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SARAH BORGES & THE BROKEN SINGLES + Two Fingers of Firewater + Sara Petite

Tue 20th Apr 2010

The Luminaire presents
SARAH BORGES & THE BROKEN SINGLES
+ Two Fingers of Firewater
+ Sara Petite

Doors 7.30
£10 at WeGotTickets and TicketWeb
£12 door
 
We have been following the progress of Sarah Borges at SxSW since the release of Silver City in 2005. Her gigs are always exciting events with feisty rock, driving country and heartfelt ballads found during the course of a live show.

Now with a catalogue of three great releases Sarah and the boys are going to do a headline tour of the UK for the first time in 2010. Silver City was released in 2005, followed by Diamonds In The Dark in 2007 and this years release The Stars Are Out through Sugar Hill Records and distributed by Proper.

Since SxSW this year, Sarah has gone on to perform at the AMAs in Nashville and was nominated for newcomer of the year. Following shows at the Grand Ole Opry and the Mercy Lounge, a session was recorded with Bob Harris that was transmitted on Thursday 3 December 2009.

As the great thespian Patrick Swayze once said, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." The same is true of Sarah Borges.

On the basis of her critically-lauded early work, particularly Diamonds in the Dark (2007), some pundits decided they know exactly where the Boston-area rocker and her cohorts, the Broken Singles, belong in the musical spectrum. They were mistaken. Her new record, The Stars Are Out, is about to stun them with a more vibrant, far-reaching display of what Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles are all about. And yes, there will be dancing. "We always want people to dance," enthuses Borges. "That's the best way to get a show going." After months of touring in support of Diamonds, she knew the character of her third album needed to be more upbeat than its contemplative predecessors. "I was trying to think of songs that would fit really well into our live show." The results include the slinky, '60s stroll of "Me and Your Ghost" ("That's about going out and dancing, all the things you used to do with your loved one"); the flirtatious, guitar-driven kickoff, "Do It For Free"; and "It Comes To Me Naturally," a hip-shaking tale of a girl-about-town, originally recorded by bar band supreme NRBQ.

Diamonds and Borges' 2005 debut, Silver City, often found her work filed under the Americana banner. But the time had come for Borges to explore different terrain, both as a writer and performer. The Stars Are Out is a soundtrack for Saturday nights, not Sunday mornings. "When I say I explored country music as much as possible, that doesn't mean I became perfect at it," she quickly qualifies. Borges just felt ready to take a break, until she had something new to say in that realm. And rock has always been her first love. "This is a style of music I've always listened to, and been really excited about." 

Main support are Two Fingers of Firewater.

Described by BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris as "chaotic - but wonderful", Surrey-based band Two Fingers Of Firewater call themselves Country Rock Revisionists and they'll be main support tonight. They have recently made hundreds of new friends across the UK on their recent 'revue-style' tour with Al, who said of them "They sure do play authentic country rock and are as fine a bunch of musicians and people as you will find". They are revising the classic early 70s cosmic American music sound for modern audiences for whom the names of the original artists mean little or nothing. 

Using strong melody lines, meaningful lyrics and a high standard of musicianship, the band vary their instrumental line-up by using pedal steel guitar, mandolin, accordion and synthesiser to augment their guitar, bass, drums line-up.  The distinctive country twang is provided by acoustic guitars and Telecasters, but the music never slips into C&W territory.  Lyrically they are as likely to sing about the South Bank Girl who "walks by with a pen in her hair" as they are to "count the grains of sand and count the rain" along the Endless Highway. Other tunes such as The End venture into classic Who territory with extended guitar solos and pounding basslines. Girls have been known to spontaneously erupt into dance during the opening bars of their festival favourite "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down", a revision of a bluegrass tune from the Thirties - with added wah-wah mandolin! 

This winter has seen the band ensconced in their purpose-built studio on a farm deep in rural Surrey laying down tracks for their next album release (May 2010).  Deeply melodic tunes and interesting lyrics have been wafting out into the chilly air.

"The kind of band you imagine Jack White would like to discover and keep in a cage" musicOMH.com

Sara Petite is a budding San Diego singer/songwriter who has a knack for writing good, honest songs reminiscent of Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Her voice is simple and unassuming and her music is a mesh of bluegrass, folk and country. The lyrics are heartfelt and Sara's not afraid to give everyone a pass into her personal life. From the outset, listeners are transported to the front porch of the mountain shack on Tiger Mountain where she grew up. 

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