The Blue Highways rocked a
hot Saturday afternoon in an iconic venue in London, taking to the stage on day
1 of the first Country In The Afternoon at Putney’s Half Moon.
A band of brothers from London, the boys have
been around music their whole lives as they come from a musical family- plus a
bassist who plays music for the British Army!
Frontman Callum, with his loud vocals and guitar playing has quite the
musical pedigree – a classically trained pianist, a church organist and a fan
of Elvis Costello seems quite the enigma, but music runs through their very
veins.
Billed as Americana, The Blue
Highways would call themselves
“Rock with an American roots feel with an R&B style rhythm section.”
Whatever you want to call it, the band are on
stage having fun and seeing what happens as the set goes.
I was greatly surprised that
it is only a year since The Blue Highways appeared on the Emerging Talent stage
at Millport Country Festival having only been together in this incarnation for
only 18 months. With 1 EP released and their second single released the day
before we met there are big things in the future with a busy summer schedule
already organised.
As brothers – how is the
dynamic for writing and performing?
Apparently this means that they can argue as only siblings can, but they
can’t walk out, because the furthest they can go is upstairs to their bedroom!
The new single formed part
of their Country In The Afternoon set, and they invited Lewis Fowler of Two
Ways Home (who features on the single) to join them on stage – mostly, simply
because they could!
Callum and Jack kindly sent
a copy of the new single so I could have another listen…
Opening with a guitar shred
that sets the tone for what is to come, Play Johnny Play is very much in the old
guitar driven rock n roll style, it’s an uptempo song that is easy to follow,
easy to sing – or indeed shout – along to and the guitars on the track sound
incredible. Callums powerful vocals seem
to almost be a match for the guitars.
The Blue Highways assembled
a plethora of some of the finest UK Americana guitarists to play on this
track. A song about a guitarist, about
how music draws you in, it is the first single I’ve been sent that has to have
a separate list of the guitarists who played on it, and each of them adds their
own style, their own twist to the playing.
Listen to this song in two halves – the raw vocal from Callum, and the
incredible band of guitars – and neither half will disappoint!
“With Jack (the band’s lead guitarist) and our six guest stars, we had our own Magnificent Seven - each bringing something different but also working together to create a single great track,” says Callum
List of guitarists: CJ Hillman - 2 time AMA UK
Instrumentalist of the year Henry Senior - AMA UK Instrumentalist of the year
nominee (Danny and the Champs) Jack Lury - The Blue Highways Joe Hazell - Curse
of Lono Lewis Fowler - Two Ways Home Paul Lush - AMA UK Instrumentalist of the
year nominee (The Lost Sons of Littlefield, Danny and the Champs) Tony Poole -
King of the electric 12-string Rickenbacker (Starry Eyed and Laughing, Bennett
Wilson Poole)
Watch out for The Blue
Highways on stage, at festivals – and maybe even in church if Callum is on
organ duty!
The Blue Highways new single
“Play Johnny Play” is now available on the usual platforms, and the band can be
found online, on Facebook and on Spotify
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