Matt Henshaw Recommends ... Becky Edwards

Matt Henshaw here recommending again, and bringing you the beautiful people of the world that make music and songs. And they don't come much more beautiful inside and out than the wonderful Becky Edwards. The twists and turns of fate and serendipity have brought both myself and Becky to Leicester from the north of the East Midlands, growing up as we did in Ilkeston and Ripley respectively, and finding ourselves in Leicestershire & Rutland.

My first week out last July with acoustic guitar in hand I met Becky and shared a stage at a little pub on Granby Street in the city. I was a humble open mic participant, and Becky was the headline act along with the marvellous Chris Conway, whom I've mentioned before whenst babbling about thems there Mia and the Moons. Massive Thanks to Stevie Jones for putting this one on !

Here she is having a sing song with her best friend, daughter and equally beautiful and hilarious Evelyn ...



... it's not all Disney classics in Becky's repertoire but I would be more than satisfied if it was. This video highlights the love between a mother and daughter and I feel, as we all should feel, grateful to Becky (as it says on her birth certificate - Rebecca she is not), for letting us into her life and sharing her blessings of music, talent and family with us. If this video has failed to make you smile, even just a little bit then I suggest you may need a support group of some kind, I don't know what, just Google "How to make myself happier" or something.

I Love Miss Edwards so much in fact that, along with Leah Sinead, I invited her to come and play at my birthday party last September. What a jolly pleasant night we had !

Here she is, above, playing at The Cookie, and no doubt you'll see her back again when I invite her to come and join me at an Acoustic Rhythm'n'Gospel Cavalcade sometime soon in the not so distant future ...

A few more things to note about Becky ... she is vegan and a shining example of someone who is talented, beautiful and healthy living a life she knows is right and pure, she is multi-talented so much so that alongside her music, she can dance, she is hilarious and a grand purveyor of words emotions and feelings, one day her and Evelyn will be known around the country, and making people smile in the same way I hope that Tippy and I do. Most pressingly though, is the race for the space at the top of the YouTube search, my friend Becky Edwards is not a pole dancer!

I owe a great deal to hanging around with Edwards, just being in her company inspires me to be a better person, when I say Leicester is a warm and loving place to be as a musician, I don't think I'm exaggerating too much when I say that a lot of that is down to Becky, for better or worse she helped forge the friendship between myself and Stu Crown and The Bobcats and led me to my discovery of The Simpletones.

I haven't even mentioned some of her great songs, 'Princess in a Paper Bag' is my personal favourite, 'Thin' is an honest and astoundingly heartfelt emotional ballad, and 'Your Face' is a sumptuous slice of acoustic pop, that I secretly think is about me, or maybe I just wish it was! Excellent songwriting!!

Matt Henshaw Recommends ... East Midlands Girls

Well, here we are in a new year and I'm going to continue my recommendations, we had a bluesy Christmas with The Bobcats and Savanna Bones, but I'm going to go back to my first two Recommendations and feature some more Est Midlands ladies.



I have had the pleasure of playing with some great artists throughout the East Midlands, amassing a series of shows and plenty more to come, and I have found that playing with the girls is the most enjoyable. I don't know if it's a lack of a testosterone clash or no battle to be conceived as the alpha male in the room but there's a sweetness, a modesty and a genuine love for music, writing and singing in some of the female artist that I've come across.

So far I have showered Charlotte Carpenter and Leah Sinead in glory, and they're two of the nicest girls I've payed with, hung out with and listened to. I suggest you do the same and keep your eyes and ears peeled as through the next few weeks I bring you the best of the best of those with the double X chromosome in Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Northampton.

Peace, Love & Tea,
Matt Henshaw x

Matt Henshaw Recommends ... 2013 (Ones to Watch for 2014)

A quick summary of the recommendations I made in the latter quarter of 2013 ... keep your eye on there chaps and chapesses !

