When: 7.30pm on Friday 23 October 2015
Where: Soup Kitchen, 31-33 Spear Street, Manchester M1 1DF

We’re delighted to be welcoming back Fort Wayne’s Left Lane Cruiser.

After nearly a decade of delivering their own high-octane, scuzzed-up take on North Mississippi rural blues as a duo, Left Lane Cruiser have recently expanded into a threesome for their latest studio album, Dirty Spliff Blues – their fifth for Alive Naturalsound Records.

Led by founding member Freddy J IV (aka Joe Evans) on vocals and slide guitar, and now joined by Joe Bent on bass and skateboard slide guitar (yes, he uses his skateboard as an instrument) and Pete Dio on drums and assorted other junk, this three-headed hydra, birthed in either Fort Wayne, Indiana or Hades depending on who you ask, still whips up the same frenzied mess of trashed-out punk/blues that LLC is known for. But on Dirty Spliff Blues there’s a decidedly more rock ‘n’ roll approach to their mean-ass blues. Songs such as Tangled Up In Bush or Skateboard Blues still slink like snakes in the grass, but tracks such as the pile-driving opener Tres Borrachos, Cutting Trees, She Don’t Care and Dirty Spliff Blues rock with a newfound intensity -and that’s saying a lot for a band long known for both their intense, sweat-soaked live shows and in-the-red recordings. Of course, LLC’s very backbone – the Blues – is also evident throughout, from the hip-shakin’ groove of Elephant Stomp to, well, really just about every damn song on the record.

Any way you roll it – from the new cover art created by renowned artist William Stout to the THC-laced sh*t-kickers – Dirty Spliff Blues smokes like no other Left Lane Cruiser album before it.

Along with their music being featured in the hit television series Breaking Bad and receiving critical acclaim across the globe, Left Lane Cruiser have also toured relentlessly over the years, sharing the stage with artists such as Robert Belfour, T Model Ford, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Bob Log III and many others, and are also regular performers at the Deep Blues Festival now held annually in the cradle of the blues, Clarksdale, MS.

Support comes from Bees of Burden – among a minority in the North West when it comes to playing stomp, boogie blues music. Formed in 2013, members Ric Smith (guitar), Stuart James Henn (vocals/harmonica/lyrics) and David J. Brennan (drums) look and bow to the past masters of blues and are inspired by contemporary artists including The Juke Joint Pimps, T Model Ford, Black Diamond Heavies and The Jim Jones Revue. In recognition of their stripped down, lo-fi blues sound, Bees of Burden were invited to perform two nights at Le Blues Autour Du Zinc festival in Beauvais, France in 2014.

Buy tickets now. Tickets are available from Common (no booking fee), Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange, Billetto.co.uk, WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk and on 0871 220 0260.

Attend on: Facebook | Last.fm