WOODEN WAND

James Jackson Toth, known to the world as Wooden Wand, is a maverick, good-hearted troubadour whose blend of smoky Americana has been garnering plaudits for the last decade. Unafraid to mix psychedelic workouts with sweet and soulful country, his varied and prolific output has resulted in a wealth of lyrically rich songs; the kind whose lines stick in your head for a lifetimes. With almost 30 albums to his name, for labels like Ecstatic Peace, Young God, Blackest Rainbow and most recently Fire, Wooden Wand is a remarkable and individual talent.



DUKE GARWOOD

Duke Garwood's first paid musical job was back in the late 80s playing guitar on The Orbs seminal Perpetual Dawn taken from their debut album co-produced by Youth. Nearly twenty years and many musical wanderings later Duke Garwood completed a circle by releasing an album on Youths new label Butterfly Recordings.

Garwood's first album Holy Week came out to great critical acclaim in 2005. Q magazine described it as making Will Oldham sound like Engelbert Humperdinck. His follow up Emerald Palace was recorded in a log cabin on the wooded slopes of Box Hill over 2 scorching days and nights in the mid-summer of 2005. Garwood and his long time drummer/percussionist-Paul May laid down some 40 tracks of which 18 were finally chosen for his new release.

DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA

Since forming in 2002, The Dead Rat Orchestra have played regularly throughout the UK and Internationally, always attempting to react or interact with their surroundings and the people and ideas that they come across - often crafting each performance for the particular space in which they find themselves (from former abattoirs to churches, concert halls to coppice woods). “Acutely haunting and occasionally brutal”, their music is always focused on the freedom to play. It would not be fair to say that the music is totally improvised, yet neither would it be correct to class it composed. A framework of ideas or sounds is created, but the exact form of a piece is never derived from these. With recent shows alongside acts like Godspeedyoublackemperor, Eric Chenaux, Baby Dee, Chris Corsano, Alistair Roberts, Coco Rosie and more they are very pleased to return to Cafe Oto.