Fishing for Roach

• 20th Jan 2005

A.J. Roach + guests
Fri 5th Feb @ Britons Protection, Gt Bridgewater St, Manchester
£7 adv / £9 door – doors 8ish

Raised in Scott County, Virginia, home of such legendary acts as The
Carter Family, A.J. Roach grew up on a steady diet of bluegrass and
traditional mountain music that strongly flavors his own vivid and
haunting tunes. When he sings about his grandfather pressing fake
five-cent pieces from ore or running moonshine over the Tennessee
border, he isn’t pilfering story lines from an old western film or
appropriating tales told by an aging farmer he met once in a bar, he's
just borrowing a few chapters from his own family’s history. Roach’s
lyrics are at turns deeply personal, lighthearted, comical, fanciful,
and spellbinding, but he never loses sight of his first calling as a
master storyteller. His ability to strip away all but the most
necessary elements of a song gives his music a rarefied clarity and
distinctive simplicity rarely matched by modern musicians. This genuine
mountain man is one of the truest and best players of Appalachian
bluegrass going. Unmissable stuff.

If you fancy a taster A.J. will be in session on Radio 2's Bob Harris
Country between 7pm and 8pm on Thu 27th Jan.

For more information please see:

www.ajroach.net
www.popartrecords.co.uk