EVE SELIS & FRIENDS | HOLLY CARTER w JOE WILKINS | FLORENCE SOMMERVILLE | Saturday 19 July 2025

Eve Selis | Holly Carter | Florence Sommerville

Eve Selis on her 9th appearance at LRB certainly wowed us all tonight as she talked and played us through her new album DARK SKY BLUE… An unforgettable experience…

Florence Sommerville opened the show tonight, highlighting a few songs from her very first album ENDLESS HORIZON, available now on CD as well as downloadable. 

Florence is displaying an ever growing confidence in her stage presence, excited to be at the LRB once more and to be joining Eve Selis for the final leg of Eve’s current tour. 

Set List…

1. Broken Pieces. 
2. California, Co written with Sally Barris and Francesca de Valance. 
3. I’ll Be Your Best Broken Heart,Co written with  Shantell Ogden & Corey Lee Barker.
4. Where The Love Grows.
5. Cut and Run.

Alan Cackett has guided Florence on this journey and it’s clear she is working hard to make the most of the opportunities Alan’s mentorship has afforded her. 

Thank you Florence Sommerville The audience loved it. 

HOLLY CARTER AND JOE WILKINS

Plugged in and seated, this was going to be special, we all know Joe for his work with Elles Bailey and his support for other great artists like Angel Snow. This however, is the first time Holly has played for us at LRB with her Folk Americana style of music. 

Holly opens with a song from her first EP ALL OF YOU… AND ME, Angel of Apprehension. 

Holly and Joe’s guitars blending beautifully on this jaunty opener, relaxed playing at its best. 

Track 2 on the new album, LEAVE YOUR MARK, which we have exclusive pre release access to tonight is Stetson Kennedy. 

The story of a brave man who infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan exposing their secrets to the world. 

Happily he lived to a ripe old age despite his bravery. Joe played some lovely slide licks here… 

One of the first songs Holly ever wrote was about her experience of being a woman in the music industry, inspired in her playing mainly by men. Stella is named after Leadbelly’s guitar as Holly is still a big fan of his early music. 

Holly Tells us that she writes songs, by and large, about mental health issues and dead people she finds interesting… Laughs… before playing Bear With Me, a slow burn song regarding a letter from her brain to herself and her current challenge to discovering she has ADHD, which goes some way to explain how she drove 2 hours to a gig having forgotten her guitar… laughs… Stuff Happens to the best of us… 

Time for a cover now, Holly is a big fan of Mark Knopfler as it was through him she learned one could play electric guitars with just your fingers. That’s helpful to know if your early learning is on a classical guitar. 

RedbudTree is the opening track from Mark’s 2012 album PRIVATEERING and we enjoyed Holly and Joe’s version next. 

Holly calls for an extra clap for JOE WILKINS before announcing that they are engaged to be married… “Joe is the one person who inspired me who write a love song”… laughs… 

Sadly they didn’t play it tonight as they hadn’t practices it… laughs…

“Talking of dead unionists”… laughs… a song about a murdered Union man FRANK LITTLE, who paid a price and is deserving of a song… Our Hands Are Tied. This can be found on the ALL OF YOU… AND ME EP. 

Holly tells us all of Joe Hill, the union songwriter who, back in the day, composed songs by changing the words to well known tunes of the time. Sadly he was framed and executed for a Murder he did not commit. 

Holy read out his last Will and testament before performing one of her favourite songs of his, Where The Fraser River Flows. Track 8 on the new album. 

The Union songs are done, now we enjoy something more traditional Jang Jang a not so very festive Christmas Song… Laughs 

Out to Sea, is next, a song about family disfunction that originally was inspired by a Phillip Larkin poem that hit a chord with the LRB audience tonight, as perhaps we can all relate to this a little. Another from the LEAVE YOUR MARK album. 

Holly tells us that she does all the art and design work for her album herself and enjoys the Lino Cut medium where every song has an image to represent it. The vinyl album is a great medium for enjoying this art at its best. 

Idle Eyes Track 6 from the album is next with more lovely slide playing from Joe. 

Two more tunes to come, this one she learned for the Bob Dylan Tribute show at Maverick Festival a tribute to Woody Guthrie Song To Woody. 

