Josh Rouse and Tim Keegan at Pocklington Arts Centre - November 22nd 2004 By Nick Quantrill

Pocklington Arts Centre is a beautifully intimate all seated venue. It's the perfect venue for tonight's gig. With high sound quality and acoustics, it's no wonder so many acts speak well of this little known venue. Tonight saw one of America's finest singer-songwriters, Josh Rouse, take to its stage and the capacity crowd were treated to what may be the last chance to catch Rouse in such a small arena.

Opening the evening was Tim Keegan, frontman of alt-country band, Departure Lounge. Keegan performed an enjoyable 45 minute set that encompassed material from Departure Lounge's fine country-tinged album Out Of Here as well as previewing new material from his forthcoming solo debut album. Old favourites like The New You were intermingled with excellent, more reflective new material like La Vie Normale.

Cutting an unusual figure on stage, what Keegan lacked in stage presence he compensated for with the enthusiastic performance of his stylish, melodic material that worked as well solo as they do with a full band. The thoughtful lyrics demonstrated a genuine talent and his album is likely to be one to look out for in 2005.

I was a little concerned prior to the gig as to how Rouse was going to pull this gig off. Listening to his records you hear an artist who obviously spends a lot of time in the studio working up textured layers of sound. All his recordings are beautifully crafted and often contain a wide mixture of instrumentation. This is particularly evident on the album being promoted on this tour, 1972.

1972 is a tribute to the year of Rouse's birth and is quite a departure from his earlier recordings. While his previous three albums were said to be a loose trilogy and pay homage to his upbringing in Nebraska, they contain fairly standard singer-songwriter material never really likely to challenge the genres big hitters like Ryan Adams. 1972 sees Rouse take off in a different, much more interesting direction and jump clear of his also-ran status.

As befitting an album entitled 1972, it's a real melting pot of musical ideas from the early 1970s and is an extremely brave artistic move. Directions from Rouse's Home album was featured in the Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky. Lesser musicians would have tried to replicate this sound and break through to the mainstream. Clearly, success for Josh Rouse will be on his own terms. Concentrating primarily on 1972, Rouse utilised only a guitar, harmonica and the clever use of his guitar body to add percussion to convincingly portray the songs.

The lush arrangements on record were stripped down to their bare bones, and this brought the best out of the material. Playing the bouncy pop song, Love Vibration, early in the set was a clever move as the call and response interplay with the audience on the chorus had the audience eating out of his hand despite a somewhat awkward stage presence. The all too short set included a few older favourites from Rouse's Under Cold Blue Stars album, a duet with Tim Keegan on the knock-about fun of Slaveship as well as a handful of new tracks.

With Winter In The Hampton's sounding like a future single, Rouse's new album, due 14th February 2005, promises to be another great artistic leap forward. Josh Rouse has all the necessary ingredients to go onto greater things as he works towards the release of his forthcoming album Nashville. A clever mix of intelligent songwriting together with challenging musical ideas and a fine pop sensibility will ensure this. It would be no surprise if he were to shortly become a bigger draw in the music world and leave the likes of Ryan Adams in his wake. For more information see: www.joshrouse.com www.departureloungemusic.com www.pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk

Music Reviews - The Coal Porters at Pocklington Arts Centre - 15th November 04 By Steve Rudd
	Brandishing brilliant brushstrokes of Alison Krauss-creased Bluegrass music as it is meant to sound, this quintet in the Mojo-magazine-championed Coal Porters played to an almost sold-out venue in the small town of Pocklington on that one night of the week when most people prefer Read more...

Music Reviews - Ian McNabb at Fibbers, York - 4th November 04 By Steve Rudd
	Former Icicle Works frontman, Liverpudlian genius Ian McNabb has long been setting mid-sized venues alight with his talents since such band glory days. Ian is one of the hardest working and genuinely enthralling singer-songwriters in the UK and has released plenty of truly incredible Read more...

Music Reviews - Black # 5 Band Biog
	Since forming just over a year ago, Black # 5 have had a rapid ascent and are now recognised as one of the best new rock bands in the country. Based in Lincolnshire, the band's name came about when bassist Dale Jeffrey decided to visit a casino. I was really skint, he explains Read more...

Music Reviews - The landaus (Grimsby Auditorium 15th November 2004) By The Lazyswede
	The Landaus arrived in the dressing room to be greeted by Freefaller-The Noise next door Dominic Paul and Frencheryk. It didn't take long before the games started and the ice was broken and everyone was running around laughing and joking with each other and the backstage shenanigans started, even for Read more...

Music Gig Gallery - The Others at Jaz Bar - Wednesday 6th October 04 by Darren Rogers
	Checkout this incredible 6 page Photo Gallery of The Others at the Jaz Bar Wednesday 6th October 2004 by Darren Rogers. Darrens photographs are brilliant, almost as good as being there and too good to miss so I'm publishing it for all the music fans to enjoy... and thanks Darren. Read more...

Music Reviews - Wednesday 3rd November - The Ludes, Park n Ride, Thee Unstrung and The Landaus at Under the Influence By Cilla & Mo's photos.
	Another evening of superb entertainment brought to us by Under the Influence. Yes, another quality night. First up, The Landaus. The four piece with the growing name - from here to Australia and back. I saw them last week at the Asylum and thought to myself that this band really does have something. This week Read more...

Music Gig Gallery - Republished with unseen pictures - The Ordinary Boys at Sweet N Sour at The Welly Monday 4th October 04 by Darren Rogers
	Checkout this incredible 7 page Photo Gallery of The Ordinary Boys at the The Welly Monday 4th October 2004 by Darren Rogers. Darrens photographs are brilliant, almost as good as being there and too good to miss so I'm republishing it with unseen pictures for all the music fans to enjoy... and thanks Darren. Read more...

Music Reviews - Thirteen Senses at the Welly - 4th November 04 By Michelle Dee Photos by Darren Rogers
	Cornish band Thirteen Senses formed when keyboard player Will and guitarist Tom met up with college friends Adam bassist and Brendon on drums. They played the pub circuit in Cornwall showcasing original material vowing never to play covers. Due to the paucity of suitable venues in Cornwall they looked further a field Read more...

Music Gig Gallery Silence In The Streets, Blue Sand, The Landaus, and Misshapen Lodge 28th October at Asylum, Hull University By Michelle Dee
	Occasionally we get photographs of a Gig emailed in and no accompanying review to go with them. Never-the-less this 7 page Photo Gallery of Silence In The Streets, Blue Sand, The Landaus, and Misshapen Lodge at the Asylum Hull University 28th October 2004 by Michelle Dee is too good to miss. Read more...