Saturday Sept 2/Sunday September 3

Moseley Folk Festival

Now this is a real treat. The first ever fest, to be held in the village park’s tranquil environs, debuts with an eclectic line up that, in terms of comparative scale, is even more impressive than Cambridge and really warrants the fullest support from the region’s folk fans.

Saturday:

M Craft

Hailing from Canberra, M Craft deals in folk tinged soul pop, neatly embodied in the Simon & Garfunkel meets Nick Drake in a Brazilian bar playing Golden Brown feel of the title track of new album Silver & Fire (679). He sticks with the samba for Emily Snow though You Are The Music reveals he's not averse to dallying in the low lights of soft electronic dance pop when the mood takes him.

Though Teardrop Tattoo relates how a Kings Cross prostitute was murdered by a hit man to prevent her testifying against corrupt cops and Sweets also deals in the desperate life of a hooker, much of the material is of the 'where's my place in the universe' musing variety interspersed with songs of finding or losing love.

With a soft, sweetly confessional voice that frequently evokes thought of Art Garfunkel and songs such as Dragonfly and I Got Nobody Waiting For Me that dreamily laze past on woodwind streams, Latin ripples and the eddies of 60s jazzy folk pop, this is subtly insidious listening that slowly seeps into the veins.

Providing local input for the day’s 14 strong list of performers you’ll find the redoubtable Steve Gibbons in, I assume, acoustic mood, Wolverhampton’s rising blues-soul star Scott Matthews, Andy Votel and Birmingham’s answer to Gram Parsons, James Summerfield.

Seth Lakeman

Rising up the running order comes something of a jazz-folk institution with Jacquie McShee’s Pentangle and Devonian fiddler/guitarist Seth Lakeman whose current album, Freedom Fields, melds a rock sensibility with folk roots as he explores West Country tales of war and conflict on numbers such as King & Country, Lady of the Sea, The Colliers and the gentle banjo driven The White Hare.

Lakeman’s always a fiery live performer but for gentler pastures you might want to seek out Tunng and their Wicker Man inspired pastoral folktronica.

Tunng

They’ll be dipping into their current album, Comments Of The Inner Chorus (Full TimeHobby), a bewitching collection of leafy fairytale numbers (complete with clacking typewriter and samples from readings of children’s stories) that include Woodman, the tale of a girl being transformed into a hare and her lover’s wish to undergo the same fate.

Rippling with the spirits of Nick Drake, Dr Strangely Strange, John Martyn, Aphex Twin and John Renbourn, this is beguilingly lovely stuff with enough of a darkside to avoid any accusation of folk-twee while such meadow-gold delights as It’s Because We’ve Got Hair, the medieval feel of Sweet William, the clicking pagan vibe Man In The Box and maypole dancing Red and Green will give your heart a suntan.

Headlining the first day are the legendary Incredible String Band who, as convenience would have it, have just been finely anthologised by Rhino Records as part of their Introducing series for an album. A perfect snapshot for newcomers and a useful best of for fans, embracing as it does such famed gems as October Song, The First Girl I Loved, Way Back In The 1960s, Mercy I Cry City and their cider quaffing, hay threshing version of Black Jack Davey, many of which will doubtless put in a welcome appearance tonight.

Sunday:

Carrying on the ISB mood, the second day sees founder members Mike Heron and Robin Williamson returning for individual solo slots in an even more plentiful line up that includes local bluegrass wizards Toy Hearts, the old England pastoral shadings of Biltone, veteran trad folk legend John Renbourn, local post folk singer songwriter hero Ben Calvert with his hints of Syd Barrett, the ever excellent guitar genius Nick Harper, acid-medievalists Circulus, and local mazurka and gypsy folk merchants The Destroyers.

Circulus

Bringing the weekend to a suitably lively finale will be Hayseed Dixie with their bluegrassed reinterpreations of hard rock and metal nuggets by the likes of Motorhead, AC/DC, Led Zep, Sabbath and, just for a twist, Franz Ferdinand.

Hayseed Dixie

The Fest’s an ambitious enterprise and it really deserves all the trumpeting it can get, so spread the word, turn up, enjoy, talk about it and ensure it’s a success and will return next year even bigger and better.

11am-10pm. Day £25.50, Weekend £38.50. Moseley Park, Salisbury Rd
 

Sunday September 3

Breaks Co-Op

A collaboration between Radio One DJ, Zane Lowe, Hamish Clark and singer Andy Lovegrove, their The Sound Inside album’s a throwback to the vibes of the summer of love with its blissed out grooves, new agey ambience and dreamy CSN&Y harmonic vocals. Infleunced by Sebadoh and Marvin Gaye alike and melded to hip hop beats, it’s a shuffling, scuffling set of lo fi folk acoustic lopes with an easy going groove that shines through the gospel falsetto of The Otherside, slow pulsing ballad Last Night’s wash of REM flavours, Too Easily’s early hours homage to jazz man Chet Baker, the ‘67 psychedelic clouds of Too Easily with its hippie Indian colourings. Designed to get you closing your eyes and drifting away into their soulfolk ether, you way find yourself getting home on a cloud.

