Brett Huckfield's Music Blog

My City Blue Album Launched!!

2011-12-28T06:54:00.002Z

I'm very pleased to announce that my new album City Blue is finished and has just been released. It cropped up first on iTunes a week or so back, and now it's appeared in the other popular online stores - everything from Amazon and Nokia, to Tesco -lol! I settled on CD Baby as my distributor, so my album's also available on there too at www.cdbaby.com/cd/bretthuckfield

Initially my City Blue album will only be available as a download (both as individual tracks and the full album), but I'm planning to get a CD version out in 2012 too ...

As it's such a personal album, I wrote, produced, played/sang all the album tracks myself. I did however invite Marie to play percussion and sing some of the backing vocals on track 15, my anti-corporate Xmas song: Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne.

As those of you who follow my music will already know, Marie plays percussion and sings harmonies for me when I play live. (I started out teaching her to play a few years back, and was so impressed by how well she did, I invited her to join me on stage, and rarely do a performance without her nowadays!).

So, as a little thank you to Marie, for all her efforts on Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne, for helping me with the cover design and also for helping me promote my City Blue album to radio stations and suchlike - while I was busy launching it, I've named her as a featured artist on my Xmas song. She did a great job!!

You can hear my Christmas song (inc. Marie's percussion) on youtube here:

The video contains almost the finished mix I put out on my album.

So far Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne is the only song from City Blue that we've been promoting (we'll start promoting the other album tracks in the new year). It seemed the perfect track to start with, since City Blue was a December release. So far we've had 40+ radio stations good enough to give the song airplay: so it's being played from Dudley to New Zealand -lol!!

I was over the moon to discover that on Tuesday 20th Dec, at the Molineux football stadium, just before kick off at the Wolves/Norwich City football match Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne was played to the crowd of 10,000+ people.

Also it was amazing that Global City Radio made my Christmas and New Year song their 'Record of the Week', which they also did with another song I did in 2009. So a big thanks to Global City's brilliant presenter, Richard J Hannah for his on going support!

Thanks for taking an interest in my music and reading my blog, where would independent musicians be without you -lol!! Also a big thank you to everyone whose helped promote City Blue and my Christmas song - friends, family, DJ's and people who were just kind enough to repost links or spread the word etc having heard my songs - I'm very grateful to you all. Too many worthy names to list, but I'd just like to give a little thank you mention to Jason, Jan, Fish, Heiko, Mike, Steve, Marjorie, Desi, Pete and Marie

Hope you enjoy the rest of the Christmas Holidays, and I wish you a Happy New Year!!!
Brett and Jake (my wonderfully daft collie dog) xxx

The Bell & Talbot June 2011

2011-07-17T05:20:00.000+01:00

On Friday 3rd June 2011, Brett played a gig at The Bell & Talbot. I joined him on percussion as usual -we played a lively two hour set that included many of the songs fromn Brett's new album (due soon -I'm sure Brett will post more details about it soon). Here's a pic of Brett with his favourite blue takamine guitar.

Unfortunately Guy the Landlord was unable to join us this time on his drums and congas (Brett always invite him up to perform with us towards the end of the night),as unfortunately he'd had an accident recently on his motorbike and had broken a few ribs so was unable to join in the fun this time around. We did manage to chat briefly to Guy between performances and we both wish him a speedy recovery!

It was a lovely night; thankyou To Bill, Judie, Karon, Don and too many other folks to mention for coming along and making it a really special evening!!

Marie x

Baby Pigeon Photo!! Brett Huckfield & Marie's contribution to Springwatch - lol!

2011-06-08T19:12:00.003+01:00

At last thanks to my good friend Marjorie and her camera skills, the age old mystery 'Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?' has now been solved -lol!!

So here, by kind permission of Marjorie is the the photo that ended the mystery... This could be more exciting than the Loch Ness Monster photos :-)

Now I'll hand you over to Marie as she wants to show you another of Marjorie's fantastic pics.

This is one lucky ferret; it decided to run into the middle of the road into an oncoming car but luckily help was on hand. Marjoirie flagged the car down saving the ferret from harm. We love you Marjorie!

