​UK Americana Week 2025 Review

Here we go again for 2025 starting the cycle which begins with a week in London's most inaccessible area. HELLO HACKNEY and hello to the Americana Music Association UK Americana Music Week to kick off the year. Everything about the event is amazing ONCE YOU GET THERE!!! Hackney is not the easiest place for anyone to reach to but once you do navigate your way to the festivities, everything is genuinely in walking distance. A pair of stages in Night Tales, the allure of Oslo's full production potential, the quirkiness of Paper Dress Vintage and our spiritual original Swiftogeddon home at MOTH Club, collectively housed us as we opened the 2025 season.

I am writing this post as an “acts that I saw at Americana” piece so a lot of my scope was guided bit the go with the flow and follow approach. This is a very sociable event and I trust my friends' recommendations, we have an incredibly strong relationship with artists and industry professionals in Canada and is also an area where our site traffic thrives so Canada House at the MOTH Club was a very natural base and where our showcase experience began.
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The Once are harmony trio from St. John's in Newfoundland comprising of Geraldine Hollett along with multi-instrumentalists Phil Churchill and Andrew Dale. The two-time Juno nominees have been longtime associates of Passenger where the trio have extensively toured with the English singer internationally. I'm a sucker for more folky male/female harmony sounds so my introduction to the band was a great way to kickstart the event.
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One of the real beautiful things about the festival when you are trying to plot your course is when people go out of their way to say hey, I'm playing tomorrow, I hope you don't find me irritating but please come to see my set! NGL It works!!!! I went to see Run Remedy because I liked Robin as a person when I met her but musically, I was instantly hooked on seeing the live show. I had numerous discussions about "what is Americana" across the week and the sound may have ticked less boxes than most but I liked it and it is a really cool live sound. Indie pop with an element of fiddle is the musical wedge that I have unbeknownst craved and what I'm about to depict just works, it really does. On stage, imagine a geek chic meets 80's Breakfast club vibe where (in the nicest possible way) the lead singer appeared to have raided what Cher Horowitz from clueless was selling on Vinted, whilst her band wore outfits inspired by Moss from the IT crowd, Daria and someone who had forgotten their PE kit so had to find clothes to wear for indoor football from the infamous bin in the corner of high school changing rooms. It sounds odd but that's the best way that I can depict it visually although sonically it is magic and you should seriously check it out.
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Moving across to Oslo presented the first opportunity of the year to see Camden Town's finest, where Simeon Hammond Dallas was armed with some high-quality new material. I've known SHD pretty well for a while now, she's such a fun person to be around and as a musician she's really good. Lyrically and vocally she's amongst the best that the UK Americana scene has to offer but her live performance continues to grow each time you see her because she is just so real on stage. Musically what comes next is so intriguing but from a showcase standpoint, she stands out as her set was natural, it was warm and it highlighted the depth of her as an artist with poignant and reflective offerings combined with fun jams which were enhanced by the full band setting.
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A new name for me was Jade Turner who brought some really fun cowgirl country vibes but WOW does she have some serious lungs. This girl can hit it and was a really pleasant and uplifting set from the Manitoba native. Her voice is phenomenal and was someone which really stood out during the event, there is new music on the horizon which we can't wait to hear and share.
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Another act playing to a justifiably large crowd was Julian Taylor at The Moth Club. The multiple JUNO nominee first came to our attention back at the 2023 UK Americana Music Week and was also one of our highlights of last years The Long Road festival in Leicestershire. This performance marked our first opportunity to catch Taylor performing songs from his International Album of the Year nominated "Pathways" and as always was a cleanly delivered set highlighting his prowess as both a performer and storyteller.
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As we returned to Hackney for a second night of showcases, one night began being part of one of the events largest audiences as Willie Watson performed a captivating set from his self-titled, International Album of the Year nominated record. He is just one of those artists that is able to sound exactly the same when you see him live as when you listen to the recording yet watching him on stage with no accompaniment is so captivating in the way that he plays guitar and banjo, whilst his cover of Robyn's "Dancing on My Own" was probably the individual highlight of the whole week in east London.
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Over at Paper Dress Vintage came my first opportunity to see Jonny Morgan who as last year's recipient of the Bob Harris "Emerging Artist of the Year" Award was someone that we had heard big things about. Playing as a five piece with Morgan on acoustic guitar and accompanied by electric guitar, bass, drums and Eve Lesedi on saxophone, Jonny (without an H) is incredibly enticing with his on-stage wit and banter which links his songs which are fun and relatable where they are delivered in a way that both captivates and excites. A new, Nashville recorded record is in the horizon which we are very much looking forward to hearing.
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Another name that I had come across a lot but not managed to get my arse along to check out before were The Dukes Head regulars Dom Glynn & His Sunday Best. Considering the amount of PBR and tequila cocktails we consume at the Honky Tonk in Highgate on a regular basis, my friends and I all had the same reaction as we entered the room in Oslo and that was how we all missed the ball completely and should have been the people shouting out about his nights at our favourite bar. Musically he plays old school country and I mean real country music with a big old dollop of blues that encourages dancers to get on the floor. There is a wonderfully romantic song called "Get Back In My Bed" conveniently being shared on Valentines Day and the whole performance had us hooked as it's witty, it's fun and was delivered so clean to be a real standout of this year's showcases.
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Our showcase experience ended at The Moth Club with The East Pointers, JUNO award winners from Prince Edward Island who brought fun and energetic sounds akin to a folk slash Americana Clean Bandit vibe from the duo which incorporated the duo's mix of keys, acoustic guitar and fiddle mixed with contemporary elements. Definitely my favourite find of the showcases as it was fun and well and truly within my musical arc.
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​You can find out more information about the Americana Music Association UK on their WEBSITE or INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK & X. UK Americana Music Week 2025 was proudly supported by Sweet Home Alabama, who were headline sponsors again for the fourth year, CIMA (Canadian Independent Music Association) , PPL, PRS for Music, Concord, Thirty Tigers, Uncut, Musicians’ Union, Americana Music Sweden and the US Americana Music Association.