It’s been 19 years since the release of Woodface, arguably their finest work, and while disregarding rarities set Afterglow) subsequent albums Time Together and the comeback  Time On Earth both earned Top 4 placings they lack of any hit singles from either underscores that they’ve still to come up with individual songs as strong as Weather With You, Don’t Dream It’s Over or Fall At Your Feet.

Despite its well crafted, polished and melodic material, new album Intriguer (Mercury) is unlikely to change matters, though there’s an outside chance that, with its chorus hook, the summery tumbling Archer’s Arrows might just break the barren streak.

Other than that, it’s pretty much business as usual with the likes of  the uptempo, bassline driven Saturday Sun, a dreamy orchestrated Either Side Of The World,  yearningly melancholic ballad Even If  and the Beatles bouncing pop of Inside Out all designed to be played with the car roof down or the house windows opens.

Lyrically, rather trite and ungainly love song Twice If You’re Lucky probably isn’t the greatest thing they’ve written, but on the other hand, tapping into the narcotic mood of Twin Peaks and Julee Cruise, Isolation is easily one of the most perfect things they’ve ever done.

The fact they can command two nights is ample proof that they retain a large following, but you can’t help thinking that the audience is still going to be there to bask in the glow of the old rather than embrace the new. 7.30pm. £35. Symphony Hall

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Tuesday May 25

Nell Bryden

Following Live In Iraq, New York based Bryden returns with What Does It Take? (157), a new studio album that showcases her vocal and songwriting strengths on a collection that ranges across bluegrass, soul, country and jazz. Things kick off in solid roadhouse boogie form with the title track, the band driving it along on guitars and keyboards while gospel back ups add extra fire to Bryden's belting urgency.

It's an immediate change of pace then for Not Like Loving You, a country soul ballad that melds Patsy Cline and Percy Sledge. Then the tempo picks up again as a railroad rhythm guides you into Where The Pavement Ends before the rollercoaster mood repeats itself with  Helen's Requiem, a gospel tinged farewell to a down on her luck mother who drowned in her attic.

Brazilian percussion, horns and classical guitar add warm colours to Goodbye, The Only Life I Know takes a bluegrass dust road shuffle as she sings of a mother leaving her daughter so she can have a better life, and Second Time Around takes it back to the blues boogie. Tonight and Late Night Call invites jazz swing on to the saloon dancefloor while waltzing leaving song Green Dress and the Nashville rockier Meridian (I Love The Same) complete the set with country in mind.

It's a classily solid rather than outstanding release and the live set will miss the army of highly accomplished musicians, but it will certainly boost her already growing reputation considerably. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Tuesday May 25

The Constellations

The Atlanta party animals are actually here a support to Chiddy Bang, but since there’s been not a whisper from the duo’s PR people they get the top billing. Who are they?  An eight piece collective headed up by Elijah Jones, they play psychedelic soul or what they sometimes like to term ghettotech, which, roughly translated involves a rock core with hip hop and funk dressing. They’ll be previewing debut album Southern Gothic which is due next month, tasters of which include new single Perfect Day (Virgin) where Canned Heat meets Tainted Love and the loping Setback with its cocktail of hip hop, motorik and 60s West Coast pop soul. Along with Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley, they cite Tom Waits as an influence, something clearly evident from the spoken carnival barker blues-jazz shuffle of Step Right Up. They could well be the new Fun Loving Criminals. 7.30pm. £8. O2 Academy 2

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Wednesday May 26

Pendulum

The Australian drum and bass outfit caused a hefty stir with their last album, In Silico, prompting house full notices at their last three tours. Sell outs look to be the order of the day here too as they prepare to launch follow-up Immersion (Warner) which tones down the rock  in favour of the more intense industrial techno and beats based approach to be found on such numbers as Crush, Cossack disco The Vulture, the strobe flashing Salt In The Wound and upcoming single Witchcraft.

