MUSIC IN MANCHESTER

So the devil has all the good tunes eh?  Well this Tennessee collection of Pentecostal Evangelists must have skipped Sunday school and snuck into his boudoir whilst he was sleeping, stolen a clutch of raw nuggets before turning them into a collection of fine gems.

The first 3 songs (Red Morning Light, Wasted & Spiral) from the Fotherwill clan -Caleb brothers (lead singer, rhythm guitar) Nathan (drums) Jared (bass) & first cousin Mathew (lead guitar) - are a rip snorting blast of guitars, and chewed up lyrics, dispatched with intensive surges of energy.

It's a sound centred around a core of southern blues cloaked up in a diversity of influences, from Aretha Franklin, to Al Green to the White Stripes.  It shouldn't really work, this disparate collection of references should be the template for an eclectic mess, but somehow, all the components click, producing a gloriously effervescent aural display

Already they've ensnared a sweat drenched, capacity Roadhouse crowd who want to know what all the fuss is about. Indeed, the girl next to me saw them in Bridlington last night supporting the Music, but followed them to Manchester, because this lot ".. are going to be big"  On tonight's showing they have the potential and the songs, as we are finding out in this small intimate setting.

By now you will probably know that the band name comes from their father & grandfather Leon,, providing a little insight to just how much all matter family matter to this lot. On stage a great deal of subtly interplay exists between them, a situation evolved from years of playing together in one form or another since they kids, travelling around red neck country in the back of their parent cars/vans.  No Oasis sibling frictions here, merely identikit tangled balls of hair they wouldn't look out of place on the set of a stereotypical 70's movie, or even on a Ron Jeremy set.

Between numbers, Caleb, with his D'Atartangan type goatee, is peace and calm personified after the intensity preceding and what is to follow, surveying his audience, not feeling the need to introduce numbers, eager to get on with the work in hand.

Changing the pace in order to maintain audience interest, "Joes Head", "Locker" & "Molly Chambers" take a slightly different route, though none the less satisfying before once again picking up pace, much akin to the journey they always seem to be refreeing to.

"TRANI" is a barn stormer of a closer, twisted guitars and skewed bass - think Motorhead "Ace of Spades" mixed with Lynyrd Skynyrd, with a catchy hook line thrown in.

Invigorating, exciting, on the way to a venue near you,. Catch them

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