 6pm. £7. Carling Academy 2

Sunday September 3

Rocco Deluca & the Burden

The son of Bo Diddley's touring guitarist, DeLuca spent most of his youth touring with dad, and jamming with the band. Hardly surprising he’s into the blues. Having cut his teeth playing support slots to the likes of Taj Mahal and John Lee Hooker, he then met up with Kiefer Sutherland who was sufficiently impressed to sign him to his brand new label and occasionally even serve as roadie.

I doubt he’ll be humping the amps for tonight’s gig, but you do get the chance to hear DeLuca and his band do their stuff from I Trust You To Kill Me (Polydor), a debut album that shows the man to be a pretty nifty guitarist, a warm voiced vocalist and to have influences that extent into the rootsier side of the blues, the poppy single Colourful calling to mind Led Zep with a slide guitar while the country flavoured Mystified hints at Dylan and, with things like Bus Ride, Gift and Dope would certainly find favour among John Mayer fans.

Those looking to hear some blistering bottlenecking licks rocking out won’t go wrong with Swing Low, How Fast (more shades of Plant here) and the scorching thumper Gravitate either, suggesting that this is just the start of bigger things to come.

8pm. £8. Glee Club

Wednesday September 6

Aberfeldy

They hail from, well, Aberfeldy actually (it’s in Scotland, ok) and they play guitar, fiddle and banjo (oh, and glockenspiel), making tinkling, harmony layered girl/boy 60s cum 80s folksy pop with a breeze in its step and a smile on the face. The roll into town in the service of new album Do Whatever Turns You On (Rough Trade), a rather lovely summery shimmering affair that’s bound to increase the comparisons to Belle & Sebastian, Sufjan Stevens and The Magic Numbers alike.

Opening with the lazy meadow ambience of a rippling If-Then, they slip liquidly into the toe-tapping sunshine pop of hypnotised and the languid swaying heat haze of There You Go, a song that makes you want to throw of your shoes and skip across cornfields, before hitting Uptight, a track that calls to mind thoughts of early Prefab Sprout fronted by Barry Gibb.

And so it goes, sometimes (as with Poetry that begins on tinkly keyboards only to slip into grumpy guitars) baring a few teeth behind the musical smile, sometimes putting on their new wavey retro hat (1970s), occasionally sounding a little baroque (Never Give Up) or pinching the intro to Don’t Stand So Close To Me (Need You To Know) and, on Whatever Turns You On coming over all Jellyfish like psychedelics.

They’ll need to be a little edgier live if they’re not to fade away into fey whimsiness, but there’s plenty of here to make them a nice place to visit even if you might not want to buy a holiday home.

7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy

Friday September 8

Mundy

Dublin's Edmund Enright was once saddled with one of those lead weight new Dylan tags when he was signed to Epic for his Jellylegs debut some years back. Dumped when sales didn't hit the stratosphere overnight, he's since been plying the DIY route.

With songs like Mexico, Rescue Remedy, July and The Last Time, sophomore album 24 Star Hotel was an impressive follow-up, keeping his profile alight over here. But then Raining Down Arrows made a staggering lack of impression outside of Ireland, few aware it had even had a UK release. It was also, frankly, rather unmemorable, Mundy’s increasingly colourless voice showing a diminished power. Unfortunately, that’s much the same story with Live & Confusion (Camcor), a live set (with added DVD) that almost never rises to the promise offered by his Strummer/Elvis pose on the front cover.

Not that there’s aren’t flashes of the old spirit, Rescue Remedy hitting a Springsteen stride and Gin & Tonic Sky explaining those early Dylan comparisons while, joined by Sharon Shannon the closing Galway Girl kicks up a mean pair of Irish punky folk heels. But the newer material lacks any real shape; 10,000 Miles all bluster and guitar solo rather than real passion, Raining Down Arrows a dreary end of relationship trudge and Love & Confusion sounding like someone asked if he could knock off a Clash meets Steve Earle number in under five minutes.

To be fair, it sounds a lot better when you see it on the DVD (Mundy sporting the cowboy hat) and Too High kicks along at a rousing alt-country lick, the stage atmospherics and the band injecting an electricity missing from just the aural experience. However, since this is going to be a one-man show it remains to be seen what sort of life he can invest with just a guitar.