The Prodigy influence is pretty apparent throughout, so it’s not too surprising to find Liam Howlett guesting on the urgent Immunize, but they’ve not abandoned the rock colours entirely, Comprachicos a lumbering metal behemoth, the piston hammering thrash of Self Vs Self featuring In Flames and Porcupine Tree’s Steve Wilson lending his prog nous to The Fountain while parts of  the closing Encoder seem to owe a worrying debut to the hair rock days of Journey and their like. Guess this pendulum swings both ways. 7.30pm. £22.50. O2 Academy

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Wednesday May 26

The Rocket Summer

The musical alias of Stephen Bryce Avary, a Dallas based multi-instrumentalist, the name means virtually nothing over here, despite the fact that Of Men And Angels (Mercury) is his fourth album release. Although he’s moved away from piano in favour of big guitars, the sound is still clappy Jimmy Eats World style emo pop-rock  with lyrics about holding on, still believing and brand new days, even if the songs are, relatively, more concerned with grown up issues about relationships, how love can be a bit of a bummer and, on the frankly embarrassing Japanese Exchange Student, about being low down on the celebrity ladder.

There’s nothing here that’s going to cause a mass outbreak of teeny girl adulation or hero worshipping spotty boys with angst issues, but Roses, I Want Something To Live For, the Rick Springfieldish I Need A Break But Id Rather Have A Breakthrough and the stadium crowd swayalonger  This Is A Refuge are all the sort of stuff you can punch the air to on the night and then go home and forget. And sometimes that’s enough. 7.30pm. £11. O2 Academy 2

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Wednesday May 26

Justin Currie

Having firmly draw a line through any hopes of a Del Amitri reunion, their former frontman returns with his second solo album in five years. It sounds, not too surprisingly, a bit like a Del Amitri album with country streaks though his Scottish folk-pop and songs that hew strictly to either ballad or mid-tempo rock, occasionally, as on Fight To Be Human, stained with the blues.

That he can write catchy chorus hooks in never in doubt and there’s several sterling examples here, notably the twangy apathy-slapping A Man With Nothing To Do, country-rocker A Home Inside Of Me and Can’t Let Go Of Her Now. And if sometimes things get a bit stodgy with the meat and potatoes strut of Ready To Be or lumpen strings laden ballad Baby, You Survived, there’s compensation in the more elegant McCartneyesque piano ballad You’ll Always Walk Alone and the edgy, bitter Everyone I Love which, with its squally guitars, takes him out of the familiar comfort zone.

Whether his refusal to indulge old band nostalgia means he won’t be playing any of hits live remains to be seen, but he’s got more than enough solid solo material to build a set on firm foundations.

He’s touring with Tommy Reilly who, you may remember scored a record deal with A&M when he won the Orange Unsigned talent show. Given how dreadful that album turned out to be, there’ll be no shock to learn the label showed him the door. What is astonishing is that he’s not actually been allowed to make a follow up, I’m Tommy Reilly (Euphonios). Proving that somethings can be relied on, it’s another set of weedy voiced confessionals that always sound like they’re on the verge of apologising for themselves.

Whoever’s backing him ensures the musical content is solid but, save for the dreamy Badges, the melodies don’t warrant the effort and every time Reilly’s voice kicks in you find yourself losing interest. Take Me Away For The Night is a decent enough pub rock stomper but when he sings Could Do Better, you understand that he probably can’t. 7.30pm. £17.50. Slade Rooms, W’hampton

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Thursday May 27

Eric Bibb

Pic Keith Perry

Some years ago, a fan showed Bibb a 1930s Resophonic National steel guitar that once belonged to Delta bluesman and BB King’s cousin, Booker White. A lifelong admirer of White, Bibb was inspired to write Booker’s Guitar, the title track of his current album (Telarc). To add to the resonance, he even got to play the instrument on it too.

