Back again it’s the band with the longest name in Folk-Punk (and possibly the most members) with another release of original music. Dorset’s finest Folky-Americana-Country-Punk band The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show’s new EP is out now on Musical Bear Records.
The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show are back again with their brand new EP and four all new tracks recorded entirely in a barn in North Dorset! Now this being the Summer it’s a wonder they have found the time as this is most definitely their time and one look at their list of gigs past and present the last few weeks shows a band that has crisscrossed the South of England playing just about every festival imaginable! Formed in Dorset in 2016 The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show have steadily grown in stature and popularity over the following years due in no small part to their hectic touring(no mean feat for a band that sometimes has up to ten members!) and they have added to their great reputation as a live band with a well received album and several EP’s of their own original compositions. Their debut album, Weeding Out The Wicked, came out in 2017 and has been followed by three quality EP’s in the following couple of years, Float Your Boat, A Snake’s A Snake and Oh Me Oh Mi. Releases that all capture The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show sound perfectly. American bluegrass and Americana butting heads with quaint auld English folk. A quintessential English folk group that could have been born at the heyday of Folk-Rock in the mid-1970’s and takes in influences from those halcyon days before redefining them and bringing them bang up to date.
The first of the EP’s quintet of songs is the title track ‘They Say I Don’t Write Love Songs’ and follows on in what I now think of as the traditional The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show way. A catchy thigh slapping driving beat accompanied by the sounds of more instruments then you could possibly take in all at once though the duelling banjo and fiddle shine through. The vocals from Mark are as usual strong and powerful and the words talk about how love changes us. Theirs a a nice slow break in the middle which gives the song a chance to build up and come back strong and yeah I really love it!!! They follow this swiftly with the glorious ‘Raise My Glass’ and a hoedown country stomper that is guaranteed to get audiences up and doing that famous dance scene from Seven Brides For Several Brothers! A typical drinking anthem that sees the band really go for it and if I have ever had any criticism of The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show it is that they sometimes are too restrained and ought to just to bloody well go for it like on ‘Raise My Glass’. A heartfelt cry from the heart in praise of all that’s good in a difficult world. They move away from their usual Summery/bouncy style with ‘Hanging The Bells’ which has a much tougher bite to it and comparisons to New Model Army leap out at you with the acoustic guitar and fiddle pushed to the fore over a song about getting away from the drudgery of life, or as singer Mark says
“a song about the impossible, wonderful dream of awakening from the nightmare of history; to a dog’s life away from the grinding forces of politics”.
The EP comes to an delicate end as fiddle player Alison Jay takes over on vocal duties for ‘Teenage Dreams’ for this slow paced number on the danger of surrounding yourselves in nostalgia. The song drifts along beautifully before speeding up ever so slightly towards the end and again the amazing banjo playing and a-plucking shines a light on all the band do.
The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show left to right: Seb Hartley- Harmonica, Mandolin * Martin Giles- Guitar * Steve Wareham- Slapbox * Alison Jay- Violin * Chris Pearce- Keys (back of photo) * Rob Volves- Bass (back of photo) * Olly Hopper Pay- Guitar, Cello (back of photo) * Mark Lyons- Singer, Guitar * Jamie Lynch- Lyrics * Brad Watt- Banjo *
As already stated this band can sometimes reach up to double figures so getting them down on record so vibrantly is no mean feat I can assure you and here on They Say I Don’t Write Love Songs they have the talent of fellow Dorset musician Charlie Draper to thank. Having already featured here on the London Celtic Punks site as vocalist/guitarist of Sinful Maggie (we will be reviewing their new release in the next week or so) Charlie has done a utterly brilliant job of capturing the energy and passion of the band whilst losing none of their trademark knock out Folk-Punk choruses. Though they don’t make it particularly easy to hear them play outside the South-East it might be worth your while YOU seeking them out!
Buy They Say I Don’t Write Love Songs mark1lyons@icloud.com
The EP is released on Friday 16th August and sadly there is no pre-order or links but as soon as they become available on release I will add them here.
Contact The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show Facebook
Musical Bear Records WebSite YouTube Facebook
Seems like only yesterday (it was in fact last December!) that we were introducing you to the sounds of The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show and here they are again following up A Snakes A Snake with another brilliant release, this time in the shape of new EP Oh Me Oh Mi. Formed in Dorset in 2016 they have rapidly become firm favourites on the south coast music festival scene in a relatively short time. I saw them on the bill at Cursus festival last year and as infectiously fun and lovable as anyone who played that weekend. They describe themselves as ‘Heartfelt, Ramshackle Country Punk’ and that seems as good way to tell you that their sound comes packed with influences from all over the shop all packed together in what back in the day we use a call a ‘festival’ band. The sort of band (Dorset and it’s neighbour Devon have always had loads of them) that never seem to record anything and are really nothing much more than a large group of mates who get together and jam danceable good time folky tunes at festivals. In the olden days it was Demo tapes and these days its the internet that introduces us to bands we may never see. Oh Me Oh Mi is the bands fourth release after their debut album, Weeding Out The Wicked, in 2017 and two singles Float Your Boat and A Snake’s A Snake. So as you can see they have been tremendously busy racking up more releases than most bands twice their age.
The Two Man Travelling Medicine Show are quintessentially a English folk group that has soaked up enough influences to make them more than interesting enough. A band that English Summers were made for they manage to combine busy and energetic country/folk with some slower more intense material that only adds to their worth as a great band. With Oh Me Oh Mi though they have proved they are not just for bouncing up and down to in the English countryside, theirs a whole lot more to them.
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