A declared favourite of both Bob Harris and Lucinda Williams, singer-songwriter and a mean slide guitarist to boot, support act Anne McCue is Americana by way of Sydney, Australia and a musical upbringing that embraced such diversity as Erik Satie and Nick Cave. A stint on the Lilith Fair tours saw her relocate to LA, notching up tour supports with such luminaries as Williams, Richard Thompson and Dave Alvin.

Following her pop flavoured debut Amazing Ordinary Things and a live album recorded on the Williams tour, she stepped up a level with Roll, a cocktail of Delta inclined country/folk blues n rock embracing influences that ran the gamut from The Byrds (Stupid) and Lucinda (Crazy Beautiful Child) to Zeppelin/Robert Johnson (Hangman), Patti Smith (the venomous Ghandi) and Hendrix whose Machine Gun she covers in a nine minute one take burst of blistering, vitriolic guitar.

She’s back again now with Koala Motel (Cooking Vinyl), an album which, featuring appearances from Williams and Nancy Wilson, is informed by both her love of early 70s music (As The Crow Flies could have come from a Crazy Horse session) and the collapsing state of the modern world.

Opening with the swampy strutting raunch of Driving Down Alvarado ("take me down to the place where the monsters graze" she sings as guitars wail behind her), she switches musical moods for From Bakersfield To Saigon, a horny country journey that welds sex and an implied vein of politics while Any Minute Now feeds on the apocalyptic paranoia and anxiety that curdle in the blood of All Along The Watchtower and Gimme Shelter and press them into a Motown groove.

Expanding her sound to flesh out the guitars with keyboards and accordion, she crafty a full and brooding musical landscape across which roam such disturbing numbers as Jesus’s Blood with its bitter attack on a curdled Catholicism and cases of paedophilia rumbling through an almost madrigal setting.

It’s not all so heavy or musically intense. The gently acoustic, tenderly passionate love song Coming To You, a pure voiced backwoods hymnal Shivers ("take me back to the source of this flame"), the bluegrass slow rolling Bright Light of Day (coming home after a night with her lover), the gloriously poppy Lay Me Down and even the Lucinda and Beatles flavoured bittersweet Sweet Burden of Youth all glimmer with the light of hope.

Closing up with the twangy guitar instrumental title track and its images of neon washed night streets and stories of love and hurt, loss and salvation behind stained windows, it marks a major leap forward for an artist rapidly earning a reputation as one of the finest new voices of the present century.

8pm. £8.50. Glee Club

Monday September 11

The View

Christened after a local pub that banned them for riding a scooter along the bar, this new outfit come bouncing out of the Dundee estates with lashings of romping punky power pop and a taste of The Libertines and Towers of London, all scruffily wrapped up in debut single Wasted Little DJs (1965) with its circling guitars, stomping drums, belting chorus and a middle eight rest break that catches you totally unawares. File under see now before they become ridiculously huge.

7.30pm. £6. Little Civic

Tuesday September 12

British Sea Power

Having lost original keyboardist Eamon to his other band, The Brakes, the Kendal outfit set out for a series of low key gigs designed to try out material for the next album. They’ll also be giving another push to the last year’s Open Season with its cocktail of Joy Division, The Smiths, Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen and Bowie where leafy folk influences hold hands with rushes of classic pop on the likes of How Will I Ever Find My Way Home? As True Adventures revealed, they’re big on anthemic epics too, delivering an emotional power the equivalent of scaling the summit of Everest. And let’s not forget their transforming ethereal cover of the old Wurzels classic I Am A Cider Drinker which, if you shout hard enough, they might be persuaded to throw in for an encore.

7.30pm. £10. Barfly

Tuesday September 12

Nizlopi

Having let the fuss die down after last year’s ‘novelty’ number one, JCB, the Leamington duo finally return with mini album ExtraOrdinary (FDM), their first new material in three years. Like debut album Half These Songs Are About You, it’s a folk-pop-hip hop-soul hybrid that straddles the ground between Ezio, Van Morrison (that’ll be Helen, then) and The Streets, albeit with a slightly rootsier, more acoustic feel and a general theme about youth and contemporary life and (with Glastonbury and Disarm with its Chris Martin reference), the pressures of being in the music biz.

It’s a more rounded affair than its predecessor, Concannon’s vocals having seasoned nicely (though his Mike Skinner raps still don’t convince) and taken on new warmth while this time songs tend to show a little more individuality. It’s unlikely that anything here is going to be troubling the singles charts (though the calypso tinted rap title track might yet surprise) but where the debut album wore out its welcome after sustained plays, this one tends to grow, especially the rather lovely bittersweet Yesterday. That said, the endurance testing six minute Homage To Young Man with its corny spoken philosophical interludes about the stages of life delivered in some cod Scottish accent is what they invented the skip button for. Not, one suspects, likely to crop up in the live set.

