My Darling Clementine w/ Andy Reed – April 15, 2022

After the pandemic brought a halt their plans to tour behind their most recent album, Country Darkness, husband-and-wife musicians Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish, aka My Darling Clementine, are now hitting the road for a United States tour that begins April 1.

Country Darkness is a collaboration with keyboard genius Steve Nieve (The Attractions / The Imposters), which sees them reinterpreting the country songs of Elvis Costello. Released in November 2020, it charted in both the UK and European Americana charts, receiving unanimous praise along the way.

American Songwriter said about Country Darkness, “Costello’s songs, King and Dalgleish’s voices, Nieve’s keys … it’s a perfect fit,” while Uncut gave the album eight out of 10 stars and declared, “masterful cinematic interpretations.”

“It was a joy to record this album with Steve Nieve and put a new spin on Elvis’s great songs,” King said. “We are excited to finally get to play them live in front of American audiences who have country music in their DNA, and a huge love for EC.”

A labor of love on multiple levels, My Darling Clementine – the sobriquet of spouses Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgleish – began as a homage to classic country duets of the 60s and 70s like George and Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash and June Carter.

Their 2011 debut How Do You Plead? was produced by Neil Brockbank (Nick Lowe) and featured some of London’s finest musicians from the 70s pub rock era. It was immediately acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. Country Music People wrote “ Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the greatest British country record ever made.”

Such praise led to a United States record deal and invitations to appear at the Americana Music Association convention in Nashville and SXSW in Austin in 2013.

The follow-up, The Reconciliation, produced by Colin Elliot (Richard Hawley) and featuring guest appearances from Kinky Freidman and The Brodsky Quartet, only enhanced the band’s growing reputation. The New York Daily News chose it as “album of the month” while Popmatters put it in their Top 10 Country Albums of 2013.

Their next move was a slight departure as they the collaborated with bestselling crime writer, and avowed country music fan Mark Billingham on the story and song project The Other Half.

Billingham wrote a dark, nourish tale of murder, lust and revenge around eight King and Dalgleish songs. The Other Half  became an album, an audio book, and a stage show and featured contributions from actor David Morrisey and singer songwriter Graham Parker.

After 18 months of touring The Other Half, including a run at the Edinburgh International Festival, King and Dalgleish returned to the studio for album number four. Reuniting with producer Neil Brockbank, Still Testifying was released in the summer 2017. Stylistically, it was a further shifting away from classic country to embrace gospel and country soul and was widely acclaimed, with many writers praising the new direction.

Uncut said, “Where gospel, country and Southern soul happily collide. It’s terrific” and Record Collector wrote, “This is more Delaney and Bonnie than George and Tammy. And even better for it” 

During the past nine years, My Country Clementine have played over 800 shows around the world, won numerous awards and have more than earned their own bona fides, with their wry yet heart-on-sleeve song-craft spotlighting the vagaries of romance and the human condition, and their match-made-in-heaven harmonies.

Andy Reed will open the show.  Andy is a singer/songwriter/producer from Bay City, Michigan.  He is also part of the melodic pop group The Legal Matters.   

Reed’s foray into recorded music began in the late 1990’s when his Power Pop trio, The Haskels, made an album under the guidance of Brendan Benson, best known for his work with The Raconteurs.  The sessions not only resulted in the band being signed by Bullfrog Records, it officially gave Reed the recording bug.

Though Reed’s main focus for the last decade and a half has been as a producer / engineer, he has also continued his own career as a performer and recording artist.  In addition to the 250 recording projects that Reed has completed with other artists in the studio, he has also toured and performed with many of Michigan’s finest acts, including serving as the bassist for the Verve Pipe from 2009 – 2013.  He has also released several independent solo EP’s.  In 2016, European Power Pop label I Am The Cosmos released a “Greatest Hits” compilation, “An Introduction to Andy Reed.”

His “studio” band, The Legal Matters, completed the follow up to the Omnivore Records release, Conrad.  The new album, Chapter 3, has been critically acclaimed.