Two of Australia’s premier young singer/songwriters, Crooked Saint and Ashleigh Mannix, are currently touring the east coast, and will include the Armidale Club this Saturday, November 3.
Crooked Saint, who hails from Melbourne, has independently released two EPs and a double a side, all to critical acclaim, triple j, commercial and widespread national community and ABC airplay. He’s completed two Australian tours and two lengthy stints in California, the second of which earlier this year included a residency at LA’s famed The House of Blues, as well as shows at The Hotel Café and The Whisky A-Go-Go. He has supported everyone from The Black Sorrows, Ian Moss, Sarah Mcleod and Tim Freedman, through to Steve Kilby (The Church), Boom Crash Opera and Dragon.
With long-term collab-orator Michael Badger on bass, guitarist Johnny Grant and drummer Troy Ramaekers, the last six months has seen a steady line-up of bass, drums and guitar, settling in around Tim Wheatley’s core of vocals and guitar, and Crooked Saint has slowly morphed from a solo project into a wider musical palette.
The result is that Crooked Saint’s candid delivery, tight arrangements, laconic phrasing and inherent melody remain throughout, but with a denser, more realised overarching musical consistency.
Ashleigh Mannix from Canberra has played with everyone from Ash Grun-wald and Matt McHugh to Michael Franti. She last year travelled to Memphis in the US for The 23rd Annual International Folk Alliance Conference where she was then one of only two Australian Artists (along with Abbe May) invited to attend and perform.
Mannix is currently celebrating the release of her Trill EP, From the City, the first of her three-part EP set compromising: From the City, From the Mountains and From the Sea. With a boundless sound that floats somewhere in the realm of folk, rockabilly and blues fusion, Ashleigh Mannix combines an ideal blend of folk, rock and blues with that hint of pop that gets the blood pumping.