Well that's our contribution to Springwatch done, back with more music news soon.

Brett & Marie xx

The Night Brett & Jean Martyn Jammed: We hope she wins Britain's Got Talent!!

2011-06-01T00:21:00.000+01:00

I must confess I never watch talent shows, but while I was catching 40 winks in front of the TV I heard a familiar voice talking on Britain's Got Talent; at the same time the phone rang and Marie called me to let me know that Jean Martyn who we'd befriended at our friend Jan's party, was indeed about to perform on the program.

Back in January at Jan's house warming party (which quickly turned into a fantastic jam night) we met up with some excellent musicians and performers: Jean Martyn, Gabriella 'the ukulele lady' (loved for her Radio 2 appearances on Chris Evans show), and Paul 'The Hurdy-Gurdi man' amongst others.

All the performers/musicians (including me of course - lol!) played a song or two individually, then we all got together and jammed, so it was an amazing night - many thanks to Jan for inviting us all.

So it was wonderful to see Jean doing so well on Britain's Got Talent - that wonderful smile and huge personality of hers is just the same off screen as it is on - lol! (she even wore a sparkly jacket :-)

Hope she wins - she's such a warm genuine person; Marie and I have already been voting for Jean and her dazzling keyboard skills.

Go Jean!!!

Brett & Marie x

Second gig of the weekend; Plough & Harrow, Kinver

2011-05-30T23:44:00.000+01:00

After playing the charity event at Stourbridge Cricket Club the previous evening, Brett's next gig was on Sat 21st May at The Plough & Harrow.

It was a great evening and a lot of our friends came out to see us

perform too. We played a variety of Brett's songs from Watching the Waters to The Oi Song where I posed with my little tinkling bells - lol!

Everyone enjoyed our two sets and even joined in with us as we played. It was an great evening and we had lots of fun playing there. We also had a four hour gig on the Sunday afternoon so not much sleep for us that weekend-lol!

Marie x

Stourbridge Cricket Club Fundraiser!

2011-05-24T22:21:00.002+01:00

On Friday 20th May, Brett was invited by our good friend John Langford, to play as one of the special guest performers - among some of the best known performers in the local area - at John's Stourbridge Cricket Club charity fundraising event.

We were of course happy to support the fundraising event, the line up included some fine local talent;

Left- John Langford (songwriter/scriptwriter)

Right - Dave Coughlin (songwriter)

Left- Fingerprint (songwriters/organisers of the Songwriter's Circle)

Right - popular local duo Mick & Paul

Left - Velvet Green

Right - Triple Echo (popular local act/organisers of Folk at the Oak)

Left - Pete Kelly (well known local performer)

Right - Show finalie with all the performers on stage

...and of course Brett Huckfield (accompanied by me on percussion and backing vocals).

All the acts were superb (John kindly described our performance as 'electric' - and I have to say we certainly went down a treat!!) and the event was a huge success. It was a wonderful night but we had to dash off quickly at the end as we had a busy weekend of gigs ahead of us.

Marie x

An Open Air May Day Affair!

2011-05-09T23:19:00.000+01:00

On Sunday 1st May (May Day) our good friends Howard, Gina and Steve invited us to perform at their open air music event... So we promised we'd come along and play, even though we were off for a short break in Somerset that same evening.

Luckily the sun was out and the rain held off, making it perfect weather for us to perform Brett's songs to everyone attending.

We played everything from Watching The Waters to Here Again and Give Me Some Soul, which are becoming well known around the local area.

We had a wonderful time, and gigs and commitments allowing, we'll be back in August to do it all over again-lol!

Marie x

Rockin' at The Old Moseley Arms

2011-05-01T01:37:00.000+01:00

On the evening of Sunday 17th April, Brett, accompanied by me on percussion, played an Acoustic set at the Chaos Acoustic Club which takes place at The Old Moseley Arms pub in Birmingham. The evening is hosted by Pete in the upstairs room of the Pub. Candles are placed on the tables and the smell of slow burning joss sticks fills the air, which certainly adds to the atmosphere.

