Releasing this song is Bristol-based Guy Calhoun’s hope that people will care enough to want to listen to and download his new single, “Hobo’s Christmas”. Based on the true story of two friends with very different lives, the message is one of hope and support when one of them falls on hard times.
To find out more about Guy Calhoun click here
Listen to a preview and buy the download here
Hi there. Please bear with us while we migrate our old website into this new ‘smart’ version. We’re replacing all our old ‘flash’ photo galleries and jukeboxes with smartphone-friendly alternatives and generally overhauling the look and feel of the site with the help of Andy at DreamAbstract.
Some of the new content will link back to the old website pages for now but they will gradually be replaced by the new pages.
Here are a few informal photos of Guy Calhoun’s album launch night for “Somewhere You Can Go” at the Bristol Folk House.
Guy Calhoun has now arrived at Digitdoc Records – his LP, Somewhere You Can Go, will be available to purchase from the 1st December.
The album launch will take place at the Bristol Folk House on the evening of Sunday 30th November. Tickets are available from the venue (telephone 0117 926 2987).
It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of one of our musical friends, John Sharp senior, after a short illness. We all send our sincere condolences to his son, Johnny Sharp, his mother and the rest of his family.
One of our fondest memories of John is when he and his son accompanied Shar Baby in a gig on board the Resnova floating restaurant during Dartmouth Music Festival 2010….
Congratulations to Shar Baby on her induction into the Blues Hall of Fame !!!
A message to all you music lovers out there – don’t forget it’s Party on the Hill time in Cotham, Bristol this afternoon in aid of the Bristol Children’s Hospital. Headlining this year is one of Bristol’s favourite live bands, The Bones. Our own Chris D’Avoine is supporting with Dada Shango.
Congratulations to Shar Baby for her recent triumphs at the Indie Music Channel Awards in Hollywood, California. She was nominated in 6 categories…
1) Album of the year – Eleven o’clock Blues
2) Best Female Blues Artist of the Year for the song “Keep Your Mind to Yourself”
3) Best Female Blues Artist of the Year for the song “Slippin”
4) Best Blues Band of the Year…..SharBaby & the Rhythm Blues Band
5) Best Blues Song of the Year…..”Keep Your Mind to Yourself”
6) Best Blues Live Performance of the Year….SharBaby & the Rhythm Blues Band
…and won in 3, very kindly allowed others to win the rest. Her awards were:
4) Best Blues Band of the Year…..SharBaby & the Rhythm Blues Band
5) Best Blues Song of the Year…..”Keep Your Mind to Yourself”
6) Best Blues Live Performance of the Year….SharBaby & the Rhythm Blues Band
Tonight at The King’s Arms, Bristol: The Funkinsteins.
As Venue once wrote:
“Playing a lively amalgamation of sheer funk and rock, the Funkinsteins are able to push their overwhelming charisma in the face of any audience. With their energy fuelled fusion of feel good tunes, it’s an experience they are sure to enjoy.”
So… prepare for a funking great time!
It’s Party on the Hill weekend in Cotham, Bristol in aid of the Bristol Children’s Hospital. Here are a few shots of King of Hearts and Mystery Slang on stage.
Many thanks to Tiphaine and Jolie for arranging a wonderful send-off for Tanja. After a beautiful ceremony at Canford Crematorium, we all celebrated Tanja’s life at one of her favourite pubs, The Duke of York in St. Werburghs. From tasteful burlesque by Tuesday Laveau to heavy prog rock by Gonga and all manner of entertainment in between, Tanja’s friends gave her a party she would have approved of.
It is with deep sadness that we announce the untimely death of our artist and friend, Tanja Rice. After battling with cancer with great fortitude for some months, she was finally overwhelmed Thursday night, comforted by her father Ken and partner Steve.
While we will all miss her, Tanja leaves behind her the legacy of a beautiful 2 year old daughter, her music and many memories of better days.
We send our heartfelt condolences to her family, partner and friends.
For those of you who can make it, Tanja’s funeral is 9 a.m. Friday (29th July) at Canford Crematorium in Bristol. She would prefer people not to wear black if possible. Then at 11 a.m. there is a celebration of her life at the Duke of York, Jubilee Rd, St.Werburghs. I understand there will be a p.a. so bring down an instrument if you would like to play a tune for Tanja.
