Multi-award winning musical mastermind Beardyman sets out on a UK tour this week, which sees his quite marvellous mouth cut loose at The Stables this Thursday evening (Oct 15).
He'll be at the Wavendon venue with his interactive show, One Album Per Hour.
Beardyman will gather song titles and genres from audience suggestions and turn them into a uniquely stylised album, with the use of his music production space ship, allowing him to use cutting-edge, studio quality music in real time.
In short, it means Beardyman can do things no other musician can.
Things have been going stupendously well for the musical mastermind over the past couple of years – a live web series with featured producers including Jack Black and Tim Minchin was a smash, as was his Fatboy Slim collaboration on Eat Sleep Rave Repeat, which batted One Direction into second place on the charts. Go, Beardy.
He also impressed writer and animator Mike Judge with his abilities and the Beavis & Butthead creator insisted Beardyman lent his voice to characters in the new series.
Currently, we're somewhere between ridiculously impressed and infuriatingly jealous!
Expect off-beat humour and music in a seamlessly improvised experience. He's not good, he's the man!
Over on Stage 2, Preston Reed will be commanding on the guitar.
The two-handed, integrated percussive style he began developing in the eighties is put to exceptional use, and genre-wise?
Expect a wide repertoire of styles – blues, rock, metal, funk and classical makes for quite the show, and one that tells stories without the need for words. After all, music is universal...
Viva Santana bring in the weekend on Friday night (Oct 16) with the tribute set, and with three decades of Santana sounds from which to pull, there will be no shortage of material to choose from.
4Square will be at work in Stage 2, with a fusion of folk, jazz, latin and whatever else comes to mind. They'll be easy to spot – how many other bands feature a band member simultaneously fiddle-playing and clog dancing?!
Charlie Landsborough is back on Saturday night (Oct 17). From belting out an uptempo rocker to holding his head up high in the Americana stakes and adding his smooth tones to the most mellifluous of romantic numbers, Charlie has carved his own musical path, and it's one that has brought him through the Keynes plenty of times before, so this is a welcome return – for fans and artist alike.
It's the first time he's played live on home soil in 2015 too...
In Stage 2, Keith James delivers The Songs of Nick Drake, which is pretty self-explanatory, right?
Stick Downton to record on the Sky box and make tracks to the venue on Sunday night (Oct 18) for an evening in the company of Judy Collins (below).
Her career has spanned five decades, and Collins is still crafting – her first studio album in four years has just been released, titled Strangers Again.
It is a collection of work which features guest appearances by an exceptional band of players – Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, Michael McDonald, Don McLean and Glen Hansard all figure. Wow.
Judy is a singer, songwriter, filmmaker, record label head, musical mentor, author and activist and a lady who, at 76 years young, is still committed to her work in the live. This MK bash is one of a hundred or so shows she performs annually.
The Marcus Malone Band rule over on Stage 2, with blues-based originals – a new album from the Detroit based performer has a new long-player on the cards imminently.
British blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor's date on Monday (Oct 19) is already sold-out, but by all means try for returns.
Focus return on Tuesday (Oct 20) and the prog-rock collective who came to prominence early in the seventies, bring new material – a 10th album is out now from the Dutch deliverers who reunited in 2002.
So long as they still play Hocus Pocus with its yodeling delight, Total MK will be happy.
It's always a highlight when Ken Bruce cranks that up on Radio 2!
Tickets to see ace acoustic guitarist Jon Gomm (above) play his rescheduled date are a long-time sold-out, so we won't taunt you with details, but how about a trip to the venue on Wednesday night?
The Yoruba Women Choir put gospel at the fore, and present church songs fused with material by artists including King Sunny Ade and Fela Kuti, in the Yoruba tradition.
Bole Are – a household name in Nigeria for the past quarter century – leads this vocal powerhouse, and has transformed the choir into a national powerhouse.
Or, if the week is dragging you down and you feel a need to turn the frown upside down, the Screaming Blue Murder Club will be waiting over on Stage 2.
Phew, that's a big menu of music, and yours to indulge in by booking on 01908 280800 or visiting www.stables.org
