THE Handsome Family’s May 24 concert at the North York Moors haven they call “the greatest small venue on Earth” is two-thirds of the way to selling out.

“It will be completely sold within a few weeks, I would have thought, now that these three girls from Amsterdam have been booked to open the show,” says Nigel Burnham, concert promoter at The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, near Kirkbymoorside.

Those three girls are Snowapple, alias Laurien Schreuder, vocals and guitar, Fanny de Ruiter, vocals and violin, and Una Bergin, vocals and mandolin, a Dutch combination of opera diva, classical folk singer and dreamy jazz singer.

Their new album, apparently entitled The Album according to their website, will be released through V2 Records on March 25.

Tickets are on sale at £17.50 on 01751 432900 or online at thebandroom.co.uk/tickets.html. They are also available for three further Band Room concerts booked by Nigel Burnham: The Blue Mosquitoes Of Tasmania on Saturday, June 29; Ruth Moody, Friday, July 5; and Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, Monday, July 22.

“The Blue Mosquitoes are making a big splash Down Under with their high-octane Celtic-driven folk music, “ says Nigel. “Think The Pogues meets The Cranberries via The Chieftains and Shooglenifty.”

Ruth Moody, a founder member of The Wailin’ Jennys, will be playing The Band Room a few weeks after joining Mark Knopfler in Amsterdam, France and for seven nights at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of May/early June. Her debut solo album, The Garden, featured contributions from Oh Susanna, Crooked Still, Luke Doucet, and The Wailin’ Jennys’ Nicky Mehta and Heather Masse.

Cajun and zydeco legends Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys will bring the incendiary sound of southern Louisiana to Low Mill on their 25th anniversary travels.


• NEWSFLASH: NIGEL Burnham has added another new signing to his 2013 programme at The Band Room, Low Mill: Valerie June on May 10.

You may have June’s performance of her debut British single, Workin’ Woman Blues, on BBC2’s Later…With Jools Holland last November: a mesmerising introduction to the Humboldt, Tennessee singer-songwriter’s fresh take on vintage country, gospel and delta blues.

“I just love old records,” she says. “I like the crackle, the gritty sound. So do a lotta other people. I think we just wanna hear real music – alongside the modern beat-machine music. For a while it was only moving in a new direction and I just felt people started missing the old stuff.”

New single You Can’t Be Told will released on Monday through Sunday Best in a second taster for her spring album Pushin’ Against A Stone.

Written by Valerie with The Black Keys’ guitarist and vocalist Dan Auerbach and producer Kevin Augunas, the single was recorded at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, along with several other tracks on an album that was also made in Budapest and Los Angeles.

Now living in New York, Valerie is a self-taught guitarist, banjo player and songwriter.

Nigel is delighted to have booked Valerie for what will now be The Band Room’s first gig of the year. “She’s opening for Jake Bugg around the country but alas not at his York Barbican show on March 29, but we’re now bringing Valerie to Low Mill,” he says. “She’s perfect for the Band Room.”