The album launch for Mystery Slang’s re-issued “Venus Grove” at The King’s Arms, Blackboy Hill, Bristol features a line-up of:
Latif Gardez – vocals and lead guitar
Johnny Orme – rhythm guitar (of Gee Baby I Love You, Don’t Feed the Ambulance)
Jon Loder – bass guitar (ex Gee Baby I Love You, Don’t Feed the Ambulance)
“Chicago” Mike Wiedrich – drums (ex Eddie Martin Band, Gwyn Ashton)
Back in Worpswede and two shows to see this weekend; first, on Friday night, the Adjiri Odametey Band from Ghana entertained the audience with some very laid-back African sounds which went down very well.
Saturday night was Errorhead – a German band who have a sound all of their own. Blues, rock, pop, jazz, funk, easy listening – no pigeon-hole for them. We were fortunate to be able to spend a couple of hours with them after the show in the Green Room, talking about the music industry in general and their hopes and aspirations in particular. Chris and Zacky, being drummers, talked about drumming (we think).
Errorhead is:
Marcus Deml – guitars and vocals;
Frank Itt – bass, loops and vocals;
Zacky Tsoukas – drums (and lightshow!);
Andrew Graeser – lead vocals.
Their extensive and informative website is well worth a visit – particularly for the guitar lovers as Marcus demonstrates a lot of his techniques, and believe me, he has a very unique sound.
Congratulations to Steve for his recent appearance at the Winterfolk IX festival in Toronto Canada.
Here’s something a little unusual for all you lovers of guitars out there – the Bama Jama – as played by Shar-Baby Newport at Little Willie’s, Tuscaloosa, Alabama last month. You’ll notice that the guitar body has been cut to the shape of the state of Alabama…
It’s Party on the Hill time in Cotham, Bristol in aid of the Bristol Children’s Hospital. Now celebrating its 10th year, three of Bristol’s finest bands, (Loose Change, The Harrisons and Gee Baby, I Love You) turn out to entertain the crowds. And speaking of Loose Change, let’s hope people brought pockets full of it for the collecting buckets!
Tonight at The Prom, Bristol: Woolly Bullies / Candy Run in a fund-raising event for cancer treatment. These guys are giving up their Saturday night (and their fee) for the cause – please come along if you can to support them and donate to the fund.
Footnote:
Thought you’d like to know that the fundraising event at the weekend went down a storm – Cazal were a great opening act and then the Steve Payne Band (as we will henceforth call them) played a stunner. With Tom Eveson alternating with Pete Gage on keyboards, ‘Chicago’ Mike Wiedrich taking an occasional turn on the drum stool and James Slater (Appalachia) contributing with some harmonica, over £1000 was raised during the evening. Not bad considering it was Glastonbury weekend too.
Many thanks to all who made the effort to come down to The Prom and show their support for Martin Moss.
Shar-Baby Newport returns to the U.S. today after a successful first tour of the U.K. In the last few weeks she and her husband Jim have met, and I quote, “a whole lotta wonderful people out there” and they have both asked us to thank everybody for making them feel so welcome and for listening to Shar’s music.
Everyone at Digitdoc Records would like to thank Shar for coming over and treating us to some real blues. It has also been our great pleasure and privilege to know Shar and Jim on a personal basis – two of the nicest, most honest people we would ever care to meet.
Many thanks to all the guest musicians who joined Shar on stage, including:
– Dave Thomas and his band at the East Harling Blues Festival
– Johnny Sharp and John Sharp snr. on board the Resnova, Dartmouth
– Keith Warmington at The Lansdown, Bristol
– Johnny Hewitt at The Goin’ Up The Country Blues & Roots Club, Wrexham, Appleton Thorn Village Hall, Appleton, Warrington and Brooks Blues Bar, Putney Heath, London
– Peter Price at Appleton Thorn Village Hall, Appleton, Warrington
– Jim Crawford at The Palladium Club, Bideford
– “Chicago” Mike Wiedrich, Richie Gould and Chris D’Avoine at The Coronation Tap, Bristol
A very special thanks to John Turner who accompanied Shar at The Marina Hotel, Dartmouth, and great respect to Maggie Thomas for asking Shar to come up and play during her set.
A very special thanks also to Tony Stephenson for his recording and subsequent mixing of several numbers from The Lansdown and The Coronation Tap, Bristol.
And last but not least, huge thanks go to our very own Steve Payne for accompanying Shar throughout the majority of the tour.
We are all looking forward to 2011 when we hope Shar will return to the U.K. for another tour. We’ll keep you all posted on that one. In the meantime, here are a few memories of her visit…
Shar-Baby’s UK tour takes in Bristol tonight with Steve Payne and special guest Keith Warmington at The Landsdown, Clifton.
Shar-Baby’s UK tour is under way, starting with a spot at the prestigious East Harling Blues Festival, where Steve Payne will also be making an appearance.
