Trembling Bells

This UK tour presents the Trembling Bells playing, singing and
duelling with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy performing a new collection of
songs written by the Trembling Bells some of which appear on the
forthcoming collaborative album 'The Marble Downs' on Honest Jon's.
This will be the first time these songs are going to be performed
live.

Trembling Bells lead vocalist Lavinia Blackwall will sing in duet with
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Alex Neilson, the chief songwriter for the
Trembling Bells, plays drums, while Simon Shaw on bass and Mike
Hastings on guitar make up the pack. Originals, covers and
traditionals will be featured in the sets.

With a limited Christmas 7” single already under their belts,
Trembling Bells and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy kick off 2012 with a
collaborative album of male/female vocal duets.

Alex Neilson has synthesized his love of seat-of-your-pants improv and
raw folk into his songwriting with the Bells. While Bonnie has long
since shed the Appalachian dirt of his earlier records to enter a
fertile period of grace. Now these paths converge on ´The Marble
Downs´.

Bonnie has a habit of seeking out commanding female voices and he
doubtlessly viewed the pairing with Lavinia Blackwall as a gift. His
Southern gent tones provide an intriguing contrast to her archetypal
English Folk siren vocals. But the chemistry between them goes beyond
the purely musical. Their vocal exchanges remind us that the classic
male/female duet is, at its best, a sublimation of love, sex and
treachery acted out in flirtatious, freewheeling duels. The songs are
mostly Bells’ originals, with two inspired covers and a traditional.

The epic opener, “I Made a Date (With an Open Vein)” rises on a cloud
of drums, brass, vocal harmonies and Michael Hastings’ guitar line
that drips like electric honey. From there we pass through Grand Ole
Opry style sing alongs (“I Can Tell You’re Leaving”), Renaissance
fanfares (“Ferrari in a Demolition Derby”), spectral ballads
(“Excurions into Assonance”) and full-throttle Psych Rock propulsion
(“Ain’t Nothing Wrong with a Little Longing”).

The band also prove themselves to be inventive interpreters of other
people’s songs with a penis-shrivelling reading of the traditional “My
Husband’s Got No Courage in Him”, a kosmiche revamping of Robin Gibbs’
“Lord Bless All” and a pummeling version of the early Palace song,
“Riding”.

The Marble Downs is a triumphant exercise in major key ensemble
playing concerned with minor key heartbreak, and a marriage of some of
the most mercurial and imaginative musicians of our time.

Then comes the shows which will encompass a special select route
around the South West of England with support from Routes South West
to take place around the 'Obby Oss' May Day celebrations.