The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Tuesday 5th July 2016

Dull Knife is named after a Native American renegade. Jack and I aren’t Native American, nor are we renegades. We did nonetheless need a name for our “alt country band.” Genres, to us, are pretty purposeless, but the fateful question is impossible to avoid. “What kind of music do you play?” One of us musters up a mumbled and addled response. “It’s like heavy electric country grunge…” Whatever that is.

We met through one of our favourite bands. The Pretty Things began to disperse in 2006 and was in need of a rhythm section, long story short, Jack started drumming for our number one 60s psych band at age 16. The year after I filled Wally’s shoes on bass and we have toured extensively ever since. The PT’s, their management and label didn’t want session players and so it was a cocktail of luck, skill and I guess the fact that they all liked us, that landed us the gig. It still leaves us rambling onto stage thinking “How the hell did we manage this?”.

Seeing as it’s easier to get two people together to rehearse or write songs, rather than say four or five members with jobs, girls, boys, drinks and various other distractions, we kept it between us.

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Amelia White’s newest album “Home Sweet hotel,” has just been chosen by THE TELEGRAPH UK as on of the top country albums of 2016. The album comes on the heels a string of well-regarded releases, TV placements (Justified) and cuts by notable artists. Music City Roots says the East Nashvillian: " Comes from that classic place between singer-songwriter, Jangle pop and country...her voice is REAL, and each song has some fascinating crystalline shape that invites close attention and touch." Tommy Womack sites Home Sweet Hotel as "seductive, and smokey, dark and woody...her voice has a quiet urgency" No Depression says "if you crossed Fleetwood Mac with Lucinda Williams this would be the result", and "Gives the audience her whole heart.” Amelia has shared stages with: Asleep At the Wheel, Brandy Clark, Tim O’ Brien and Justin Townes Earle to name a few. HOME SWEET HOTEL is has been at #5, and #6 on the Euro Americana charts for Jan-Feb. 

"Amelia White’s voice has the craggy, jagged grit and pain of Lucinda Williams at her best but it also has a sweetness that Ms Williams doesn’t possess. Allied to White’s gift for melody, some mighty fine playing from her musicians and songs that can go toe to toe with anyone and you have an album that, even this early, is going to be one of the best of the year"
Maverick 2016

"I was smitten with Amelia White’s previous album Old Postcards; and three bars into the sultry opening song on her latest disc; Dangerous Angel, I felt that same tingle in my tummy and my knees go wobbly again. There’s something darkly sexy about the way Amelia delivers the words in this ‘world weary’ love song that tugged at my heartstrings in a way very little else has managed in recent months."
Alan Harrison, Rocking Magpie 2016

“raw authentic lyrics and gorgeously lived in pipes”
No Depression 2016

“despite the consistency of her work, it’s hard to imagine White topping HOME SWEET HOTEL”
American Songwriter 2016

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“THE TIN MAN” will make it on to a fair few ‘Best Of’ lists, and deservedly so."
Maverick Magazine

“Mixing folk, country and even a little rock ‘n’ roll, all delivered with a clear, distinctive voice, some great playing and an immaculate sound, it stopped me in my tracks.”
Folk Radio UK – The Tin Man – featured album Feb 2015

“The Tin Man may forever be in search of a heart on the road, Dan Webster has it in abundance and it shows with each passing song on his latest album.”
Liverpool Sound and Vision

“His delivery is passionate, this album boasts a big, big heart.”
Folk Radio UK

Dan Webster is a seasoned English singer-songwriter. His music is influenced by sounds and story telling traditions of American and British Folk music (in its broadest sense), Americana and Rock and Roll.

Americana UK described him as ‘a hybrid of Damien Rice, Seth Lakeman and Tom McRae’. Webster just writes what he feels; in his words “it’s just about the music, there’s no plan when I’m writing, there doesn’t need to be, writing is about honesty, we connect with real experiences and real emotions in music”.

"An insightful lyricist with a great voice"
Acoustic Magazine

Dan has played too many shows to count over the years. In 2015 he played a UK headline tour and a UK tour as main support for The Paperboys, both to great acclaim. Live, Dan inspires attention; pulling you into his work with finely crafted melodies and lyrics - delivered with a powerful, and honest vocal. Fantastic solo, or with his band “The Harbour Rats”. His previous album release DIAMOND LAND received a number of plays on BBC Radio 2 and was well received critically in the press. His 2012 single release Frank Dalton was nominated for Fatea magazines track of the year.

His new self-produced release for 2015 THE TIN MAN is the pinnacle of his work to date. It explores folk, country and rock and roll across the album fusing these styles throughout the body of the work. Webster’s delivery sits perfectly within English folk and American styles through rock and roll to Country/Americana and beyond. The album is a conceptual look at life journeys both metaphorically and direct. There is a sailor’s journey, told using his arrangements of two English and one traditional American folk song. One To Remember and No.17 discuss journeys in a situational context, No.17 examining how small journeys can reflect and offer deeper insight into life and its continuing cycle. Life and loss feature throughout as well as hope and love. This is honest work, Dan lived the song Elvis, met the “old boy’ in One To Remember and rode the No. 17. (That said, in truth, he can’t remember the number of the bus route).

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I’ve been singing and playing the piano since I was about 4 years old although stopped official training not long after I was 15.  I wrote my first song at 11 years old and have been writing ever since. I try to create songs that reflect true emotions while focusing on lyrical meaning. I’ve taken inspiration from Jazz and Soul genres with influencers such as Amy Winehouse and Jorja Smith, but also find the emotional purity of reggae satisfying and also something I’d like to incorporate into my music. Although mellow and basic, I would like to create a more dense sound in future, using a wider variety of instruments.

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