7.30pm. £10. Wulfrun Hall

Saturday September 16

Purple Melon

A new trio fronted by high voiced singer-guitarist-writer Tony Hill, son of Buck’s Fizz songwriter Andy Hill, this marks the start of a twice weekly residency. That’s just part of a year long hype for an unsigned band that’s being co-managed by Paul McCartney’s former press officer and having the sort of money and promotion (including a future tv documentary made by a Birmingham crew and company, presented by Phil Collins’s daughter) thrown at them you’d more normally expect from some label’s priority signing.

Which, if hype, was all they had going for them would be rather a waste of time and £1million However, they have music to back it up. A young bunch, their heads are very much rooted in 70s rock, drawing on such influences as Bad Company, Queen, Zep, Free, ELO and, well, McCartney with all the stadium rock swagger that comes with them. With an album, Henry’s Rocket, in the works, produced by Brian Tench who’s worked with Madness and the Bee Gees (fairly evident from the scratchy funky guitar work on Record Player), they’re already starting to create a buzz. Once the curious turn up and the word starts to spread about such numbers as the Queen style crunchy slow rocking Lose Control, bluesy staccato strutter Spider Monkey, the choppy riffing Play Away and their big Mercury rising piano ballad Some Might Say (Don’t Give Up), it can only catch fire.

 8pm. £3. Barfly (Also  Wed Sept 20, Sat Sept 23, Sat Sept 30)

Tuesday September 19/Wednesday September 20

McFly

Fresh from their endearingly clumsy film debut in Lindsay Lohan clunker Just My Luck and the mutilation of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now in aid of charity, the only survivors from the manufactured boy band explosion hit the road in what seems to be something of a transitional period for them.

The last album, Wonderland, was, it must to be said, a vast improvement on their debut, with the early Beatles influences (and a touch of the young Jeff Lynne) all over it and Ultraviolet, the Ray Davies-like The Ballad of Paul K, orchestral ballad She Falls Asleep and the soft shoe shuffle 60s pop of All About You undeniably good songs.

However, word from the band is that material for album number three will be punchier and poppier with the guitars a lot louder. They’ll likely be previewing half a dozen or so on the tour with Little Joanna and Sorry’s Not Good Enough ones to bend an ear for, though they also threaten to throw in some covers with, rather worryingly, one of them likely to be a rap number.

Given their Queen and James Taylor covers, it might be advisable if they stick to their own material, far better tailored to suit their abilities in the vocals department. Still, hard to deny they’re a likeable bunch and when they stick to what they do bets, they do it rather well.

7.30pm. £21.50. NEC

Wednesday September 20

The Pipettes

Polka dots, a love of the Shangri-Las and 60s Spector girl groups like the Ronettes, a splash of early Supremes and, coming more up to date, Kenickie, Bananarama and, one suspects, Shampoo, that’s the recipe served up by this Brighton girlie trio (and their tank topped male backing outfit The Cassettes) on their summery pop debut, We Are The Pippettes (Memphis Industries).

With tracks rarely clocking in past the two and a half minute mark (and a few barely making it past 90 seconds) and lyrics that give a sly wink to the whole boy-girl thing as they sing about boys you don’t fancy (Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me), boys who muck around with your feelings (Tell Me What You Want) and boys who are all talk when what you want is action (Sex). Then there’s songs about bad girls (Judy) and bad cooking ( I Love You) along with several down the disco, dancing and generally having a fun One Night Stand and telling the bloke to get lost afterwards.

With the album just over half an hour, even with the inclusion of earlier single I Like a Boy in Uniform (School Uniform) and a fair amount of hand jiving interludes and between song banter, this seems likely to be a pretty short set. But, most likely, still top value for money.

 7.30pm. £8.50. Carling Academy

Wednesday September 20

Motion City Soundtrack

Charging out of Minneapolis, MCS sit comfortably alongside Green Day, Blink 182 and other such pop punk outfits with slashing guitars, bouncing melodies and rousing choruses. They’re back for another go round with current album Commit This To Memory, packed full of short, sharp and lyrically biting nuggets of guitar pop laced with a dash of emo.

Clattering summery anthem chug Everything Is All Right and the fierce hard pop assaults Make Out Kids and Time Turned Fragile ride the teenage misfits wave, while the acoustic strummed Together We’ll Ring In The New Year shows off their ballad sways and Resolution and Hold Me Down pull everyone together for clenched stadium power fists.

Support comes from Chicago power poppers Ok Go with what’s likely to be the last outing on the back of hooks riddled sophomore album Oh No before they head back into the studio to start wondering how they’ll come up with something to top the likes of slamming pop punk Crash The Party, the Franz Ferdinand meets the Stones A Good Idea At The Time or the EMF recycling Invincible.

