The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Sunday 21st July 2019

Sidestepping the customary blues-clichés, David Migden & The Twisted Roots – their name accurately reflecting the melting pot genre – perform unique material in a genre-busting crossover of blues, rock and American roots music. His range and tone astonishing; David Migden is regarded as one of the best male vocalists of contemporary Blues music!

David Migden was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, moving to the UK as a teenager. After playing and touring around Europe, initially in the Lee Sankey Group with Matt Schofield and Ian Siegal, he then teamed up with (the then) Dirty Words, releasing “Second Hand Tattoo,” their debut album, to an excellent response from critics and fans alike. David Migden and his band, by now renamed Twisted Roots  released their follow-up album “Killing It” in 2012, once again receiving lustrous reviews in the relevant media and radio play across the globe.

David Migden & The Twisted Roots won the prestigious New Brunswick “Battle of the Blues” competition and appeared at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Canada in Sept 2013,. They were nominated in the British Blues Awards for best original song (“Shel”), and twice in a row, 2013 and 2014, in the category best singer. The band also won both Best Band and Best Newcomer in the “Blues Matters“ writers’ poll of 2013. As a result they were chosen to represent the UK at European Blues Challenge 2104 in Riga, Latvia in April 2014, where they won third place. In Riga they were noticed by Alfie Falckenbach of Blues Boulevard Records, and in the following months an agreement was reached for worldwide release of their third album of self-penned songs: “Animal And Man.”

The band’s reputation has been growing with radio play across the UK, Europe and the US.‘Animal & Man’, recorded at Rimshot studios in Kent, has the sound and songs the band have always wanted. 

The members of The Twisted Roots have each individually played with a host of internationally renowned artists including Robert Plant, James Brown, Matt Berry and Corinne Bailey Rae, and have gained a reputation for playing exhilarating shows.

David Migden – Vocals/Trumpet/Piano

Phil Scragg – Bass

James Sedge  – Drums/Percussion

Joe Gibson  – Guitar/Backing Vocals

Graham Mann – Keyboard/Trombone/Backing Vocals/ Percussion

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Top Cat Collective are a six-piece funk and hip-hop group hailing from the South East/London. Combining the insatiable grooves of George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, with the forward thinking aesthetic of J Dilla, and Madlib, their unique concoction of hip-hop and funk is unparalleled. 

Their full live setup is hard to beat, with the powerful vocal talents of Chris Hutchings – of Black Gabanza – and Harriet Langley more than matched by their relentless rhythm section, and they’ve received innumerable plaudits for their live show. 

Their self-titled debut EP was released last year, and they toured in support of it, selling out the Sussex Arms and the Tunbridge Wells Forum, in addition to headlining gigs at the Paper Dress in Hackney, New Cross Inn and The Good Ship. This summer they performed at El Dorado Festival and took to the main stage at LeeFest for a show that was featured on the BBC. 

Their second release Ways To Move came out on September 30 and is available now through iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Bandcamp. An expansive and bold record, It was engineered by Phil Scragg (Robert Plant, Corinne Bailey Rae) has artwork from Raimund Wong (Total Refreshment Centre).

The lead single ‘Ways to Move’ has a video out now on YouTube, with a remix of ‘PNGZ’ with London hip-hop MC Lemzi scheduled for December. They packed out Rye Wax for their EP launch on September 30 and are looking towards a Spring tour across the UK in support of the record. 

Top Cat Collective are also through to the final of Yamaha’s Funk It Up Thursdays competition with a chance to perform at next year’s Love Supreme festival.

‘Take 30 minutes of TC collective twice daily to turn yourself in to a funk guzzling groove beeg. Love it.’ – Pete Bennie, Speaker’s Corner Quartet.

‘This (Rascal Bud) is practically falling off the back of the beat and poking the previous in the nose!’ – Guy Harris, Drummer. 

(Photo: Ruby Bukhari)

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