What's Cookin'

What's Cookin' are back with a cracking lineup for you all.

Hank Wangford's Big Bass Combo

UK country legend Hank and his Wangford Bass Combo (twin basses Kevin Foster and chanteuse Spanner Robinson) emerge back into the light blinking like moles after a spirit crushing lockdown searching for someone to play to...with a bunch of new lockdown songs and old favourites as well. Hank will be bringing along recently released copies of brand new album 'Holey Holey'. Hank is currently nursing seven broken ribs but says defiantly “Who needs 24 ribs? I can sing with 17…”

If Daniel O'Donnell is the brightly scrubbed face of British country music then Hank Wangford is its guilty conscience, its dark and troubled grubby soul. Hank has picked at the miserable underbelly of country music for twenty eight years, inspiring others like Billy Bragg, The The, The Alabama Three and other alt.country musicians. He has spread the word with his two ground breaking television series, Britain’s first on Country music, "Big Big Country" and "The A to Z of C&W" and his books "Lost Cowboys" and "Hank Wangford Vol 3 The Middle Years".

This messianic derailment onto the path of country music came from befriending and playing with Gram Parsons, ex-Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, in the seventies. This was at a time when Hank - as Dr Sam Hutt - was a rock 'n roll doctor. Many of his patients were from the world of rock music and the hippie alternative world. The Grateful Dead, the Who and the Rolling Stones were some of his clients.  www.hankwangford.co.uk

Joli Blon

Traditional toe-tapping Lousiana dance tunes brought to you by a core trio of women on accordian, fiddle and guitar. Joli Blon, who take their name from a much loved Cajun waltz, play traditional dance music from Louisiana: a riotous mix of red-hot accordion, rip-roaring fiddle and gutsy, driving guitar. Stomping, hypnotic two-steps, mournful waltzes telling of heartache and despair so sad they make you happy, and a bit of blues - all sung in Cajun French and brought to you by a core trio of women. The music is uplifting and infectiously danceable – bringing audiences of all ages up on their feet and onto the dance floor.  www.facebook.com/joliblon

Steven J. Adams

Steven Adams is a "national musical treasure" (The Guardian) who fronted country pranksters The Broken Family Band throughout the 2000s before calling time on that band at the height of their success. He's been ploughing his own furrow ever since, with multiple name changes (Singing Adams, The Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), and a series of albums ranging from DIY pop, intimate folk and - with 2018's Virtue Signals - experiments in krautrock and politically-charged indie rock. His latest album with The French Drops - Keep it Light - was released in summer 2020.

“Astonishing tenderness in its simplicity … brilliant lyrics" Q Magazine

“The tunes are instant and uplifting, but the real wallop comes from the lyrical imagery” The Guardian

“Barbed modern life chronicles” UNCUT"