7.30pm. £10. Wulfrun Hall

Thursday September 21

Breed 77

Until now the Gibraltarian rock outfit have maintained a solid but relatively small following, but the release of In My Blood (Albert) should now see them making a substantial crossover into the mainstream with their fusion of metal and flamenco.

The guys lay out their stall from the off with Petroleo (You Will Be King), as an acoustic Spanish guitar and handclaps intro gives way to throaty metal power chord riffs and instant hook chorus. Imagine System of a Down fused with Gypsy Kings or perhaps an Andalucian Metallica and you’re in the right territory with material like Empty Words, the Latin percussion of Remember That Day, new single Blind, The Game and, the longest and heaviest cut, Libertad.

Look At Me Now and So You Know take a ballad breather midway, allowing the band to show off the tremulous vocals and intricate guitar work in a quieter, moodier setting while recent single Alive shows their ability to throw out Bon Jovi stadium shapes while wrapping them in Moorish rhythms and the closing anti-war Tears pulls everything into the pot with broody acoustic guitars, hypnotic slow juggernaut rock and a kiddie choir and chorus that will immediately evoke thoughts of Another Brick In The Wall. If the live show reflects the new accessibility, this should prove dynamite and probably the last time you’ll find them setting up in anything less than stadium venues.

7.30pm. £8. Carling Academy 2

Friday September 22

All American Rejects

With Dirty Little Secret figuring on the soundtracks of Deuce Bigalow:European Gigolo, She’s The Man and, currently, John Tucker Must Die, the band are enjoying their highest profile since debut single hit Swing Swing and yet current album Move Along still hasn’t managed to figure in the UK Top 40.

Hard to fathom why really since it’s bursting at the seams with the sort of hooks laden chewy teen-angst pop that you might find on a Jimmy Eat World album, but with extra finesse from added power ballad strings and keyboards such as It Ends Tonight and Straightjacket Feeling or little touches like the bubbling intro riff of Change Your Mind. Come on, give them a break.

7.30pm. £14.Carling Academy

Friday September 22

The Walkmen

Listening to Lousiana, the opening track of the New York quintet’s new album, A Hundred Miles Off (Warners), you might assume them to be some sort of Texicali country outfit with a singer sounding like Dylan and a fondness for mariachi brass.

Then come track two, Danny’s At The Wedding, and you might be thinking in terms of the psychedelic paisley underground era, with a singer who still sounds like Dylan. By track three, Good For You’s Good For Me, and you’ll have decided that, basically, they want to be mid 60s Bob Dylan.

There are worse ambitions, though the excursions into shouty punk thrash on Tenleytown and the frankly unlistenable Always After You are unlikely to win many Zimmerman karaoke contests. However, when they hit form, as with citrus friendly Emma, Get Me A Lemon or the heady baby blue cocktail of Brandy Alexander, you’ll happily be revisiting Highway 61 with them.

Support’s provided by Texan sextet Sound Team arriving here with their major label debut Movie Monster (Parlophone), a mash up of Talking Heads, Arcade Fire, U2 (well, the Edge anyway) and the Beatles with musical styles that wander through psychedelia, krautrock, synth pop and techno, with a dash of troubadour folk just in case they’ve left anyone out.

While they may lack a solid identity, they do at least have some catchy killer songs in the shape of piano pop and feedback No More Birthdays, the catchy fuzz rocking Get Out, power pop psychedelia Back in Town, the Kraftwerkian disco grooved TV Torso and anthemic closer Handful of Billions. One’s to watch.

7.30pm. £14. Carling Academy

Friday September 22

Latonic

Drawing on influences that range from Queen and The Who to the Manics and, er, Def Leppard, the Scottish poppy punk quintet limber up for the forthcoming album with new single Turn On The Sky (Horus Music). Ringing riffing guitars, a steady driving bass line and throaty vocals with a touch of space rock thrumming away in the background that suggests they may well have heard the odd Hawkwind album, it does the business but, like the accompanying stop/start, quiet/loud Don’t Say, doesn’t hang around the head once it’s finished. The Union of Knives extended remix of Sky fares better and throws in some interesting shapes, but without them along to twiddle knobs backstage this seems like being just more run of the mill indie pop live stodge.

7.30pm. £3. Barfly.

Sunday September 24

Thea Gilmore

By rights her last album, Avalanche, should have finally catapulted Gilmore to the sort of success currently enjoyed by K.T. Tunstall. And yet, five albums in, she remains critically acclaimed but commercially overlooked, a situation which seems sadly unlikely to change with Harpo's Ghost (Sanctuary), her most assured release yet.