The guitar won’t be along for the tour, but Gibb can squeeze the blues from anything with strings and it’s a good bet that there’ll be several numbers from the album on the set list. With just voice, guitar and occasional harmonica, it’s very much in the tradition of the minstrels and troubadours who forged the 30s Mississippi blues scene, mingling traditional tunes like Wayfaring Stranger and Blind Willie Johnson’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine with self-penned numbers such as Flood Water’s account of the Mississippi tragedy of 1926, the gospel One Soul To Save, Turning Pages’ celebration of the joys of reading and, keeping the title in mind, the instrumental Train From Aberdeen referencing White’s hometown and, Tell Riley, a track inspired by BB King’s autobiography.

As much musical historian as bluesman, the between song chat should prove every bit as entertaining as the performance. 7.30pm. £22.50. B’ham Town Hall

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Thursday May 27

Goldheart Assembly

Hailing from London perhaps, but the beardy sextet’s musical hearts are firmly illuminated by 60s West Coast sunshine, the music informed by both the era’s harmony pop rock and the current country folk retro affection. Debut album Wolves And Thieves (Fierce Panda) has seen them likened to a UK version of Fleet Foxes but listen to acoustic ballad Anvil and the immediate comparison that comes to mind is the Everly Brothers while King Of Rome more suggests Crowded House.

To keep listeners on their toes they occasionally throw some spanners into the works, such as the discordant bursts towards the end of the gently rolling organ backed So Long St Christopher, the psychedelia of  Hope Hung High and the noise eruptions in the rumbling Jesus Wheel. For the most though they lull you to a cosy reverie with the soothing summery caresses of Last Decade, a woozy Boulevards and the cooing Engraver’s Daughter with its keening lap steel. Probably more likely to make a wider impression on American ears than the cult following such music attracts here, nevertheless, armed with a reputation for energetic, fun gigs, they’re well worth the gathering. 8pm. £6. Glee Club

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Thursday May 27

Dan Sartain

A native of Alabama’s Birmingham, Sartain’s a scrawny, lanky chap with a gigolo pencil moustache and a probably unhealthy love of 50s voodoo rockabilly. Lasta round these parts a couple of years back with Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes, he’s back in action now with Lives (One Little Indian), an equally reverb heavy collection of garage rock twang, double bass slaps and dark alley tunes that nod to his obvious Link Wray influences.

The itchy, slightly spag-western tinged Those Thoughts opens proceedings in fine fettle, Santain shugging along while a descending guitar scale sounds like snakes in a desert, and that’s pretty much the groove it maintains, although Doin’ Anything I Say has a sort of Glitter Band stomping beat if they were backing Johnny Kidd. A three part Walking With Cobras having figured on the previous album, Part IV turns up here wearing a Johnny Cash rockabilly skin while, elsewhere, Ruby Carol shuffles along with a throaty guitar twang and train rolling rhythm, conjuring thoughts of Kenny Rogers gone to the darkside, Bad Things Will Happen is a John Leighton pop ballad with a murky past. and the drum heavy Voo Doo pretty much lives up to its title.

With the dry bones psychedelic garage Bohemian Grove the stand out cut, nothing here breaks the three minute mark, so he should have plenty of time to run through the entire album and a goodly quota from the back catalogue too. Assuming the place hasn’t turned into a swimming pool of sweat midway through. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Friday May 28

Natalie Merchant

It’s been a long seven years since the sometime 10,000 Maniacs singer released her last studio album. I’m afraid admirers are going to have to wait a little longer for any new original material, but I can’t see any of them being disappointed by Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch), a double disc set featuring interpretations of  poems (mostly) written  for children by such names as ee cummings, Robert Frost, Robert Louis Stevenson and Christina Rosetti.

To put the project together she also collaborated with a wide assembly of artists, among them Medeski, Martin & Wood, The Chinese Music Ensemble of New York,  , the Wynton Marsalis Quintet and Lunasa. It’s the latter to be heard on the opening number, providing guitar, whistles, pipes and fiddle in a folk arrangement of Charles Causley’s bittersweet transition from childhood to adult life, Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence & Experience, before Edward Lear’s nonsense rhyme Calico Pie gets a hillbilly bluegrass workover.