To close the set Holly and Joe play What you see, the opening song from the new album. A song inspired by Tish Murtha and her photography documenting the life of ordinary people, where she died penniless because of her principles… 

That was a lovely set and something different for the LRB from two amazing musicians. 

 

EVE SELIS & FRIENDS

Eve Selis makes a welcome return to LRB, this time with Sam Hunt playing guitar and Rich Phillips playing Cello. 

Tonight is the 9th appearance for Eve at LRB and a lot has happened since her last appearance in 2019, so Eve takes us on a personal journey from her dark skies to blue…

Sam Hunt has been playing with Eve’s niece in the past, so it’s in the family, but this is the first performance with Eve for Rich on the Cello. 

We also learned tonight that Eve is responsible for naming the Little Rabbit Barn back in the day. 

The new album DARK SKY BLUE is born of the tragic personal challenges Eve and her family have experienced with gun crime and cancer. 

Written, recorded and performed as a process of healing, Eve performs the songs live tonight, along with the very personal stories behind them.

The title track Dark Sky Blue opens the show with Rich’s Cello making its beautiful presence felt. 

Monster, track two is next. Eve tells us “It’s ugly, it’s nasty, it’s angry, it’s uncomfortable but the spiritual message of anger means something has to change. That’s why this is on a healing record. Addiction is the Monster”. 

You won’t forget this performance if you were in the room, it’s everything Eve described and the Cello playing… Wow! 

With all these issues and problems Eve was told ‘We don’t know the end of the story’, by a good friend, and so track three on the record and tonight is We Don’t Know The End Of The Story. Both Sam and Rich are accompanying Eve beautifully once more. 

Eve tells us of her love of audiobooks and especially the book Breathing under Water by Richard Rohr, a book that helped her with her recovery and inspired this next song, Breathing Under Water, Track four on the album.

We get to the half way mark on the album now as Eve tells us how she moved to Nashville to write songs, and was invited to a woman’s retreat leading to this next song written with Kim McLean as they looked towards better times in the future. There Will Come A Time. Track five on the album… 

It’s palpable how much Eve is enjoying Sam and Rich’s playing as her songs come beautifully to life on stage. 

Now Eve tells us, “We are on our way to the light now”, with this next song called Waves, “a metaphor for our emotions”. We are meant to live in balance as we surf the waves of life… 

Eve now picks up her guitar “Don’t worry, she is low in the mix” … laughs… as she introduces us to the next song Grace. Written after an unexpected trip to the UK and an unexpected encounter with a healer from Slovenia at a Spa day. Eve took her advice to start hugging trees to help release her emotions and enjoy some grace. 

The audience are loving this tonight as the applause tells it all… Eve has sold out of this CD on the tour already and tells us that  Bob Harris has been playing her songs on the radio. 

Love Only knows is next, written with Kim McLean and  Johnny Garcia  (Trisha Yearwood’s guitar player) a song about Living in the energy of the unknown, track eight on the album. 

 I Choose Love, was written after Eve experienced a lot of counselling that helped her realise that love is the only reason to be here. It’s the singalong portion of the night and the LRB audience always do these moments proud. Tonight was no exception… 

Now we come to the last song of the album, and the hardest song Eve has ever had to write; about her brother and coming to terms with the terrible and out of character actions of someone you adore. 

What we witnessed was the raw emotion from Eve as she delivered this heartbreaking and heart felt song, Somebody’s Brother. 

Wow, that was some performance as Eve, visibly moved, lightens the mood as she introduces a song that captures the spirit of the new album Fearless Heart. The opening track from Eve’s 2016 album SEE ME WITH YOUR HEART. 

Now Sam tunes Eve’s guitar as Eve tells us more about him, playing in Nashville and touring all the time. Before playing See Me With Your Heart and inviting Florence Sommerville to the stage for the last song, the John Lennon classic, Imagine another chance for the LRB choir to excel on the chorus… If you come to the LRB, you are part of the band… and what a great band!… 

Thank you Eve Selis.

EVE SELIS performing her song Monster from DARK SKY BLUE