A tougher sounding album than its predecessors, it takes its title from the professionally mute Marx brother who provides a metaphor for Gilmore's decision to be more personally upfront and direct. Case in point Contessa, a tumblingly melodic folk-rock with the titular character the devil on the shoulder of "a scared little kid with a head full of hormones and holes".

Quite how much autobiographical content informs barbed relationship themed numbers like the moodily haunting The Gambler, the country-soulful Call Me Your Darling or the confessional Janis Ian like pulsing Going Down is open to speculation, but she insists that Cheap Trick's nervy rock tale of a wild child's bad sexual encounter is pure storytelling.

Elsewhere the bluesily rhythms of Everybody's Numb sees her delivering a customary rant at the music biz while We Built A Monster, one of two co-writes with Mike Scott, is a scathing attack on corporate imperialism.

However, the finest moments come with the gentlest songs; the folksily melancholic Red White And Black's lament for misplaced patriotism and the spare, cello backed, mournful and world weary Slow Journey No 2 that shows just how much Gilmore's voice has matured over the years, sounding here not unlike Joan Baez.

Perhaps it's time she looked to America where assured success would perhaps finally then be reflected with long overdue breakout awareness back home. Meanwhile, loyal fans and new ears in search of enriching their musical taste should make a point of catching the gig, with Gilmore due to give birth she may provide an unexpected encore.

7pm. £15. Glee Club

 Monday September 25

Will Young

With fellow Pop Idols cohort Gareth Gates having now completely slipped off the radar, Young’s the only reality pop show winner to have not only sustained a career beyond the debut album but to have built upon and consolidated his success. However, two Brits and two No 1 albums still failed to convince that he was more than anodyne blue eyed soul for the Radio 2 housewife. However, following a, let’s be honest, less than challenging film debut in Mrs Henderson Presents, he’s now out on the road with his something of an eye-opener third album Keep On proving he really does have balls after all.

The title track’s a genuinely funky slice of dance pop soul with more than a nod to George Michael Jackson with the assertive Switch It On proving an equally persuasive floor filler with a Robbie Williams vibe over a glam pop boogie beat. Ballads raise their head with the crooner Save Yourself and classic in the making All Time Love while Ain’t Such A Bad Place To Be takes a tango in the space between Elton and George. The Latin groove’s there again, sashaying and swinging through Happiness, and nuzzling up to a bossa nova with Madness.

And if funky guitars and dance grooves are all over the place, the highly personal Home throws an unexpected curve with a sheen of Irish folk mist inflections and a collaboration with jazzman Nitin Sawhney.

By his own admission, the album’s both a toughening up and a statement of who he’s finally found himself to be. And while chances are he’ll not be able to get away from performing those early hits for a while yet, this new material is ample confirmation that he’s going to be around for a long time after people are asking ‘Shane who?’

Joining the tour bus will be Shelley Poole, formerly half of Atomic Kitten and now doing the solo thing with debut album Hard Time For A Dreamer (Transistor). It’s all very chilled and airbrush textured girlie pop with Poole’s voice all bubbles and cream as she slides through songs about love and heartbreak.

Sweetly delicate ballads like If You Will Be Pilot and Don’t Look That Way share space with the more uptempo likes of the catchy Hard Times For Dreamers and a soul grooved Lose Yourself, while the best numbers, Anyday Now and Hope, are those that see her duetting with soon to be a sensation Jack Savoretti.

It’s a pleasant, if somewhat insubstantial affair but it’s hard to see many of the old Kitten lovers following her down this new path.

The real star of the night is likely to prove to be Anna Krantz. London based but with a musical heart that beats to the pulse of New York with blood from the veins of the legendary Brill Building, she’s a 22 year old graduate of the Chicken Shed Theatre Company, plays a mean piano and arrives with a debut album, Precious Time With You (Glad) that will inevitably produce lazy Norah Jones comparisons.

It is, however, far more in tune with the likes of Rickie Lee Jones, Carole King, Chi Coltrane and Joni Mitchell. There are times too when you’ll hear definite traces of the young Streisand (Precious Time With You) and Aretha Franklin (Bruises), comparisons not made lightly but which she bears with accomplished ease.

Musically she opens up with the old school r&b swing flavours of Sweet Devotion, but if blue eyed soul pop informs much of what follows the infectiously catchy Pick Me Up harks back to 50s jazzy swing (especially with that Robbie Macintosh guitar break), Dancing Man recalls the vintage grown up piano pop of Billy Joel while both We Still Love You and the closing Necklace testify to a love of classic emotion squeezing show tunes.

Capable of belting it out and dropping back to a fragile whisper, she’s got one hell of a voice while such superbly crafted songs of love, loss and marital collapse as Every Little Detail, the infectious How You Gonna Love Me and, arguably the album’s finest moment, slow waltzing piano ballad Free Woman more than justify those King and James Taylor comparisons.