Such musical diversity sparks throughout. There’s New Orleans skittish jazz for Bleezer’s Ice Cream, Brian Wilson musical parade pop with Mervyn Peake’s It Makes A Change, Berlin cabaret moods swish across The Sleepy Giant and Ogden Nash is recast in Cajun clothes on The Adventures of Isabel.

Merchant casts her musical net far and wide across genres and forms, bringing reggae to bear on Topsyturvey-World while  Robert Graves’s Vain & Careless has a medieval courtly arrangement, and Rosetti’s Crying, My Little One is Appalachian folk bathed in woodwind.

Listening to the sheer exuberance spilling all over the carney swaying The Blind Men And The Elephant and the shanty swaying and vocal hopscotch of The Wallopping Window Blind, it’s clear all concerned had a ball putting this together, and that fun and enthusiasm is infectious.

If this takes the same shape as her American dates, it’ll just be her with a couple of acoustic guitarists and a cellist, dipping in and out of the new album, telling jokes and satsifying the loyal fans with Tell Yourself and Build A Levee from the dim distant past of Motherland. 7.30pm. £27.50. Symphony Hall

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Saturday May 29

Mayer Hawthorne

He may also work the hip hop market as DJ Haircut, but Andrew Mayer Cohen, to give him his proper name, is clearly a passionate devotee of 60s r&b. With his crooning falsetto and arrangements, debut album, A Strange Arrangement (Stones Throw), immediately conjures thoughts of Curtis Mayfield (the horns lashed The ills), the Stylistics (I Wish It Would Rain), early Smokey Robinson (Make Her Mind, One Track Mind) and, on Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’, any number of hits from the pen of Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Playing virtually everything himself, budget limitations means it lacks the polish of the originals (the processed backbeat is a bit tinny) and ultimately he doesn’t have the songs or the voice (the Isaac Hayes style spoken intro to Just Ain’t Gonna Work out is a touch embarrassing) to emulate his influences. But he does have the ability to pen catchy hooks and recreate the authentic sound of 60s Detroit sufficiently to persuade  you this might have actually been made back then. A little too sweet perhaps for those who prefer the dirtier retro soul of Winehouse and co, but it’ll still bring a  tear of to the eyes of  Motown nostalgists. 7pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2

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Saturday May 29

The Visitors

Not to be mistaken for the West Country band of the same name, this is the new project of Karl Walsh, formerly frontman of Factory Records signings To Hell With Burgundy frontman.  Music buffs will remember the Manchester folk rock trio for their four undervalued albums, but Walsh has left all that behind and the current fourpiece favour a 70s melodic rock sound, tasters of  Without You and Venus pointing in the direction of Ziggy Stardust. A debut single, Hello Moon (Earliest), is forthcoming and doubtless there’s an album in the works, so this is a useful opportunity to check out the goods.

They’re playing as part of the Pride weekend festival (the music kicks off around 1pm) along with other acts that include Kartina, Gutted For Dave and Tin Pan Gang. That you’ve probably not heard of any of them is part of the new venue’s policy of pushing upcoming names, not just through  gigs (most of which are free entry) but also streaming the shows live on its website. 5.30pm. Free. The Spare Room, Hurst St

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Monday May 31

Jann Klose

Born in Germany, raised in Kenya, schooled in Cleveland and now resident in the Bronx, Klose has had a varied career that includes stints with Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy and the Cleveland Opera Chorus.

He’s over here to promote Reverie (3 Frames Music), an album that should warm the ears of those whose collections include David Gray, Paul Simon, Seal, Paul McCartney and Sting. From which, you'll deduce it's a mix of folk, jazz, soul, reggae and pop, served with a warm laid back vocal, classy arrangements and horns and strings orchestrations and often, as on All These Rivers and The Beginning, given to what feels like improvised jazzy jams.

