Kentuckyseven

And so it continues… The Friday experience was covered in sunrays and beautiful gut-wrenching tear-making soul-surfing music all over town.

STURGILL SIMPSON

7/7 Kentuckyseven’s

Photo: Jonas Löfvendahl

Kentuckyman Sturgill Simpson knocked us down and out! The early bird gig at 13.00 inside the tent of Linné was nothing but legendary. He strolls on stage and gets going. The hard-knit band with Miles Miller on the smallest drum set ever seen, bassman Kevin Black, guitarman Laur Joamets and pianoman Jeff Crow sets pace. It’s groovy country music, so great tears fill my eyes again and again. The feeling in Sturgills voice, that 70-country-twang, turned into excellence. Every song got a jam session and when they end with Listening To The Rain (Osborne Brothers) emotions run high. Sturgill Simpson, we love you.

EMMYLOU HARRIS & RODNEY CROWELL

5/7 Kentuckyseven’s

Photo: Jonas Löfvendahl

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have camped together for decades in the country and folk business. They kind of made it. On stage everything is boiled down to the ground. What remains is the backbone, the foundation modern day songwriters firmly stands on. Emmylou is still the most beautiful and coolest cat in the house – and to hear Townes Van Zandts wonderful Pancho & Lefty live on stage in the middle of Slottsskogen, Gothenburg a hot summer day feels like a true blessing. Thanks!

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

Photo: Olle Kirchmeier

7/7 Kentuckyseven’s

When Florence Welch enters the stage, it all comes together. Before she even opens her mouth, you know that this is going to be THE gig of WOW 2015. Welch is a force of nature. Something wild and untamed and packed with love for everyone and everything. The set list is magnificent, and the concert doesn’t have one shred of time that isn’t filled with love. This is by far the best concert by Florence + The Machine I have ever witnessed. I am so lucky to have seen it. I am blessed. I am in love.

PINS

6/7 Kentuckyseven’s

Photo: Jonas Löfvendahl

The punkband from darling Manchester rocks the socks of Pustervik way into the darkness of night. They tell us straight away: we got 30 minutes to play – no time to mess around. When the third song, the great Young Girls, hits us like a Joy Division-fist we’re hooked for life. It’s in your face, dirty & dark, sweaty & sweet, a homerun all around Järntorget. It’s the red light district exposed. They take us to the Northern Quarter of Manchester, to Canal Street and the hollow bars. The band is nowaydays (two albums in) on Bella Union and for sure got greatness ahead.

NATALIE PRASS

Photo: Magnus Säfström

4/7 Kentuckyseven’s

Stay Out West holds some great concerts. Natalie Prass went on stage @ Pustervik at 11. Her voice is impeccable, and in Bird of Prey it really shows what an great artist she is. The variety in the gig gets a bit confusing, and sometimes a bit hard to concentrate and to keep up the interest. But when she gets that electric guitar back up again and lets her hair hang down and gives us My Baby Don’t Understand Me, she is brilliant.

• Benjamin Booker got his own raw blend of garageblues going on. The New Orleans based rocker released an awesome, self-titled debut album a year ago and will be one of the highlights of this years Stay Out West in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Mr Booker gigs new stage Honduras, Bananpiren at 01.25 Friday night. It will be messy. It will be intense. It will be hair-raising, down-strapping, high-flying rock n rola. See ya’ll there, readers!

With the line up for Stay Out West, who needs anything more? Ever?

Natalie Prass, is what Rolling Stone Magazine defines as one of “Ten New Artists You Need To Know.” and one of Time Magazine’s “15 Artists To Watch in 2015.” That is what a lot of artists would kill to be, once, in their whole career.

Prass’ music travels over many genres and sounds. Her voice keeps growing and never lets you go, that firm grip, that delicate subtle, yet strong soft whisper, that holds more power than you thought you came for. Pure and clean. Hits me right there, every time.

Natalie Prass will be playing friday @ Pustervik, be there in time. You don’t wanna miss this Virginian pop-country/singer/songwriter.

Kurt Vile & The Violators

6/7

”An epic display”

The ragged, smelly Stay Out West-crowd entered the Opera house of Gothenburg and the rest is history. Kurt Vile made it a night for the ages. The Pennsylvania longhaired slacker dude slammed his guitar into bits and pieces, an absolute epic display that bubbled into cosmos and back. Divine, heartwarming, bone-chilling. The crisp and pitch perfect sound of the opera chamber made the Vile night almighty justice.

Conor Oberst

5/7

”Up for the fight”

Photo: Olle Kirchmeier

All the way from Omaha Nebraska…Mr Oberst in his wide-brimmed hat. Behind him, folk-rocker band Dawes, and the front man is up for the fight. The combo Dawes+Conor is a perfect match and I sure hope they stay together. Oberst sits down at the keyboard, he spins and turns with his acoustic guitar, and beautiful Americana songs as Zigzagging Towards the Light and Artifact #1 gets under our skin.

I Break Horses

6/7

”dark and powerful”

When Maria Lindén enters the dark stage @ GBG Filmstudios, the anticipation is super high. Wearing a veil she delivers just what everyone came for. A dark and powerful night of sounds and vocals that seem to be close to perfection. Only some technical errors seems to bother the singer. No one else hears any errors, just magic. I will keep this night close to me for a long time.

• Joel Borg is the ear on every street. He´s the talk of the town, the shit of the fan, the mojo of hobos. He’s also on of the whizz kids behind Way Out West and we got a minute of his time.

1. Thursday is close. What’u doing up til then?

– I’m in Stockholm today. We’re having Neil Young, GOAT, Magic Numbers, Seun Kuti and more today at Stockholm Music & Arts. Will be super. The sun is shining and the beer is cold, says Joel Borg.

2. Any personal favorite bookings this year?

– Mac DeMarco, The Growlers, Mos Def and Darkside, Elliphant, The Horrors, Holograms, Hurula, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Kurt Vile, Les Big Byrd, Södra Sverige, MÖ, OutKast and like 100 others. Also, the film programme is fucking ace.

3. We are really looking forward to Friday night, Broken Twin and Kurt Vile tearing down the opera house of Gothenburg. Thoughts on the operetto gigs?

– Yes. Me too. We love challenging peoples thoughts. And we love having artists in forums/venues they might not play in everyday. But maybe mostly, having people over at places they never been to before. The Opera House is right in the center of the City but I can almost promise you most of the Way Out West audience that will be at Kurt Vile next week have probably never seen anything there before.

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• Thanks to brother Joel – and check out one of his fav WOW-bands this year below. The Growlers is a Cali-band with that funky cool garage/psych-vibe we adore. Try the song Humdrum Blues and go see them Friday nite at 23.45 @ Stay Out West.

This summer, the town of Gothenburg is once again blessed with the greatest festival we have ever seen. Way Out West will make this city glow in august.

One of the great acts that will give the festival its golden shimmer is Nicole Sabouné, who with her debut album ”Must Exist” has Kentuckyseven on our knees. The music sounds like it is meant to be played on stage in front of screaming music lovers. We will certainly be there.

Listen to this marvelous piece and close your eyes and picture yourself in front of the stage… at Stay Out West, in August.

You can hear Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement and other great influences while examining the DNA of Yuck. I love it!

What a perfect sound, what a great band. Noisy and brilliant. A UK-band really taking a swing at the USA-90´s and hitting it out of the stadium.

Their self-titled debutalbum is out on Spotify check it out. Can´t wait to see them on Stay Out West in Gothenburg, Sweden this summer.

Try out ”The Wall”, song number 2 from the album: