Tea and Toast with Matt Henshaw and Stu Crown

For the last 7 or 8 months or so, me and my old matey Stu Crown have been doing this 'ere podcast Tea and Toast with Matt Henshaw & Stu Crown, I'm not sure if I've been that vocal about it or spread it and shared it as much as I should've done, or maybe you would expect ... but for a brief period we did venture up into the dizzy heights of the iTunes podcasts chart TOP 10 along with the BBC !!!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/tea-toast-matt-henshaw-stu/id881269929



Well, I hope now maybe you'll join it's cult following if you're a podcast listener, really have nothing better to do, or fancy hearing me and the grizzly Norfolk bear talk about tea, biscuits and the Green Party at length, then get on it ... sadly Episode 009, recorded Wednesday 3rd December after a 5 month gap, will be the Final Episode, with myself and Crown going on our separate European adventures in the new year ...



I met Stu just over a year ago and it that time I've managed to switch my life around somewhat considerably, Stu's come off the booze, formed a band, split a band and found many a new story to tell ... Leicester City have won the Championship, Yorkshire the Cricket County Championship, England played in and tumultuously exited a World Cup and membership of the Green Party has tripled, but somewhat scarily membership of another political party almost has too ...
https://itunes.apple.com/…/tea-toast-matt-hensh…/id881269929



Massive thanks to our guests Shed, Tommy, Ian, Sílvia and Rob, you were great, and those of you that brought gifts, of song, and/or food, loved it, thanks !!
https://itunes.apple.com/…/tea-toast-matt-hensh…/id881269929



We dedicated episodes to late Rik Mayall and the great Chris Waddle, talked about football a fair bit, always did a grand summary of the news, no stone left unturned, drank a lot of Yorkshire Tea, juices loads of fruit and veg, laughed a lot, but mostly we talked about music and a lot about the Leicester Music Scene, of which we've been happily a part of for the last year or so ...
https://itunes.apple.com/…/tea-toast-matt-hensh…/id881269929



We gave a lot of people a positive mention, I was going to list them here and/or tag them all in but I wouldn't want to clog up everyone's feeds, if you have a listen and you happen to hear us say something nice about you, or someone you know, let 'em know ... it's all Positive, it's all Peace, Love & Tea and it was fun whilst it lasted, see you next year !!
https://itunes.apple.com/…/tea-toast-matt-hensh…/id881269929



"If you surround yourself with Beautiful and Positive People, only Beautiful and Positive things can happen"
Matt Henshaw, 2014
http://www.MattHenshaw.com

Matt Henshaw Recommends ... GEORGIE

I love this girl. She's a Queen, she's a star and she has a presence that soars and shines beyond your average girl with a guitar. Talk to her on any night of the week and without saying very much, in fact saying very little, you'll know she's passionate, driven and has a wealth of musical knowledge and talent that far surpasses your average songstress.

Without drawing too many parallels to myself I like it that you can go to shows in Nottingham and Georgie will be there, checking out who's hot and who's not, and making recommendations of who you should see next, unless of course, like myself in Leicester, we're busy elsewhere Spreading The Love !

I mentioned on this week's Tea and Toast with Matt Henshaw & Stu Crown podcast that Georgie reminds of a female composite of Elvis Presley in his majestic prime and Bob Dylan at Isle Of Wight. And that's no lie. I know she's a big Elvis fan, and we share a love of the old school classics, good songwriting and delivery are in her second nature.

By all accounts and all reports I've heard back, Georgie Rose was the standout act of this year's Dot To Dot Festival, and I'm not surprised.

Hence why I'm so excited that she is playing as my first non-Leicestershire artist at Matt Henshaw's Rhythm & Gospel Cavalcade at The Cookie this month ! Not far to travel but it's funny how East Midlanders seem to believe there's a whole world of difference between the 4 major cities and handful of of beautiful larger towns we have in this area.

I hope there becomes more of a cross-contamination of music around these parts and everyone gets behind one another, I've been around and believe me, there are some gems lurking around the corner in Notts, Derbyshire, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, etc. you only need to peek outside and you'll find something you like.

Peace, Love & Tea, MHx

PS. she's bringing this lot with her, gonna make some beautiful noise ! I, for one, can't wait !!

Tapestry
The De Montfort University Gospel Choir
By The Rivers
Martin Luke Brown
Joy Mumford
Three Girl Rhumba
MotorMouf
Samuel Idwal
Abandon Her
Stef Baker
Emily Carr
Becky Edwards
Mahalia
Mia & The Moon
Rosa-Leigh
AJA
Kate Rendell
Esther Van Leuven
East Midlands Girls
Ones to Watch for 2014
The Bobcats
Savanna Bones
Mattayoux
Matt Zara
The Simpletones
Charlotte Carpenter
Leah Sinead
Matt Henshaw Recommends ...