She should take good note of the NEC, if justice and listening taste prevail she’ll be back headlining the place herself before too long.

7.30pm. £30. NEC

Monday September 25

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

Having released no less than three albums last year, Adams seems to have given the studio a breather so there’s no new material in the offing to tie in with this flurry of dates. No problem, armed with his now regular backing outfit there’s plenty to catch up on from 2005’s glut. Cold Roses marked a return to his downtempo and reflective Whiskeytown country rock roots with the twangy When Will You Come Back Home and Rosebud nodding to the seminal days of the Grateful Dead.

Then came the more trad country Jacksonville City Nights with its barroom tales of broken dreams, lost hearts, empty bottles and burned bridges, evoking comparisons with George Jones on the old school honky tonking waltz My Heart Is Broken, Roy Orbison with A Kiss Before I Go and Gram Parsons for Withering Heights.

He rounded out the year with 20, a spare bluesy affair often reminiscent of Canned Heat with stories of regret, confession, redemption and personal resurrection veining the likes of Twenty Nine, Strawberry Wine and Elizabeth You Were Born To Play That Part. Recorded without the band, it’ll be interesting to see what extra muscle and fibre they bring to any live versions.

Of course, contrary maverick that he is, he may just equally decide to ignore all these completely, delving back into earlier albums or using the set to road test a clutch of as yet unrecorded tracks. Whatever, you know it’s going to be roof-raising.

 7.30pm. £21.50. Carling Academy

Monday September 25

The English Victorian Gentlemen’s Club

Comprising guitarist Adam, drummer Emma and bassist Louise, it must be said their name is probably one of the few original things about this trio who, variously hailing from Birmingham Shrewsbury and North Yorkshire and coming together at art school, are nothing if not slaves to their influences.

Forget talk of the Pixies, listen to their eponymous debut album (Fantastic Plastic) with the throaty bass lines, paranoid guitars and throaty funked rhythms of something like Stupid As Wood and it’s hard not to find yourself mentally ticking off names like the B52, Tom Tom Club, Talking Heads, Gang of Four or Devo. Amateur Man even conjures echoes of Zappa while the marvellous Under The Yews leans towards Soft Boys territory.

With songs inspired by dyslexia (My Son Spells Backwards), an 18th century ban on gin (er, Ban The Gin), and what happens to dead babies (Under the Yews), they clearly favour a skewed lyrical bent to go with their angular musical shapes. Adam’s yelping gets a bit wearisome at times, but if you’re young and uniformed enough not to be distracted by the plundering of music past then there’s much here to twist your spine to.

 7.30pm. £6. Bar Academy

Tuesday September 26

The Storys

Featuring former Jesus Christ Superstar vocalist Steve Balsamo, the South Wales sextet have earned the Elton John stamp of approval. Now they need to convince everyone else. With a self-titled debut album that leans towards the rootsy pop flavours of Southern California and such influences as The Eagles, CS&N, the Byrds and Fleetwood Mac, it shouldn’t prove too much of a struggle. Especially not in the light of such radio friendly pop as stadium swayer I Believe In Love, country stroller Be By Your Side, and Westlife wannabe Is It True What They Say About Us.

They’re joined by Brian Houston, an East Belfast singer-songwriter who moves comfortably between the worlds of folk and country, embracing comparisons to Springsteen, Van Morrison, Steve Earle and Dylan. He’s touring his self-released current album Sugar Queen with songs of loss and the determination to rise above informed by the death of his mother and his wife's diagnosis with cancer.

End of the Beginning is a surprisingly upbeat number given the circumstances, taking comfort from the belief they'll meet again, a faith that also finds _expression in the waltzing Someday when they'll walk "in the tall grass up above".

This may sound all very God bothering, but Houston’s songs are more about personal strength, potently expressed in Red Badge Of Courage, an Earle styled number that pays tribute to his wife's defiance of her illness.

It's a thoughtful album, full of such observations. Childish Things conjures thoughts of Morrison in its tale of a 60s Belfast childhood and growing up while Van even gets a direct nod in These Days as he talks about buying a rare vinyl copy of St Dominic's Preview. But if not all the songs are so directly autobiographical in their musings on life, love and loss, the emotional connection is just as powerful on The Ballad of Matthew Shepard as Houston recalls the young Wyoming man murdered for being gay. He really warrants getting there early, deserving as much an audience as the musical influences that inspired him.

7.30pm. £7.50. Glee Club

Wednesday September 27

Jurassic 5

The LA hip hop six piece hit the tour track in support of current album Feedback (Interscope), a diverse vocal showcase for the four emcees, Chali 2Na, Akil, Marc 7 and Zaakir, that’s also their most accessible work to date, even to the extent of having stadium FM rockers Dave Matthews and band supplying the chorus for single Work It Out and featuring a distinctive Jurassic 5 version of Boney M’s Brown Girl In The Ring.

