Privileged to be invited into Billy’s lovely BBC Radio Merseyside radio show last Saturday night playing tracks from our new CD Seekers Of Solace, with 3 live tracks from Barry and Ronnie. For the next 3 weeks you can hear the show HERE

The first twenty minutes had a few technical problems apparently but after that we’re chatting with Billy and an hour in we had a half hour slot all to ourselves! Some very kind words from our antipodean friend Ken O’Flaherty who was chatting to Billy from 2 hours in! Hoping to see him when he comes over in a few weeks!

We had a lovely time at Folk On The Farm 2017 in Anglesey. Here’s a video of Old Fools, the opening track off Seekers Of Solace from the Friday night main stage performance.

And it was The Ian Prowse Monday Club at the Cavern Pub 6th Birthday last Monday, here’s a picture of Ronnie and Barry with Ian Prowse and Mark Lacey for the finale of a very enjoyable evening! Photo courtesy Martin Graham.

Old Fools  is the opening track from our new CD, the fifth full length CD that we have produced since we formed in 2008. We’ve been playing this song as an opening song to our live set for a while now so we thought we would put it as the opener for the CD. It’s there on Soundcloud to play or download for free, just follow the link. Review copies are being despatched now and a launch is planned for the autumn, details to follow.

Another song from the CD is Song For Stan, written for our good friend Stan Ambrose (1930-2016) presenter/producer of Folkscene on BBC Radio Merseyside for 49 years. We were fortunate to have five hour long programmes with Stan, and many other chats and meetings. He also played at Acoustic Dustbowl events and we were very sad to lose him, he was a genuine, caring person with a social conscience and a wonderful musician as well! To accompany Song For Stan we’ve made a youtube video, edited from Simply Stan The Man, a full length film made by A D Kapro about Stan’s life. Adrien was happy to let us use the film, for which we are very grateful and you can watch it here Song For Stan

Meteorologically speaking it’s Spring apparently, and the daffodils and crocus are joining the snowdrops, which is always a good sign for those of us seasonally affected syndrome sufferers, so it’s time for a new post! In January we had the pleasure of a wonderful few hours on Halton Community Radio with the tireless Tony Higginson, chatting and playing some of our songs along with our good friend Ian D Hall (not forgetting Judith!). Mixcloud has the evidence here and here and a little bit on the end of this one.

I’d post the photo if I could find it, but it’s eluding me at the moment. Speaking of photos I’ve taken the opportunity to post some of my photographs from Barry Jones Photography as I don’t have a separate website anymore (Long story!) so I thought I’d display some on a page here. There are a mixture of styles and subjects, mainly music pictures from my time with Americana UK and R2 magazine and as in house photographer at Southport Arts Centre, now the Atkinson, who still have some of my photographs on permanent display (Although the credits have mainly disappeared! Was it ever thus?)

Very nice poster from our visit to the famous Jacaranda thanks to our lovely friend Thom Morecroft

We have some nice things planned for the coming year, I’ll post them on the gig page as soon as I have confirmation, but a few trips to the enchanted Isle of Anglesey are eagerly anticipated including another appearance at the delightful, bijou Folk On The Farm Festival, please consider attending, it’s inexpensive, it’s a terrific place, they do great work and Jon Hippy and his team will make you feel very welcome I assure you! Also a, tinged with sadness, appearance at the soon to close View Two Gallery, the scene of many wonderful evenings, at an evening planned by our good friends Liverpool Acoustic.

Thanks for checking in with the page, Ronnie and I have been playing together for 9 years this month ( “And it don’t seem a day too long!” As the old song goes!)  Best wishes to all! Barry xx

Ronnie and I were invited back into BBC Radio Merseyside for Billy Maher’s Weekend Inn programme on Christmas Eve (here’s the link available until 22 Jan or thereabouts! Music segment from 61 minutes in!) I can’t think of a finer way to end the year! Billy Maher takes a great photo don’t you think?

And we’re going to be on Tony Higginson’s radio programme on Halton Community Radio on January 8th which will be a lovely way to start the New Year! Very best wishes to all our readers as they used to say in The Beano and thanks to all our lovely friends and supporters who’ve stuck with us from all over the world. It really means a lot and makes it all worthwhile.

Last year this was a new song! As Christmas songs go it’s still fairly new so I’ll post it here again if only for a short time, just because it’s Christmassy, with a dog having fun in the snow. I’m guessing that Reindeers having fun in the snow might be more Christmassy, but I’ve never had one as a pet so I don’t have any appropriate home videos, sorry about that! This was Dougal, a curmudgeonly little character who was a bit of a ladies man! Much missed!

Peace and Love to you all! Barry and Ronnie SAB xx

Christmas Has Come Around

We’ve been very privileged to have been on BBC Radio Merseyside with our friend Billy Maher many times and each time have an opportunity to play some songs live. He has us back thanks to those people who tell him each time that they like to hear us chat and play which is very humbling for us and very much appreciated. It’s like a big family with people listening locally and from around the world, Canada, Florida, Australia and Earlestown! Here’s a link to last night’s programme which will be available for a month Billy Maher’s Weekend Inn 30 July 2016.

