January 24th: Quality Crumbs: Milk Carton Kids + Ryan Bingham Birmingham Town Hall

One of the richest times of the year for high quality American touring artists to hit our shores is the period straddling end of January-early February. This is primarily down to the prestigious Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow and in recent times the staging of the AMAUK festival in London. Touring artists may tag a couple of other dates onto their schedule, but it's a rarity to have an extensive tour this time of year. 

There is always a tinge of envy when perusing the schedules of these two events, which tend to be off limits for winter gig road trips. There is always the hope that Birmingham or the wider Midlands region can snap up one of these tagged shows, but this is definitely the exception rather than the norm with Manchester often being the city of choice for those scheduling extra dates. 

However in 2020 there has been a twist of events. One show may be construed as small crumbs, but when you get a pairing of the Milk Carton Kids and Ryan Bingham at Birmingham Town Hall on a Friday night they are definitely quality ones. 

The gig was billed as a Milk Carton Kids headline with Ryan Bingham as the special guest, but set times of 70 and 60 minutes respectively suggested we were heading into twin bill territory. The former had the slightly higher profile in the city having performed at the Transatlantic Sessions annual staging a couple of years ago. So in effect it was a full Birmingham debut, which was certainly the case for Ryan Bingham.

2019 was a re-introductory year for Bingham in the UK as he toured his latest album with a full band in tow, including a slot at the Black Deer Festival and a super gig in Oxford that settled in the upper echelons of my favourites of the year list. For this lower key mid winter visit, he left the band at home and played a solo format that I had not seen him in before. While it was a little different, especially when he played the old favourite 'Southside of Heaven', it still came across as an exceptional performance with a focus more on sharing his origins and influences. Covers of Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and Terry Allen hardly shook the earth, but when you're steeped in the Texas songwriting tradition you might as well celebrate the best. There is no denial that Bingham gargles lone star dirt and creates an authentic aura when spreading the art of his homeland in far away places.

Following an hour of Texas earthy grit, the dial turned to pristine north eastern harmonies as Kenneth and Joey aka the Milk Carton Kids shared their innate prodigious talent with a Birmingham audience well versed in the wide expanses of the Americana genre. Satire fed the inter song exchanges including a response to their latest 7-track album that they only went into the studio to a record a 5-track EP. Just like Bingham exhaled an intoxicating aura, the Milk Carton Kids did likewise in a style rinsed with Greenwich Village nostalgia. It was purely magical listening to them in full flow followed by a reflection of how blessed it can be to tune in to such special artists executing classic styles.

For two hours on this Friday night, envy of Celtic Connections and AMAUK Fest evaporated in a song-filled haze and full appreciation of how good Ryan Bingham and the Milk Carton Kids are. Quality crumbs - nah, a fully artisan loaf!