We took our friend Desi along with us too, and he played the opening set at 9.00pm; I have to say he was wonderful. He played a selection of Irish songs which had everyone singing along. Infact it was the best we've seen him perform to date - nice one Desi!

Mike my brother and our photographer for the night, took a picture of Desi to add to Brett's blog because we were so proud of him!

Brett and myself played at 10.30pm to finish off the evening with a bang-lol! We had a brilliant time and everyone loved Brett's songs. The night was a success and Pete enjoyed our performance so much that he's keenly invited us to come back again later in the year!

A big thanks to: Pete at The Old Moseley Arms for inviting us along, Desi for his support and to the terrific audience at the Chaos Club.

Marie x

Happy St George's Day!!

2011-04-23T16:25:00.003+01:00

Just a quick message to wish everyone a very happy St George's Day and Easter weekend!!!

It's a shame we didn't get time to organise a gig or something to celebrate (like we did with Desi at his excellent St Patrick's night bash), but there was no time left to sort it out, as my album release date is looming close -lol!! Maybe next year...
Brett x

11th April-17th April 2011 Gig Guide

2011-04-16T23:16:00.004+01:00

Hi everyone,
Due to Brett still being locked away in his studio, we may not be able to squeeze many performances in this week.

However, we have been kindly invited by Pete, singer in the Acoustic Who tribute band, who also runs the Chaos Acoustic Music Club at The Old Moseley Arms, has invited Brett there to perform a set.
The evening begins at approx 8.30pm, and Brett (accompanied by me on percussion and backing vocals) will be on stage at 10.30pm.

Sunday 17th April 2011

The Old Moseley Arms
53 Tindal Street,
Birmingham,
West Midlands,
B12 9QU.

Also our friend Desi Corcoran who co-runs The Circle Folk Club will be doing a 15 minute set earlier in the evening to, so it should be a good night!

Marie x

28th March-3rd April 2011 Gig guide

2011-03-30T19:37:00.003+01:00

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick update of this weeks performance (Brett's still busy in the studio this week so not a lot of time for gigs -lol):

Monday 28th March - Sunday 3rd April 2011

Wednesday 30th March: The Plough & Harrow, High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HD.
Brett Huckfield with Marie will be playing an acoustic set (Approx 20/25 minutes) as guests of their friends Howard, Anthony and Al Cox at their gig/open mic to celebrate the 200th acoustic music night at the venue. Entertainment starts around 9.30pm.

Marie x

Gig photos as promised - plus some info on two folk / acoustic clubs

2011-03-29T18:38:00.001+01:00

Here are the gig pics that Brett promised I'd post for you all to see.

Photo: Brett's gig at The Bell and Talbot

Way back in February Brett, accompanied by me on percussion and BV's, played a memorable gig at The Bell and Talbot, where Guy the landlord joined us on drums for the set finale. We were also very pleased to see our friends Bill & Rosemary, and Desi who all turned out to catch our perfomance. (Both Bill & Rosemary and Desi run excellent acoustic/folk clubs; I'll pop the details below for anyone who wants to go along and perform/watch).

After the gig everyone got together to pose for a photo, including Guy himself (You'd never guess that they're camera shy would you-lol!) - so thanks to everyone for turning up on a cold February night to make it a great gig!

From right to left the folks in the photo are:

Brett, Marie, (crouching in front) Guy, (with hat) Desi, Rosemary, Bill

Desi (also a performer in his own right) runs The Circle Folk/Acoustic Club in Coseley every Wednesday evening (circa 8.30pm) at Coseley Working Mens Club, West Midlands, WV14 9JH (UK). It's a great place with a friendly atmosphere -all styles of music are welcomed so its cool for performers and audience members alike; when Brett's not busy with gigs we really enjoy popping down to do a little set too.

Bill (who is also a perfromer when he's not running his club) and Rosemary have recently started a Folk/Acoustic club in Derbyshire at The Crown on High Street, Tibshelf, Near Alfreton, DE55 5NY (UK) on Friday nights. Brett hasn't had a chance to visit the club yet as it hasn't been open long (though we're definately popping up soon) but word is that it's already a terrific venue for live music!!

