Elles Bailey at the Harlington, Fleet

It's rare to find a decent gig taking place near where I live so I was keen to catch Bristol born Americana and blues singer Elles Bailey yesterday afternoon at my local venue, the Harlington in Fleet, Hampshire. She has built quite a reputation in the last few years, having won the Artist of the Year award at the UK Blues Awards in both 2020 and 2021, the UK Song of the Year award at the UK Americana awards for 'Little Piece of Heaven', written with Memphis songwriter Bobby Wood and Dan Auerback of the Black Keys, as well as Album of the Year for her first album 'Road I Call Home' at the UK Blues Awards. She has a new album coming out soon called 'Shining In The Half Light' and a single from that album, 'Cheats and Liars', has received a lot of air play. Elles comes across as a confident singer with a decent voice which at times is reminiscent of Etta James, and her material is interesting, although mostly more Americana than blues. She was impressive on the bluesy 'What's The Matter', and the slower 'Walk Away' was also attractive. She was excellent on a couple of covers - 'I Remember Everything' (John Prine), (with some excellent guitar work), the soulful 'Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You' (Wilson Pickett) and the Highwaymen's 'Crowded Table'. Other stand outs included 'Sunshine City', the upbeat 'Help Somebody', the rock influenced 'Medicine Man' and the Americana of 'Halfway House'. Elles has a good band featuring an excellent guitarist in Joe Wilkins. However the final number of the set with an extended, very loud and monotonous instrumental break, rather spoiled it for me: I could envisage losing my hearing in my remaining good ear by the time it ended. That number excepted, this was an enjoyable show by a singer who is a natural for the AmericanaFest in Nashville, which I went to two years ago, and no doubt has a bright future.

I was also very impressed by the support act Eddy Smith and the 507, who played an acoustic set as a trio which featured Eddy's gruff and powerful voice and some nice harmony from Ricky O'Donnell on guitar and Joshua Davies on tambourine. They are also very much Americana in style with numbers such as 'Lost On You', 'Ticket Out Of Here', The Ballad of Bobby Grey', 'The Middle of Nowhere' and 'The Good Times', amply showing off Eddy's husky vocals. They also look set for big things.

Russ Sainty RIP

Very sorry to hear of the death, at the age of 85, of Russ Sainty, who was one of the artists to star in Tales From The Woods Shows over the years. Russ was very much a nearly man, who had at least ten singles released on labels such as Top Rank, Decca, HMV and Columbia but never had a major hit. Despite that, he had a long career as a performer and was named as one of Britain's Rock and Roll Founding Fathers, along with Cliff Richard, Wee Willie Harris and others when a plaque was unveiled at London's 2I's coffee bar. Russ was known as the 'King of the 'Cali'', the title of his 2008 autobiography (packed with great photos), as a result of a six year residency at the California Ballroom in Dunstable. With his band the Nu-Notes Russ's record releases deserved more success. One of them, 'Keep Your Love Locked', was written by Goffin and King with a B side, 'I've Got A Girl' (written by Russ) which he believed should have been the A side. When I saw Russ at a British Rock and Roll Reunion in 2013 at the Lakeside in Frimley Green he said that he was first booked at the venue by club owner Bob Potter in 1961 and was promised a return date - and true to his word he was back there 52 years later! Russ was one of the stalwarts of the UK rock and roll scene and it's sad that he's passed away. In his book he says that despite having ten 45s released on major labels, including several self compositions, he couldn't recall receiving a penny for any of his records, and didn't get more than about £50 in total for the songs he wrote. Such was the early rock and roll period sadly. The top photo shows Russ at the 2009 TFTW show, backed by a youthful John Spencely on guitar and Brian Clark on drums.

Another recent death is that of Graeme Edge, founding member and drummer of the Moody Blues. When the Moody Blues took a break in 1974 he formed the Graeme Edge Band with Adrian Gurwitz which had two albums and several singles released. When the Moody Blues reformed in 1978 Graeme was again a member and was the only original member with the band when he retired in 2018.

Recent music deaths

There have been quite a few music deaths recently - not big names perhaps, but still a loss to those like me who value soul and blues. Carnell Butler appeared only a few weeks ago at the Detroit A Go Go weekend in Cleethorpes as lead singer of Detroit group the Dynamics. I saw them two years ago at the similarly named festival in his home city (pictured above) and enjoyed the group's performance. The Dynamics first attracted attention in 1963 with 'Misery', a song which was copied by the early Who incarnation the High Numbers and renamed 'Zoot Suit'. When I saw them the Dynamics sang a couple of numbers from their early seventies LP 'Final Landing' and Carnell was excellent as lead vocalist. But a check of the album reveals that he didn't play any part in the original recording and wasn't a member when 'Misery' was recorded either. Another example of groups reinventing themselves I guess.

Another death is that of blues singer Willie Cobb (or Cobbs), aged 89, who recorded in Chicago with the likes of Little Walter. His 1960 recording 'You Don't Love Me', recorded for Mojo in Memphis, was a minor hit but went on to be covered by various artists including John Mayall, Junior Wells, Ike and Tina Turner, Albert King and Sonny and Cher. A reggae version by Dawn Penn recorded in 1967 went on to become a major hit in the nineties. Willie later recorded for various labels including 'Worst Feeling (I Ever Had)' for his own Riceland label.

Birmingham band UB40 played a big role in bringing some of the great rocksteady and early reggae songs of a decade earlier to a wider audience and Astro (Terence Wilson), who was one of the main vocalists in the band, was central to that. He has died at the young age of 64, just a few weeks after the death of another member of the band, sax player Brian Travers. UB40's many hits included attractive reworkings of 'Red Red Wine', 'Please Don't Make Me Cry'. 'Many Rivers To Cross', 'Cherry Oh Baby', 'I Got You Babe' and 'Breakfast In Bed (with Chrissie Hynde) and 'Can't Help Falling In Love'. Successful albums included 'Signing Off', 'Present Arms', 'Labour of Love' and 'Rat In the Kitchen'.

Another early reggae artist of note who has died is Jamaican ska and reggae singer Ernest Wilson who was a founder member of the Clarendonians who had a number of successes in the mid sixties with records produced by Coxsone Dodd. Ernest went solo enjoying hits with 'Money Worries', 'Storybook Children' and 'Private Number' and duets with Freddy McGregor on 'Let Them Talk' and 'What You Gonna Do About It'. There are a couple of other deaths which shouldn't be overlooked. Bob Fisher was well known to many blues and soul fans in the UK for his work with Motown in the seventies and later Fantasy, Charly and Sequel, which he founded, as well as his love for the Four Seasons. He will be much missed as will several other others associated with the UK music scene including Nick Sands, a record executive with CBS in the seventies and possessor of an excellent collection of records and posters, who died a few months ago. Also R and B historian Peter Grendysa, who wrote sleeve notes for many releases by Bear Family, Atlantic, Rhino and Columbia among others. The Vinyl Word wishes RIP to them all.