Sherston Festival 2014 – Billy in the Lowground

fiddle fueled, hi-octane folk rock… you will be dancing…

Sherston Festival 2014

Reviews

If the Levellers were moonshine-swigging Appalachian mountain folk instead of Guinness-swilling Brighton crusties, they would probably have sounded a lot like this.

Green Man

The sheer energy and passion that pours from the band is matched only by their musical ability, and the songs themselves are the kind of short infectious pieces that grab you by the throat and demand that you move, without you really noticing. The twin melodies of violin and guitar swirl and twirl in and around each other with a grace that defies the relentless stomp of the bass and drums, while the acoustic and vocals work mercilessly away at your subconscious, making sure that the material haunts you for days. This is music MADE for festivals.

Woolley Festival 2011

…a very tight, rocky band, with only the tattered remnants of Irish and Old Timey fiddle tunes hanging out of the back of it (definitely no classicised folky pretty stuff). It’s old and tough and dirty and rough.

Venue magazine

fiddle fueled, hi-octane folk rock… you will be dancing…

Sherston Festival 2014

Next up were Billy In The Lowground who performed in the Yellow Tent and provided some much needed folk-rock, Levellers-esque dancing fun, every festival could do with more of this kind of vibe!

gigsandfestivals .co.uk

Billy in the Lowground are a loud, energetic and entirely authentic fusion of folk and rock.
Proper foot-stomping performances playing with real heart make it hard not to dance.
Just try and stand still, we dare you…

The List

Beese’s has one criterion for picking the headline band: will they get people up and dancing within thirty seconds?
Billy in the Lowground passed!

Beese's Beer Festival

…the soundtrack of hell raising festival folk tunes, to back room bawling and bar room brawling, of escaping to brighter futures, the familiarity of the world you know or just a damned good night out. If Nashville were in Somerset, Billy In The Lowground would be one of its leading lights. So let’s raise a glass of cider (with a bourbon chaser for good measure) to the Nashtonbury scene, it may only contain one band, but it’s a start, right?

Dancing About Architecture

What makes Billy in the Lowground more accomplished than many other Folk-Rock bands is the quality of the songwriting, the exuberance of the arrangements and the skill and enthusiasm of the playing.
Ruth Behan’s fiddle has a defiantly Irish sound that roots the rest of the band and underpins the Country feel to many of Chris Hibberd’s songs. This is Nashville relocated to the wilds of Somerset and performed with Joe Strummer’s heart and soul.

Rock & Reel magazine

Already released as a single, the finale, No Chance for a Slow Dance does what it says on the tin. Billy in the Lowground at their finest, it bears all the hallmarks of a magnum opus. It’s rinsed with upbeat fiddle and banjo, it takes you on a journey similar to The Dropkick Murphy’s, and impossible to stay still to; yet the whole album is gold, sprinkled perhaps with some mud kicked up from the field you’re dancing to it in.

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