Summertime in the Piano Barn

We’re back from Cornwall, where we played for our pals Caught by the River at the Port Eliot festival. A weekend of good music and food, sitting on straw bales in the sun and swimming in the river estuary.

We had a few days of playing at the Song, by Toad warehouse in Leith before the show (officially titled ‘The Happiness Hotel’ (it’s a Muppets thing), but we like the toddler named ‘Piano Barn’) amongst pipe organs and harpsichords.

The ‘Swell to Great’ live set is nice and tight, and ideas and sounds for the next record are starting to take shape. We’ll be launching the LP in the Piano Barn (ok, Happiness Hotel) on 10 Sept (tickets here), and will have a Glasgow show shortly after. We’ll then be off around the UK in early 2017, but more on that later.

We were very chuffed indeed to get a big old **** review in the September edition of MOJO Magazine. They said “There is a calmness in its melancholy, a beauty in its blues. These are songs that see the mystical beyond the material, abstracted folk ballads awash in memory”, which we’ll happily go with…

And last of all, we’ve a new single ‘Father is a Craftsman‘, which is getting a decent airing on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland. Swell to Great LP and CD pre-orders are pottering on (the vinyl test pressings sounded great), and you can get hold of one here.

We’ve recorded two new songs this summer for forthcoming Earth Recordings releases, more on those soon. And we’ve got a track ‘The Green Ray’ on the Folklore Tapes ‘Crown of Light’ release, last few copies here.

We’ve got a new mailing list, which you can sign up to here. And plenty of gig news to come, just dotting and crossing the lines on a map of the UK’s best (cheapest) Premier Inns.

Love, Modern Studies xxx