Hannah Aldridge, on her 5th LRB appearance, this time with an incredible band, certainly closed the 2024 LRB season with style… A performance imprinted on the fabric of the building… If you were in the room, you know how good these musicians are… If you missed the show, there are some pictures, videos and a review penned by Chris below.
FLORENCE SOMMERVILLE
To close the 2024 season we started the nights packed agenda early with Florence Sommerville on her first visit to LRB.
Florence, An Essex name to watch out for as she builds her career with the guidance of Alan Cackett, opened confidently with her own song Just For Once as she received a warm welcome and applause…
Florence was clearly in awe of the past rota of great LRB artist on display as she tells us of her recent trip to Nashville and some Zoom enabled global co writing with Sally Barris (A backing singer for Kathy Mattea and Lee Ann Womack) in the USA and Francesca De Valence in Australia. This led to Florence performing California, You can find this on our YouTube channel.
Florence clearly love’s songwriting and shares some of the ways inspiration occurs even when there is non to be had… So we have Overton a fictional tale from a small town in the USA…
Florence tells us of another co write, her first one, this time with Gary Burr (Gary has penned many top 10 country hits over his career) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Burr
Fearless written in Gary’s basement studio surrounded by platinum records where Florence had to be… Fearless… She played without fear tonight…
Next Florence performed I’ll be your best Broken heart , another co write from her two already, Nashville journeys. This with Chantel Ogden and Cory Barker, before playing a cover of the Stevie Nicks classic Landslide
Florence tells us that a lot of her songs are inspired by her friends, their live’s, their break up’s, their drama’s, although they won’t get the credits… laughs… That leads us to Silly Little Things. Another co write with Sally Barris.
Florence, from Orsett, talks about how country songs are often written about artists home towns that tend to make these very towns seem prettier than they really are in real life, but it reminds them of home, which is nice… Out where the love grows is such a song we enjoy next… You can see this on our YouTube channel also…
Florence promotes her website, mail list and merch before the last few songs, she was impressed by Stan Sporting her T Shirt already…
Sweet Child Of Mine was an unexpected cover by a country artist on acoustic guitar, but it worked surprisingly well before we get to enjoy Love Me Then, the obligatory sad country song in any set… laughs…
So we come to the last song, Cut And Run and Florence clearly enjoyed her time at LRB as did the audience as we get ready for Hannah Aldridge to do her thing…
Thank you Florence Sommerville
HANNAH ALDRIDGE with her band (Daniel on drums is out of shot to the right)
HANNAH | KATIE | DANIEL JUTER (DRUMS)
DANIEL JUTER (SOUNDCHECK)
KATIE BATES
MARCUS LUNDQVIST
HANNAH ALDRIDGE REVIEW
This is the perfect way to end and incredible year of LRB shows, Hannah Aldridge on her 5th appearance, this time with a full band…
Katy Bates on Bass and BV’s, Marcus Lundqvist on Guitar and Daniel Juter on Drums and Percussion
The band strike up with a rocking groove prior to Hannah taking the stage to great applause for this performance of Old Ghost from the RAZOR WIRE album.
Marcus makes his presence on guitar felt immediately as a statement of what is to come, the band playing tight as they continue with Howling Bones from the 2017 album GOLD RUSH…
Hannah, clearly excited to be back, introduces the set and reminisces on her first LRB appearance when she was touring the RAZOR WIRE album as she promotes its 10th anniversary release and delights us all with matured live versions from this great album… and some other great tunes from her ever growing catalog of music.
Strand of Pearls is the next gem before Hannah introduces the most redneck Swedish person she could find to play guitar… laughs… Marcus Lundqvist. Hannah tells us, “he has the best country licks I’ve ever heard”, and she is not wrong…. Lie Like You Love Me is next giving Marcus the chance to display his fine country chops…
Hannah tells us of a TV show called Snapped, about women who killed their significant others and where she found the story that inspired Parchman, the song we now enjoy and how Hannah felt compelled to tell this woman’s story and the effect this song has had on her, also how music can make a difference to so many people.