Slinky r&b grooves mellow out through the likes of Gotta Understand, the chorus of which harks back to a Sly & The Family Stone vibe, and the party down with a political conscience In The House, while a likely live highlight promises to be turntablist Nu-Mark’s work out on the instrumental Canto De Ossanha.

7.30pm. £17.50. Carling Academy

Thursday September 28

The Stranglers

Looks like the chaps are going to have a problem putting the set list together for this one. Should they be favouring the old classic hits like No More Heroes, Peaches, Always The Sun and the ever brilliant Skin Deep in order to promote the new Very Best Of (Sony) collection, or should they focus attention on the all new Suite XVI (Liberty) album?

Since the former will doubtless sell itself, they might be better off boosting up the new material, though it has to be said that listening to the Dave Greenfield’s keyboards and Burnel’s bass throbbing through the likes of The Spectre of Love, Summat Outanowt, or the waltzing ballad Bless You, you could be back in the heady days of the late 70s when they were already some of the oldest New Wavers on the block. Indeed, She’s Slipping Away even sounds like it’s borrowed the No More Heroes riff.

Current frontman Baz Warne pulls off the job well enough, but he’s no Hugh Cornwell so it might be advisable to steer clear of subtler moments like the brilliant Golden Brown, and concentrate on the band’s growlier side. That being so, this should keep the faithful happy enough.

7.30pm. £18.50. Carling Academy

Thursday September 28

Foy Vance

The Belfast newcomer’s been quietly making a name for himself out on the road supporting names as diverse as KT Tunstall, Joss Stone and Taj Mahal. Now though it’s time to step centre stage and let his marvellous cracked throaty voice take the spotlight with the release of current EP Watermelon Oranges (Wordamouth).

Drawing on roots influences absorbed from a time the family lived in Oklahoma, it glows with the warmth of gospel, r&B and country, the lovely strummed lazily dappled Homebird evocative of James Taylor and Eric Bibb while a country tinged Stoke My Fire conjures hints of Loudon Wainwright and Don’t Please Yourself comes straight from the Billy Joel school. But while you might also hear strains of Marc Cohn, Vance is no carbon of anyone, the yearning soulfulness of Home and a slow piano gospel bluesy Sometimes further evidence of a songwriting talent to match the voice. You’ll be hearing much more of him.

He shares the bill with Lior, a Sydney based singer-songwriter of Middle-Eatsern heritage who’s apparently big in Australia where his 2005 debut Autumn Flow (Red Ink) was nominated for Album of the Year.

Well, that’s Australians for you. It’s pleasant enough soul roots stuff and, as tracks like Daniel, Bedouin Song and Grey Ocean show, he’s got a warmly liquid voice. But it’s going to take a lot more than some Paul Simon knock-offs (Autumn Flow could have come from Rhythm of the Saints), half-hearted rock intensity (Stuck in A War) or watered down Seal (Superficial) to persuade more cynical Brits.

8pm. £7. Glee Club

Saturday September 30

The Black Keys

Formed by Akon college drop outs Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, the duo sit comfortably along the stripped down bluesy garage rock roots of White Stripes, though new album Magic Potion (V2) also comes veined with shades of The Band, Lennon (notably You’re The One), Led Zep, and the swampy John Lee Hooker.

There’s no frills here, the recordings are rough and raw, the mixes often echoey with the vocals rising up from some pit, but you can’t get away from the sinew and muscle of their sound and the desire to crank it up to maximum volume and let your head nod and your fingers wave across imaginary fretboards to the likes of Just A Little Heat, the strutting Your Touch and the jammed out Goodbye Babylon with its barbed wire guitar buzzing or the stoned slow sway of The Flame.

There’s nothing original on offer here, but what they do should go down well with a cold beer and a hot room.

Support’s courtesy of Vancouver’s Blood Meridian, an Americana combo who trade in acid laced country, blues and alt.rock with, as Your Boyfriend’s Blues on current album Kick Up The Dust (V2) shows, a healthy helping of Dylan.

Named from the Cormac McCarthy novel they serve up alternative rowdy and wearily subdued numbers that tend to brood considerably on themes of death, fatalism and the general downer side of living in the world of work hard and die.

Shifting between the old school mountain country of Most Days and the spooked backwoods folk In The Forest, Under The Moon to the slow drone Good Lover, crippled blues boogie Soldiers of Christ and the loping skewed bluegrass whistling 60s pop Try For You, they’re never going to send you home full of the joys of life, but they’ll certainly be good company over a beer and shared misery

 7.30pm. £12. Carling Academy