Photo: Brett and Marie join the Publiners for a the night!

The picture below is from The Circle Folk Club, where Desi (originally from Kilkenny) hosted a St.Patricks Day extraviganza!! He'd suggested to Brett that we form a band for the night called The Publiners, to do a one off special set of classic Irish songs.

Fortunately Brett was free that night so we were only too pleased to help out. The only problem was that neither Brett or I knew any Irish songs -lol!! So Brett suggested a few rehearsals (we even ended up round Desi's home at one point -where we were spoilt with a mountain of tasty cheese sandwiches -lol!!).

Brett, being the musical Maestro that he is sketched out the chords and arrangements in no time, then we worked some harmonies out to back Desi while he sang the Irish tunes.

The band consisted of Desi who played rhythm guitar while putting in a fine vocal performance, Brett on lead guitar and vocal harmonies, me (Marie) on percussion and vocal harmonies, Dave (sound engineer at The Circle and an excellent writer/performer of blues influenced songs too) on bodhran and vocal harmonies and finally Sonia (often nicknamed Sonic Sonia) doing a great job on the violin.

Sonia jokingly told us that she's forming a Brett Huckfield tribute band and is already auditioning Bretts :-)

We had an absolutely wonderful evening joining Desi's Publiners for a one off special performance, (there were also plenty of other enjoyable performances from regular members throughout the night). Brett and I were moved when at the end of the night Desi said that although he normally feels a little homesick during the St Patrick's day celebrations, this year thanks to the Publiners set, he didn't!!

So you can't end on a better comment than that... Brett's also promised Desi that, now we know a few Irish tunes, we may well join him on stage again to perform them every once in a while!!

Lastly I have to thank Mike (my brother) for getting into The St.Patricks Day spirit by wearing this rather fetching hat-lol!

Marie x

Longest gig ever ...and some other stuff!!

2011-03-22T18:30:00.002Z

Last Saturday's gig at the Old Bush Inn was probably the longest gig I've ever played; clocking it around 4 hours in all... The highlight of a very enjoyable night was, for me -when I played Watching The Waters (with Marie doing a fine job of backing me up with vocal harmonies and percussion)...

Hearing the (very musically knowledgeable) audience cheering and clapping to a song they'd never heard before was just magic to my ears... A special big thanks to Angela behind the bar, whose compliments about my guitar playing were starting to affect my hat size, if you know what I mean -lol!!

This week, I'm still working on getting the new releases sorted (more news soon), but there's still time to slot in (at least) a couple of performances. Definite ones are:

The Plough & Harrow (23/3/11), Kinver High St, Kinver, West Mids where I'll be doing a 20/25 minute set with Marie accompanying me, at our friends Al, 'H' and Ant's gig/open mic night.

The Rose & Crown (26/3/11), Wordsley, West Mids. This is a Sensational Sound Bite's gig (the band Marie and I play in for fun when I'm not busy doing my own music).

Finally
Marie has a few sets of pics from some of our recent gigs that she'll post in in my blog shortly (thanks to Bill and Mike for taking the pics). I haven't seen the pics yet myself so I look forward to seeing them!!

Brett x

Twas the night before St Patrick's day....

2011-03-16T17:34:00.002Z

Just a few quick updates for this week...

Not too much going on at the moment, as I'm on about my 5th cold of the month, which is slowing me down a little -lol!! However I'm still squeezing a couple of performances in this week.

Wednesday 16th March 2011-The Circle, Coseley Liberal Club, West Mids.
As a thank you to my good friend Desi who co-runs the The Circle acoustic club, I volunteered to help him put together an improvised band for the night to play some Irish tunes for his St Pat's bash, as Desi's always helping spread the word about my music... So it's nice to be able to help him out.

Desi's originally from Kilkenny so he was well at ease picking out a set of popular traditional Irish tunes. I confess I don't know many (any? lol!) trad. Irish songs, but after a quick rummage round youtube I soon got to know the tracks and sketched out some arrangements for Desi's band.. Some lovely tunes there...