In 2023 Hannah released an album called DREAM OF AMERICA from which the next performance Beautiful Oblivion is taken, a song dealing with the topic of depression that is all too often experienced by musicians and creatives alike…
Hannah now introduces Daniel Juter, also from Sweden and asks him to choose his favourite song from the tour… So the band get to rock out to You Ain’t Worth The Fight, The opening track from RAZOR WIRE as Hannah has the LRB audience clapping along…
A quick whisky break for the band now as Hannah takes solo spot as she appreciates all those who support live music at LRB especially Stan Hurrell who gets a special request played for him as a thank you for all the work he does on his famous merch stands… Lonesome Goes Both Ways…
Now Katy Bates joins Hannah on Stage playing Electric Guitar for a performance of The Great Divide from DREAM OF AMERICA after Hannah tells the story of how they met in Australia and became friends…
Living On Lonely from the 2017 album GOLD RUSH follows, then Portrait of the Artist as a Middle Aged Man from DREAM OF AMERICA written with Lachlan Bryan, this time with Katy playing Bass again.
Time for a cover that nobody would expect, but now Hannah has to play it at every show, Psycho Killer… Mid song, Hannah and Katy are joined by the rest of the band as they perform this Talking Heads classic.
Razor Wire is the perfect song to follow on with… The title track from the album that started it all for Hannah and so expertly played tonight…
Hannah tells us that BORN TO BE BROKEN was her first album but was unreleased, happily a couple of of the tracks ended up on the 10th anniversary re-mastered release of RAZOR WIRE including Yankee Bank, recorded with Hannah’s father Walt Aldridge and Dylan Leblanc
Hannah reminisces growing up in Muscle Shoals and it’s musical history before playing a tune her father wrote that was a hit for Travis Tritt back in the day, to remind her of home… Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde another chance for this band to really rock out…
As we approach the end of the evening Hannah gives Florence Sommerville a shout out, respecting anyone who can get up and play on their own like that, before telling us of her son Jackson and a song she wrote for him, looking back on simpler times Black & White…
Wow, that was to be the explosive last song, but we weren’t going to leave it there… The LRB audience wanted more and where not to be denied…
With some great audience banter Marcus gets nominated to introduce the next song in a perfect Swinglish accent, telling Hannah’s story for her as he has heard it so many times before… Laughs…
Burning Down Birmingham “If you can’t write a song about being thrown up on after a gig, what can you write a song about?” Hannah tells us… Laughs… We all get to sing along to the chorus of this roof lifting performance, if you come to the LRB, expect to be part of the band…
That drew a standing ovation but Hannah had one more as she had not sung enough murder songs tonight… Laughs…
Some Ghosts lifted the roof off the barn, another performance embedded in the fabric as this band gave us their all… That was spectacular and a reminder you should never miss a Hannah Aldridge performance in any guise at any time…
VIDEOS
Thanks to HANNAH ALDRIDGE with her wonderfully talented band featuring Katie Bates on bass and BVs, Marcus Lundqvist on electric guitar and Daniel Juter on drums. Thank you to FLORENCE SOMMERVILLE for opening this memorable evening.
Thanks to everyone involved with the production: Simon Allen sound engineer; The fabulous little rabbit crew of Chris on video cameras and setup, Stan on setup and artist merchandise, Brian running Little Rabbit Bar and big thanks to Chris and Rebecca for helping Lyn. Thank you Paul for helping with our takedown.
Review: Chris (to be posted)
Video cams: Chris and Paul
Photography: Alan the Hat, Andy Sheard
Artist/guest hospitality: Lyn and Chris
Artist Merchandise: Stan
AV editing & audio mix: J
Artists: Terry
Sound: Simon Allen
To all wonderful LRB guests and friends who support live music at LRB, big thanks for supporting live music and hope to see y’all next time. Big thanks to all the new guests and all your lovely comments. Special mention to Alan Ward for the loan of his exquisite and pristine drum kit.
As it’s our end of year show a big thank you to Geoff Lee for all his time and expertise throughout the year, transforming LRB show lighting.
We will be ready to welcome back, CARTER SAMPSON with her full band + CALLAGHAN for a Double Headliner to open LRB 2025 on Saturday 08 March.
Best wishes, Hoppy Christmas, Keep Safe & See Y’all in the New Year
The LRB team