The title captures its New York musical mood well and you could easily envision many of these numbers being played in a Broadway production, especially the cabaret colours of Doing Time and the wistful piano ballad Mother Said, Father Said.

It's a gorgeous, autumnal album laced with stand out tracks, though I'd have to single out the McCartneyish Watching You Go, the shuffling Gray feel of Beautiful Dream, the Simon-like reggae lope Hold Me Down and the uptempo groove of Clouds as particular highlights.

He’s also got an equally elegant download EP available featuring This Sacrifice (which suggests vintage Leo Sayer) and Waiting For The Wave, both of which will doubtless figure in the set.

He needs a bigger label to give him the push he needs to get his name and music to a wider audience, but there's no doubt that he has the talent and the material to become a major artist on the world stage. There’s no knowing when or if he might be back for a full tour, so you really should make the effort to catch him tonight. 7.30pm. £5. The Yardbird, Paradise Place

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Monday May 31

Joe Bonamassa

Pic Marty Moffatt

An old school bluesman who’s modelled himself on legends such as BB King, John Mayall. Zeppelin and Eric Clapton, Bonamassa’s the current poster boy for the new blues generation, going from back room clubs to the Royal Albert Hall. Over here a couple of years back touring 

The Ballad of John Henry, he returns now on the back of his Top 20 debut Black Rock (Provogue), another sterling collection of  blue collar blues rock laced with throaty riffs, wailing vocals and classic blues boogie. Recorded in Greece, there’s a fair smattering of local flavour, his slide guitar trading licks with bouzouki on the self-penned Athens To Athens while clarino (a small piccolo trumpet) also provides a wailing introduction to a relaxed driftaway cover of Cohen’s Bird On A Wire.

There’s a bunch of other covers. A slow blues rock swagger through John Hiatt’s I Know A Place, a crunchy stomp across Bobby Parker’s Steal Your Heart Away,  Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood  classic Spanish Boots from Beck-Ola, blistering scorches through Otis Rush’s Three Times A Fool and James Clark’s Look Over Yonders Wall and an acoustic swing take on Blind Boy Fuller’s Baby You Gotta Change Your Mind.

Bonamassa’s no slouch when it comes to his own material either, as ably demonstrated by the blues rock boogie When The Fire Hits The Sea and the Eastern tinged Zeppelinesque Blue And Evil. 

The centrepiece though has to be a gutsy, driving version of Willie Nelson’s Night Life that features guest guitar and vocal from BB himself. Sadly, he won’t be walking out of the wings for the gig, but by now Bonamassa’s proven he can light up an arena with just his guitar alone.

Unexpected support comes from Sandi Thom, the Scottish singer-songwriter hitherto best known for debut No 1 single I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair), the ensuing expose of the PR hype behind her on line overnight discovery,  the subsequent failure of  second album The Pink & The Lily and departure from her record label.

However, Thom now says the music on those albums was never representative of her true musical self and that it was the record company who’d tried to make her a folksy pop star. Apparently, her real musical love is the blues.  Supporting current paramour Bonamassa on last year’s tour, she stood in on vocals when his voice gave out and  opens shows again for him this time round where she’ll be showcasing her reinvention album, Merchants And Thieves (Guardian Angels).

She’s no Maggie Bell, Sue Foley or Christine Perfect and this is the poppier side of the blues rather than its down and dirty disreputable brother, but she certainly sounds like her heart’s involved this time, strutting through the twangy guitar outlaw girl blues rocker Maggie Maccall, rolling boogie Runaway Train, wailing away in The Belly Of The Blues and duetting with her man on This Ol’ World, a double act pretty much guaranteed to be reprised live.

She’s better though on the slower numbers, the Lorraine Ellison soulfulness of  Let It Stay, country blues slow shuffler The Sadness and the lovely unaccompanied two part harmony
country gospel Ghost Town, although the instrumental title track designed to show her guitarist chops probably won’t send anyone home persuaded of her virtuosity. They might, however, just be willing to give her a seconc chance career. 7.30pm. £35/£27.50. NIA