After only a couple of rehearsals, Desi, myself and Marie will be hitting the stage tonight (along with a couple of other local musicians from The Circle; Dave and Sonia) so fingers crossed it will be fun night. If I have any energy left after Desi's spot I might get back up on stage with Marie and do a couple of my own tunes too...

Saturday 19th March 2011: The Old Bush Inn, Hinksford, West Mids.
I'm playing guitar with the Sensational Sound Bites, who are are great local band that I sit in with for fun when I'm not busy doing my own music. Marie's going to be there too on bass.

Best of all I'll be getting up to do a song or two of my own (accompanied by Marie as always) at some point in the night's proceedings....

Th, th, th, that's all folks!!
(Don't you just love Bugs Bunny? -lol!) That's it for this week. Hopefully I can shake this cold soon and get on with arranging the release of some new tracks next week!!

Brett x

The March of Time!!

2011-03-03T16:57:00.000Z

Wow it's March already; where'd the time go???

I've been slow updating the blog this week so didn't quite get a chance to list this weeks gigs... But if any of you have a time machine, last night's performance at the Plough & Harrow in Kinver was a great one -lol!!

I'm probably (never say never -lol!) not going to play again this week as I'm sorting out my first music releases of 2011. I'll post more info when I have the release dates ready, but I'm hoping to be able to get 5 or 6 singles out in early spring as I've built up quite a backlog of tracks that I'm very proud of but haven't made it onto iTunes yet. More info coming very soon...

Brett x

This Weeks Live Performances

2011-02-23T04:42:00.001Z

I'm still feeling the effects of my eye infection and cold but I'm sure I can still squeeze 2 or 3 performances this week...

Wednesday 23rd February 2010:
The Plough & Harrow, High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HD.

I'm playing a short acoustic set, accompanied by Marie (Approx 20/25 minutes) as guests of their friends Anthony and Al Cox at their gig/open mic night. Entertainment starts around 9.30pm.

Friday 25th February 2010
The Fox Tavern, Titford Lane, Rowley Regis, West Midlands.
I'm sitting in playing lead guitar with local band The Sensational Sound Bites. Marie will be there too playing bass (I've been teaching her the instrument so it's good practice ;-) The Sound Bites are a just a fun covers band I play guitar in when I'm not busy doing my own music, but it's a lot of fun and they're a great local band... It's also a good excuse for me to get my electric guitar out!! Starts around 9pm ish...

Finally this week....
I may well pop along to Woody's Bar in Bilston, West Mids on Sunday afternoon (27th Feb) and do a few songs there as my friend Desi is doing a spot too... But it depends on how late I'm in the studio the night before -lol! I think the afternoon session kicks off around 12.30pm

Brett x

Our first visit to Rushwick Folk/Acoustic Club

2011-02-18T07:55:00.007Z

This week (Saturday 12th February) Brett and I went out into the Worcestershire countryside to a sleepy little town called Rushwick. Often cited as being a brilliant Folk/Acoustic Club by Mr Desi Cochran, (whose a friend of ours and has played there before), Brett thought we should go along and have a look - and hopefully do a spot there.

Our journey, however, was far from straight-forward; having somehow managed to get lost in Worcester and so end up on the wrong side of the river Severn-lol! After doubling back a few miles, and returning into Worcester and over the bridge, we finally made it - (huge sigh of relief!).

As we quietly shuffled in, to the well attended folk/roots and acoustic club in the Village Hall we were met by Frank, who runs the Rushwick club. He gave us a spot in the second half, so we sat down to listen to East West Infusion (friends of ours) who did some really excellent tunes on accordian and flute.Another highlight of the night who we enjoyed hearing was Tony Portlock who played some very enjoyable blues songs and is well known on the local circuit.

After a little chat in the interval where we discussed what songs to play, Brett decied to start with with 'Watching The Waters' as Brett won the Plymouth Folk Festival Songwriting Competition with this song, and then followed it with his blues song 'Gimme Some Soul' as that genre seemed to be popular at the Rushwick club.

