A mid-week sell out of the new venue on a wet night was nice to see and hopefully shows that the music scene in Newport is returning to its former glory.

We arrived too late to see Blind River Scare but caught the second act Tanya Walker. Female fronted 4 piece including fiddle for good measure. Polished performance and sung from the heart. They won  the Fopp Records unsigned acts competition for Wales & West earlier this year and we could see why. Good stuff. Try: www.fopp.co.uk/unsigned_network/relaunchindex

Next on were the mighty Lone Pine, firm favorites with us here at soundsnew. A little subdued compared to other times we’d seen them but their 5 song set hardly gave them enough time to tune their mandolins let alone rock out in their own countrified way. The crowd seemed to like ‘em and so do we. Visit www.lone-pine.co.uk for some music samples

The night finished with London based Redlands Palomino Co. putting on a rocking show with the husband and (ex-Newport based) wife couple giving it big licks for the packed Studio. Playing most of the excellent By The Time You Hear This album this tight outfit (somewhere between the Cowboy Junkies and the Arlenes) should be much bigger than they currently are. Extremely tight unit with a haunting pedal steel. If country and steel floats your boat, you could do worse than checking out www.redlandspalomino.com

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