---===DOWNLOAD LINKS===---
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep/id814589358
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aint-Easy-My-Life-EP/dp/B00I8ZDJZC/
https://play.spotify.com/album/733AAcf7c2KcZ75SUFlpi3
http://matthenshaw.bandcamp.com/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep
http://www.emusic.com/album/matt-henshaw/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep/14753983/
http://www.7digital.com/artist/matt-henshaw/release/it-aint-easy-my-life
http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/matt-henshaw/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep
http://www.napster.co.uk/artist/matt-henshaw/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep

Tea and Toast with Matt Henshaw & Stu Crown ... Podcast Episode 001

Good afternoon friends, family, fans and loved ones,

Here's something new for you all, and it was pretty off the cuff. Me and my friend, Stu Crown of The Bobcats, decided to get together in his flat and record a podcast for you all. We're giving it you for nothing, as it's just what we'd normally do of an afternoon anyway, sit, talk, drink tea, and eat biscuits. It's nothing special, not yet anyways, but the feedback we've had so far has been great overnight. So, it's something we plan to keep on doing, keep your eyes and ears open.

Here's Stu himself presiding over the knobs and the technical side of things, I'm sat opposite him trying to think of witty thing to say about Paul Lambert, tea and the Leicester Music Scene ...



There should be one coming up next week, with a special guest too, and we're hoping to bring you some natter every week from now on.
And it should be on iTunes in a week or so, so you can download and listen at your convenience.

---===DOWNLOAD LINKS===---
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep/id814589358
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aint-Easy-My-Life-EP/dp/B00I8ZDJZC/
https://play.spotify.com/album/733AAcf7c2KcZ75SUFlpi3
http://matthenshaw.bandcamp.com/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep
http://www.emusic.com/album/matt-henshaw/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep/14753983/
http://www.7digital.com/artist/matt-henshaw/release/it-aint-easy-my-life
http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/matt-henshaw/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep
http://www.napster.co.uk/artist/matt-henshaw/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep

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 ... The Bobcats

Seeing as we're having a bluesy Christmastime my next recommendation is for the blues explosion that is The Bobcats. Rural raucous country blues is the order of the day, rumbling toms, rolling basslines and crunchy licks seems to be the soup du jour.

Rocking behind the drum kit it Boppa, real name unknown, even to the other members of the band, who looks like he'd be at home in an al night rave at a petrol station as he does effortlessly knocking out solid loops of rhythmic fury, and Dan Fraser-Betts plays the bass like a nimble and dexterous jazz musician who's somehow stumbled into a blues band, and probably feels kind of how Jack Bruce must have done playing with Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton in Cream. A very solid and talented rhythm section indeed.

Frontman Stu Crown I had had the pleasure of seeing acoustically a couple of times before I saw the Bobcats and whilst his howling blues and seeming attempts to saw the guitar in half with his hand whilst playing was a pleasure to witness and behold, it didn't prepare me for how much I would enjoy watching the full electric blast of The Bobcats.

Stu, with a wealth of knowledge in blues music and a voice that had me believing he was many years my senior I was further shocked to learn he was two years my junior at a subsequent meeting ! A tale of alcohol and drug abuse there for you kids from myself and Stu, you might get a nice unique voice but you'll probably look as dishevelled and hairy as we do in our mid-twenties (and that's a joke before anyone starts suggesting that I'm recommending drugs and alcohol to improve your vocal skills, tone and resonance, because that is simply not true ... listen to Liam Gallagher circa 1994, 2004 then next year in 2014 for a reference on that theorem).

It seems fitting that I'm writing this with some home-made bread, tomato soup, peppermint tea, a fruit smoothie featuring apples, melon, pineapple, oranges and unpeeled kiwis - so much nutrition in the skin of those little hairy bad boys - that Mr Crown and I have had many a discussion on all things rural, rustic and pastoral, a keen craftsman and ardent follower of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra I feel as though I've found somewhat of a musical kindred spirit, excellent stuff, and it always helps when someone like The Beatles too ... personally I'm feasting on the hearty blues and full of soul sound of The Bobcats and I hope you will too.

And now because I'm not one for scouring links and putting other people's tunes up on my blog here's my heaviest bit of blues rockin' for you all this Boxing Day ... you've all got Google, do it for yourself ... you won't be disappointed ...