It was great to have a lot of room onstage (rarely the case -lol), so neither Brett or me were cramped, and were able to set up as we wanted. It was a great vantage point too, thanks to the height of the stage and the well lit room -so we could see all rhe auidence's faces clearly...

I don't quite think they knew what to make of us as we were 'new' faces from out of town, but as soon as Brett sang the first haunting lines from his song (I don't play until the second verse so I get to audience watch :-) you could see the nods of approval going round the room!

After the gentle 'Watching The Water's our rendition of Brett's blues song was quite uptempo and very spirited, we decided to go for contrast rather than playing 2 songs in the same style... But that's the beauty of Brett's music it spans so many styles effortlessly, and yet you can still spot the thread that links his songs and marks out his unique writing style...

Thanks to everyone at Rushwick for their enthusiastic applause and for making us feel very welcome! Frank thanked us both for coming all the way from Oldbury, but we were greatful for a great evening of music and the opportunity to show folks what we do best!!

PS Fortunately we didn't get lost on the way back ;-)

Marie x

The Plough And Harrow Kinver

2011-02-18T07:19:00.004Z

On Wednesday 9th February Brett and I popped along to The Plough and Harrow, Kinver, where we joined our friends Ant and Al Cox at their weekly gig-plus-guest-spots-from-other-musicians. Brett (backed as always by me on on harmonies and percussion!) played a 20 minute set of original songs plus his newest one, called 'She's a Poet', which we figured was very apt considering that Valentines day was just around the corner.

Brett then gently reminded everyone to buy cards, chocolates and flowers, or face getting a clip round the ear from their loved ones-lol.

After a calm and melodious acapella intro, we were 'in the zone'.

As the tempo quickened, and my percussion pounded, everyone looked on, then Brett launched into some very impressive guitar embellishments, followed by a key change and some fast and furious tambourine rhythms from me.

The room felt like it was on fire due to the heating, and hopefully our shear enthusiasm to play this new song for a busy pub of musicians, customers and friends helped keep the temerature soaring too -lol.

We got a little carried away, but as we slowed down to end Brett's new song, everyone applauded enthusiastically, so it was great that they enjoyed hearing 'She's a Poet' as much as we'd enjoyed performing it!!

It's was another wonderful night for us, plus when we'd played we got to enjoy Ant and Al's great set too, as well as a super performance from Howard their father who also got up to do a spot. The pub atmosphere at the Plough during Ant/Al's gig/open mic is always really friendly and it's well worth a visit for music lovers and performers alike.

Marie x

14th-20th Feb 2011 Gig Guide

2011-02-18T06:57:00.001Z

Hi Everyone,
Due to Brett being struck down by a nasty cold and eye infection, we won't be doing much this week. He has been sent to bed with a hot water bottle and a glass of whiskey and told off by me for overdoing things-lol!

But he will be back out there performing next week hopefully. (If he does what he's told :-)

Marie x

7th -13th Feb 2011 Gig Guide

2011-02-10T06:49:00.008Z

Posted by Marie

Hi everyone,

Due to all the requests and to save time emailing everyone individually, we're now going to start a weekly/fortnightly gig guide so that everyone knows where Brett will be playing. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but we'll list as many gigs and live performances as possible.

Monday 7th February to Sunday 13th February 2011

This weeks main/foreseeable gigs and performances:

Wednesday 9th February: The Plough & Harrow, High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HD.
Brett Huckfield with Marie will be playing an acoustic set (Approx 20/25 minutes) as guests of their friends Anthony and Al Cox at their gig/open mic night. Entertainment starts around 9.30pm.

Friday 11th February - The Talbot, 73 High Street, Bewdley, Worcestershire, DY12 2DJ.
Brett Huckfield will be playing lead guitar with fab local band The Sensational Sound Bites. Marie will also be joining Brett and the band onstage as bassist. 'Playing guitar in the Sound Bite's is just a but of fun for Marie and me for days when I'm not doing my own gigs or recording, but the SSB's are a great little band and we always have a great night' (Brett).

