Open Air Sessions

The second track from Sophie - Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. 

I must say I am looking forward to the weather warming up again soon - and looking forward to filming a few videos in the sun hopefully. 

In the period of freezing weather we we’re having in February - Sophie Hawtin braved the snow to come and film a couple of tracks. 

This is a cover of an amazing and heartfelt track by Emili Sande - Next to Me. 

Wes Finch performing ‘Jack to Do’ for Open Air Sessions. 

This time Wes brought along his full band complete with banjo, violin, mandolin and percussion. It was quite a challenge trying to capture all of this evenly with one microphone and a pretty big challenge trying to capture all the different band members in only a few short takes. All in all though I think it turned out really nicely - but please feel free to judge for your self.  

This is Garfield Mayor performing ‘Any Tips’ for Open Air Sessions. 

The keen eyed may notice a few familiar faces from past videos - this was actually filmed on the same day as Matt Lakey’ ‘What’s Left’ and featured the same set of musicians, rotated for each others songs. 

Garfield has got a new album out very soon so keep an eye out foe that as well. 

I’ve been very lazy lately with trying to keep this site up to date, so there are going to be quite a few new videos cropping up - please accept my apologies. 

This is the lovely Emma McGann performing ‘Fiction’ for Open Air Sessions. We ended up filming at a lovely spot along the Warwickshire Canal and I just about managed to avoid ending up in the canal during filming. 

Emma is a really exciting young artist, who is really proactive with her music. She runs a number of live nights and is currently visiting schools across the country as part of her ‘Lunch Box Tour’. 

This is Matt Lakey performing his song What’s Left. 

This session was filmed in the grounds of Coombe Abbey near Coventry.

This post is long overdue because this session was actually filmed over a month ago…

This has to have been the Open Air Session that I had been most looking forward to filming so far. I first saw Wes Finch play live when in my first year of university, being a musician myself I went along with the other members of my band and we we’re all completely blown away. The songwriting, musicianship and the way that you could tell that everyone on stage was just having a good time and enjoying playing music - everything was pretty much perfect. 

We all saw Wes play again about 3 years later, having just finished uni and all feeling like we’d grown up a bit and that our tastes has matured, I think we all had the feeling that we weren’t going to be quite as impressed as we we’re the first time. We couldn’t have been more wrong. 

A deep emotional connection that resonates through every song, spine tingling harmonies and great balance between raw folk and something a bit more accessible - he really does have a lot in his arsenal.

This session was filmed by Coombe Fishing Lakes (where strictly I don’t think we we’re really allowed to be), after a fair amount of woodland trekking we found a lovely little spot overlooking the lake. 

Enjoy x

Open Air Session Number 4 - Kristy Gallacher. 

Kristy is a Singer/Songwriter from Coventry, UK. In the past she’s supported amongst others - Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, John Mayer and Paul Weller!!

Although she obviously has the talent to play huge arenas her music also has such an intimate and emotionally raw quality that it feels like she’s sitting just feet away from you pouring out both painful and happy episodes of her life. 

Thats what we’ve tried to bring to you here… 

This is Kristy Gallacher performing for Open Air Sessions in a little alley right next to Coventry Cathedral. The song is brand new and called ‘Fending Off The Frost’.

The location was a little bit of a challenge because the day we picked just so happened to also be the day of Coventry University student’s graduation, therefore it was a little less than quiet around the Cathedral. We also had the odd passer by during recording - including a few people who stopped to watch for the entire song. 

Listen out for the Cathedral Bells joining in halfway through and the birds adding their own backing vocals - which almost seem to be becoming a bit of a trademark to these videos. 

Find out more about Kristy here - 

http://www.kristygallacher.com/

http://www.brokenplayerrecords.com/

Here’s Peter Glasby performing his song ‘Trust’ for Open Air Sessions. 

Originally from Middlesbrough Pete now resides in Coventry whilst studying at the renowned Nexus music college and is due to release quite a lot of exciting new material very soon. 

From a personal perspective this was a pretty eventful shoot as we we’re dodging rain showers in between takes and the skies opened up and it absolutely tipped it down right at the end of Pete’s last run through. What I really like about this performance is the sound of a bird in the background who seems to almost be performing a duet with Pete at some points. 

Johnty Mongan’s second song for Open Air Sessions - ‘Guitar Hero’