Many thanks to our friends around the world, wherever you are! Barry &Ronnie xx

The Narrowboat Sessions are just that, recording sessions on a narrowboat, a wonderfully simple concept developed by Mark and Sue Holdsworth. Travelling the beautiful canals of the UK, Mark and Sue invite musicians onto their home and get them to play a few songs which are videoed and recorded for future charity CD’s. Southbound Attic Band were recorded during a warm sunny day in July in Chester in 2014 and the videos of the three tracks are now included in video form on our Music/Video page. The track the Ballad of George and Maude has been selected for the first of the CD collections (Launch date TBA) which also includes, amongst many others, tracks by Henry Priestman and Les Glover, Steve Tilston and probably the last ever recordings by the late, lovely Maggie Boyle. We consider it a real privilege to have been involved and I’ve included here a video from the same sessions of Steve and Maggie and their rendition of Silver Dagger, for no other reason other than I love it and it always brings a tear to my eye (in a good way!)

Steve Tilston and Maggie Boyle-Silver Dagger

Here’s a link to last night’s Billy Maher’s Weekend Inn show on BBC Radio Merseyside. Ronnie and I are there chatting to Billy and making a general nuisance of ourselves from the start, then our music slot starts 58 minutes in with 5 live songs, including Valparaiso Bound(Additional vocals by B. Maher!) from the Willows Suite especially for our antipodean friend Ken O’Flaherty. He’s a lovely man that Billy Maher. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03gmd05#playphoto by Ken O’Flaherty

Christmas is here and we’ve released a Christmas EP. Entitled Christmas Has Come Around the EP also features the Southbound Attic Band  version of The Fair and a new song Give Me A Sign, a jug band/skiffle type song with Ronnie ‘s versatility coming to the fore on washboard. The EP is available for £3 including P&P in the UK from finbarj@gmail.com or through the site contact page. You can hear the title song Christmas Has Come Around Here.  Or see a video Here. Many thanks to everybody who has played a track or a video or been to see us play or who has heard us on the radio and been in touch and to all those who came to the  revival of The Willows Suite or who came to the Acoustic Dustbowl sessions. Chris, Mark and I have decided to suspend the Acoustic Dustbowl nights for now, after 3 years so many thanks especially to all our regulars who we now count as friends. An extra special thanks to our friends overseas who we’ve met through Billy Maher and Ken O’Flaherty and the Bushwackers Club on BBC Radio Merseyside; have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Barry and Ronnie,

Southbound Attic Band

Folkscene with Stan Ambrose 22 November 2015 Once again we are indebted to Stan Ambrose for featuring The Willows Suite by Southbound Attic Band  and an interview with Barry about the writing of the piece, for a full hour on his BBC Radio Merseyside programme. We are really fortunate and grateful to have had the support of Stan and Billy Maher as well as Billy Butler and Spencer Leigh and Geoff Speed before he retired. Add to that the support we’ve had from Michael Hooton at Mon FM on the beautiful Isle of Anglesey Ian Tinsley, Sally Tapia Bowes and Tony Higginson at Halton Community Radio and Billy Kelly at Mersey Radio and we really do feel privileged. Many thanks to you all.

 SAB with Billy Maher pic. by Ken O’Flaherty

As well as great support from Stan Ambrose and Folkscene, we’ve been very lucky to have the support and friendship of Billy Maher and last night Ronnie and I were privileged to be invited into Billy Maher’s Weekend In(n) programme on BBC Radio Merseyside to meet Ken O’Flaherty all the way from Queensland, Australia,and his Brother-in-law, Alan, to have a chat and to play a few songs.  Ken has a regular slot on Billy’s programme on the phone from Australia, but is on his travels at the moment and has been on the programme in person. You can hear the programme again here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033c5yl#play; we’re there from the start in the background and our music slot starts around 01:01 in, and it will be available for a month. We played four songs including three from the Willows Suite, with some of the background stories. It was a real treat for us to be there and get a chance to communicate with Billy and Ken’s friends from the Bushwackers Club Downunder, a Facebook community with members from all over the world which you can find here;  https://www.facebook.com/groups/802348899805528/?fref=ts . We have  had renewed interest in The Willows Suite following on from two recent successful performances at a new independent bookshop Write Blend; http://bobstone189.wix.com/write-blend?fb_ref=Default on South Road, Waterloo, Liverpool, thanks to Tony, Bob and Sally-Anne. Ian D Hall of Liverpool Sound and Vision came to the first night and gave us a wonderful 5 star review for which we are eternally grateful. You can read that here;  http://www.liverpoolsoundandvision.co.uk/2015/09/25/the-southbound-attic-band-gig-review-write-blend-waterloo/

SAB with Ken O’Flaherty, (pic by Alan)