Saturday 12th February - Rushwick Village Hall, Worc's, WR2 5TH.
Rushwick is a folk/acoustic night held at the Town Hall once a month. 'Everyone's always telling me to get down to Rushwick with Marie as it's a great club for me to play at, so we're going to give it a try' (Brett)

Having never played/visited the Rushwick club before we have very little info, but our good friend Desi who co-runs The Circle Folk & Roots club advises us that the evening starts around 8pm, and that there's no bar however tea and coffee are apparently served in the interval.

Sunday 13th February - Woody's at the Robin 2 R&B Club, Bilston, West Midlands
Woody's run a Sunday afternoon acoustic session (starting around 12pm). Desi is planning to play at the session this week, so Brett Huckfield and Marie are going along to watch, but will almost certainly play too.

That's all for this week... Sometimes there are extra gigs/peformances that we won't have time to post, but we'll do our best to list most of them.

Some events will not be shown as they tend to vary from week to week.

Marie x

Fun at The Bell & Talbot

2011-02-07T19:33:00.008Z

Written by Marie (Brett's percusionist/backing vocalist)

On Friday 4th February Brett, (accompanied by me as always at his acoustic gigs -lol!) ...played a gig at The Bell & Talbot in Bridgnorth. I'd like to say a HUGE big thank-you to all of the supporters of Brett's music who went to the gig - including some friends and fine musicians and performers too...

Brett had the furthest to travel to get to the gig, so we met up at my house before setting out. After we loaded the car full to the brim with guitars, mic stands and equipment we still managed to sandwich my brother Mike and my Mother in there too, which is quite impressive for a hatchback-lol!

After a quick set up, sound check, and Brett's usual humourous introductions (you think I'd get used to him as I'm there for all the gigs, but no he has me in stitches sometimes too :-) Brett launched into a delicate solo acoustic guitar part as a prelude to our opening song; the haunting 'Watching The Waters' (the song won Brett 1st prize in the Plymouth Folk Songwriting Competition in 2002) we introduced ourselves and began the first half of our set.

The song is a firm favourite with everyone who comes to see Brett's acoustic set. It received a wonderful round of applause as always, which was a great to start the night. Brett was playing his new Takamine guitar that he'd just bought, and as ever I was doing the backing harmonies and playing my assortment of percussion instruments.

However to lighten the mood a bit at the end of the first set I got a kazoo out and played it, and this time it was Brett's turn to smile!

Here's a photo my brother Mike snapped of the 'kazoo' moment :-)

After a quick break for refreshments, we began our second set. Brett's superb guitar work impressed the audience (as always -lol!) - and we played some new songs that Brett had just written too. They went down extremely well and got some folks up and dancing!(Which is no small thing considering it was an acoustic gig -lol!)

Towards the end of the night, during the finale and encores we invited Guy the landlord up to join us on his drum kit. As you can see from the pic, he loves to play along (and who can blame him!!).

We had a really great time at the Bell & Talbot and look forward to returning soon (next dates will be posted in the gig guide on this blog).
With so many compliments after the gig regarding Brett's songs and performance and my percussion and harmonies - we felt truly humble and very appreciated; thank-you so much!

Too many wonderful folks to remember everyone we'd like to thank - but to mention just a few; a big thanks to Bill & Judy, Rich & Jessica, Desi, Guy, Bill & Rosemary for joining us and helping to making it such a wonderful night -Thanks guys!

Marie x

2010 Recap And Thanks To Everyone... Plus We're Having A Proper 12 Days Of Christmas Break; No More Shopping Till Jan -Lol!

2010-12-28T06:34:00.000Z

As the Christmas celebrations are in full flow and the year draws towards a close, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has supported my music either online or at gigs over the past year!!

2010 was mostly a year of live acoustic performances and gigs for me (with the help of Marie on percussion and backing vocals as always!). I also managed to squeeze in some really enjoyable, but less serious gigs sitting in as guitarist with local band The Sensational Soundbites.