Charlotte Carpenter

Leah Sinead

The Simpletones

Matt Zara

Mattayoux

Savanna Bones

The Bobcats

Stay tuned for more !!!

A Little Late November Update ...

Evening, Morning, Afternoon Folks,

A quick fly by blog whilst I'm in the mood. Very productive times here at Henshaw Towers. Everything going swimmingly and according to plan, looking forward to a happy and hopefully excited 2014, as I'm sure you all are too. Stick with me, Team Matt Henshaw needs all the love and support it can get.

I've been touting my wares at radio stations and doing interviews around the Midlands and South Yorkshire and I'm getting round to getting everything on YouTube for you all to watch, Like and share with your friends ... around 1000 subscribers now and steady stream of views up in the 1000s for each video I have shared. Keep watching, the ethos for most of the things I am uploading at the moment is get the songs out there with the title and my name and let the music do the talking, hopefully it is and you like everything I'm throwing at you ...

Here's a video from Demon FM session I did at O Bar for The Monograph magazine, look out for a feature in there in the first 2014 edition along with Kasabian and By The Rivers ...



Matt Henshaw Recommends
I hope you've been enjoying my recommendations so far. I hope to share with you one of my favourite underground acts every week, and keep up the quality of my recommendations, so far they been brilliant, check back if you haven't read about the guys and gals I been telling everyone about just lately ... I'm such a generous fella ! In this interview I get asked to plug my website and shows and end up talking about Charlotte Carpenter and Leah Sinead for about 5 minutes ...



Matt Henshaws Horticultural Gardening Blog ...
I hope to keep you informed about my garden over the winter and into the new year, there's not a huge amount growing at the moment in the midst of the frosty season, but we have little bits, you know I think compost will save the world, and I'm excited about the Chocolate Peppers I will have to introduce you to come January ... here's a little song I wrote inspired by my pastoral endeavours and seemingly care free lifestyle ... it's called Hakuna Matata ... no, not really, No Matter How from my Coalville Hermitage FM session on The Launch Pad ...



More blog ideas coming soon, and I think I might be due a football rant, but it's all good, some nice shows coming up and plenty of opportunities for some tea with friends and family over the festive season.

Merry November All & see you on the other side !
Matt Henshaw x

Matt Henshaw Recommends ... Leah Sinead

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to draw your attention to Leah Sinead.

The above picture is taken from her set a week ago or so at The Old Bell in Derby taken by Alice Kell and the show was put on by Paul Herron of The Sons. I had the pleasure of being with her that night and she went on to do a second set that night at a Halloween party at The Maze in Nottingham, indicative of just how hard working Leah has been this year, two shows in one night and performing almost every night of the week is nothing out of the ordinary for this girl. A true artist and performer, and one of the many reasons why I can relate so much to this girl who on the surface may seem so different from myself.

Leah's sombre Irish-tinged melodies betray her roots and the powerful imagery in her lyrics touch the soul and come from the same place within her. I'm happy to say that I'm an old friend of Leah and as surprised as anyone who knew her before she began performing with a vengeance that she is so full of grace, talent and a modesty that is endearing and sweet. So unassuming is Leah that she has no idea how talented she is as a writer, singer and completely unaware of her effortless brilliance.

Definitely one of the finest of the current crop of singer-songwriters and female vocalists coming out of Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands. I hope to see a lot more of Leah live and I hope to see us hitting the road a bit together come 2014, take the sound of the East Midlands, our humour - yeah, she's a really funny girl too - and our acoustic guitar into the deepest darkest parts of this country of ours.

I like her so much she played at my birthday party a couple of months ago. Top Girl !

And I think she'll be playing with me in Nottingham on Saturday 23rd November at Hinckley Market Lace Market, whatever it's called. Afternoon shindig with food and market stalls and that. Give her a listen, find her playing live, close your eyes and listen good. You won't be disappointed.



And here's a bit of me singing about Nottingham, our home town ...