Shar-Baby paid an all-too-brief visit to the UK earlier this month (but she’ll be back in the Spring). Here are a few photos of her performance at the Castor Village Hall, Peterborough for Shake Down Blues on the 12th December.
Many thanks to Jed van Kleef (JVK Photography) for allowing us to use these images.
We just couldn’t keep away from our new-found friends at the Music Hall in Worpswede, Germany. This time we had the added bonus of seeing three legendary musicians – Simon Phillips, Philippe Saisse and Pino Palladino as PSP in the first gig of their European tour (thank you for the great show guys). Here are a few shots of the gig…
Following our recent trip to Worpswede in Northern Germany, we are delighted to add Steve Westaway, an ex-Bristolian, to our artists pages.
We were so impressed by the Music Hall during our visit, we thought we’d publish some of our photos to give you a flavour of what we saw and tell you a bit about the place.
Worpswede is situated some 30kms north-east of Bremen in Lower Saxony, northern Germany; this delightful village is not only a thriving artists colony (about which more later) but also is home to the Music Hall. This is a venue to which people travel from as far afield as Hannover and Hamburg (and, of course, Bristol), to see concerts from bands on the European tour circuit as well as more local talent. It is not unusual to see Digitdoc’s new friend Steve Westaway (now living in Worpswede) supporting the likes of Toto’s Steve Lukather and sharing the stage with Clem Clemson (Colosseum) and Chris Farlowe (Thunderbirds).
The Music Hall is run by a Committee who all give their time and effort on a voluntary basis – their aims are to maintain the hall as a financially viable concern, make visiting artists feel as comfortable as possible during their stay and give the audience a good time.
Worpswede’s fame as an artists colony has its roots in the 1880s when quite by chance a young art student was invited to stay with a family there. As its reputation for a particular clarity of light spread, the artist population grew and soon there were painters, sculptors, writers, poets, architects all settling in the village. There are some 130 artists living in modern day Worpswede, producing a diverse range of artistic creations and making for some very interesting walks around the village.
This year’s Party on the Hill, Cotham, Bristol once again proved to be a great success despite the rather autumnal weather – yes, it was a Bank Holiday weekend! Fortunately the rain held off, apart from a very brief shower, and the sun almost managed to burn through the cloud cover by late afternoon.
Enough of the weather report – here are a few shots of Candy Run on stage. The complete line-up on the day was Bula Bula Big Band, The Man from Funkle, Dirty Tree, Lou Brown, Candy Run and Jive-oholics. We would like to express our thanks to the organisers of this year’s event, particularly Bradd Francis (landord, Highbury Vaults). Many thanks also to Jo Sanders and Richard Smith for allowing us to use some of their photographs in the gallery below.
A cheque for £8,000 was subsequently handed over to the Bristol Children’s Hospital from The Party on the Hill this year – well done!!!
Steve Payne’s Candy Run will be performing in a double bill with The Bones at The Polish Club, St. Paul’s Rd, Clifton, Bristol tonight. Doors open at 8pm.
Steve Payne played at Priddy Folk Festival this afternoon – here is a selection of shots…
A great Music Festival at Dartmouth; the music was good, the weather was good and the beer was good! Here’s a selection of photos for your amusement…
Digitdoc Records is represented by Steve Payne, breaking his current European tour to attend this inaugural event in the town of Coin in Andalucia, Spain. Extract from ‘SUR in English’, the newspaper for southern Spain…
“COIN celebrates 1st Blues Festival
The first Coin Acoustic Blues Festival takes place in the Plaza de la Alameda on Saturday April 11th at 6pm. The festival, which has been organised by the Coin Town Hall Foreign Residents Department, features top blues artists from the USA, Canada and Spain.
Well known on the Costa del Sol, Richard Ray Farrell is travelling from Philadelphia USA; top singer / guitarist Shar Baby is coming from Alabama USA and making her first ever visit to Europe, and UK-born Steve Payne, now mainly based in Toronto, Canada, is taking a break from his tour of Italy and Germany to come and play. Top local bands Spinning Coin, The Hot Gamblers, Blues & Beyond and Moonshine Still are all appearing at the festival making it a truly multi-national event.”
Following our trip to Coin, we are delighted to add Shar Baby from the USA to our artists pages.
Steve Payne and friends will be performing numbers from Candy Run, The Woolly Bullies and SP & F at The Polish Club, St. Paul’s Rd, Clifton, Bristol tonight. Honey on my Grave, featuring Tanja Rice, will be supporting. Doors open at 8pm.