I didn't get much time to record in 2010 - though I did just manage to release a Christmas/New Year single in December (based around a bunch of traditional festive tunes!). I had a lot of fun recording that, and to add to the mood I brought Marie in to do some additional harmonies and percussion...

It's a bit late to promote the single this year (I only wrote it in mid December -lol!); so I'll re-release the song next year when I'll have more time to get it out there. But thanks to Jason Forrest for including it in his Jason and Zoe In The Milkbar Podcast (Episode 80) http://themilkbar.podbean.com/

The single's called 'Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne' and it's available from iTunes and Amazon (etc) to download. Marie posted the YouTube link in the previous post but I'll pop it here again in case anybody missed it...

Hope you're enjoying a great Christmas holiday... This year I've decided to spend the Christmas/New Year Holidays having a proper break with friends and family, so no amount of advertising is going to drag me out to the shops before early January; I want the full 12 days of Xmas, not a 1 day holiday and 11 spent round the shops!! ...Traditional Christmas here we come -lol!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Brett, Marie, Mike and Jake (the dog!) xxx

Christmas Carols and Auld Lang Syne by Brett Huckfield.wmv

2010-12-19T23:43:00.005Z

Hi Everyone, I'm really over the moon because I did my first bit of studio recording yesterday. Me and Brett were joking around with Christmas Carols, and then he pieced them all together into a song the clever so and so...
We recorded it at Brett's studio and I got to play percussion and sing some harmonies. The song sounds absolutely wonderful and we are both very pleased with it.
Brett has now released it on iTunes and uploaded it to youtube for all to see.
So hope you all enjoy listening to it and hopefully will want to download it from iTunes-lol!
From both Brett and Myself, we would like to wish all of our supporters a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Marie x

Stourport here we come!

2010-12-01T16:08:00.000Z

On Friday 15th October we set off for an evening in good old Stourport, where we played a lovely little gig.
As always our loyal fans and friends Bill, Judy and Rich came along to show their support and listen to us play once more.

Mike also did a first class job of taking pics and carrying equipment for us-bless him-lol!

During the evening we played our classic songs 'Here Again' and Watching The Waters' which always go down well. Followed by some of our newer songs that we've added to our set, and our audience seemed to like them. The highlight of the night for me was our blues track 'Gimme Some Soul' as it went down a storm and made everyone cheer!

Clive the manager of the pub asked if he could get up and sing a soul classic with us too, so during the second half of our set, we got him up on the mic to do his bit-lol! He enjoyed himself and so did we lol!

We would like to say a big thanks to Clive and all the staff for having us!

Marie x

A Wonderful Night Playing A Showcase At 'The Circle'

2010-10-18T18:10:00.006+01:00

On Wednesday 13th October Brett and I (me backing him on percussion and harmony vocals!) played a showcase at The Circle; an excellent acoustic and roots music club in Coseley, West Midlands, UK.

It was (as usual -lol!) a very busy week for us with all Brett's gigs and his City Blue album release looming up (at the last count we'd performed well over a hundred times this year so far -lol!) but Brett and I have a special place in our hearts for The Circle and it's members, many of whom are talented performers in their own right - so after an invite from Desi and Harry to play, Brett packed up his Takamine guitar, I bundled together all my percussion and off we went :-)

It was a great treat to sit back and watch all The Circle performers play, then during the break we set up ready for our showcase set. Brett picked out a lively mixture of songs from our usual live acoustic set, a few songs from his forthcoming acoustic album (that will follow City Blue) and a brand new song he's written that I love called 'She's A Poet' (we were literally working out the vocals to the new song and harmonies in the car on the way -lol!).

Thanks to everyone at the event for all their support and for making it such a special night, and also for posing for a photo! (While Mike was taking a few snaps Brett asked everyone to turn round and wave -as you can see in one of the pics below).

We had a fabulous time; thanks to Desi, Harry and to all the members of the The Circle for a lovely night, and rest assured we'll be back down as soon as Brett gets a free Wednesday!

More blogs coming soon; thanks for dropping by!!

Marie x