Americana Festival Day
British Americana artists at PierFest 2023
Shauna Parker
Charlie Austen
Red River
At Horatio’s Bar on Brighton Palace Pier
Midday – 4pm
FREE ENTRY
SHAUNA PARKER
Shauna is best known as the singer in Shauna Parker and the Saloon Bar Band who play a great mix of classic country and contemporary Americana.
Brighton-based for many years now, she originally hails from Nova Scotia, Canada and grew up influenced by the best of Canadian musical heroes including Mitchell, Young, Lang, Cohen and McGarrigle. Combining a love of contemporary cutting-edge Americana and down-home Country classics ensures a wide ranging repertoire, whether solo, fronting The Saloon Bar Band, her Kitchen Party duo, or bringing Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ or the songs of Patsy Cline to life.
Despite often saying that “with so many brilliant songs to sing, why would I want to write my own?” she is moving in a new direction, focusing on presenting her own songs, many of which are born of half a lifetime of separation from her family in Canada.
“Honest, timeless songs of love, temptation, heartache and loss – when Shauna sings you believe every word.”
CHARLIE AUSTEN
Supported by Charlie Austen
Charlie is a one-woman tour-de-force, playing carefully crafted original songs on the folk-soul-rock spectrum, ready to take you on a lyrical journey to outer-space and back. Airy, yet powerful blues-infused vocals, intricate guitar parts and bare feet that keep the beat, courtesy of her unique suitcase drum-kit invention. Recently featured nationally on BBC Radio 4, and launching onto the UK festival circuit this year.
Charlie also features as a vocalist in cult blues-rock band Nine Below Zero, with whom she has toured extensively, and has been chosen for many high-profile gigs with her solo act. These include a European tour with Bryan Ferry, several UK tours with Squeeze-frontman and Ivor-Novello award winning songwriter Glenn Tilbrook, and a contribution to Cat Stevens’s online ‘Catsong’ festival, celebrating 50 years of ‘Tea for the Tillerman’.
RED RIVER
Red River are Brighton’s newest Americana outfit, bringing heart-shaking steel and foot-stomping banjo to the pubs of Hanover this summer. The band began as the acoustic duo Cattle and Roll, who spent some years playing Steve Earle covers and honing their songwriting skills. In the last year, finding strays at the bar of the Great Eastern with a shared love of Tyler Childers and Gillian Welch, they added drums, bass and pedal steel to the band – reinventing as Red River. Most recently, a lead guitar has completed their distinct sound: dreamy, driving, country folk songs about work, weather and birds.
Follow @redriverbanjo on Instagram and Facebook
AMERICANA FESTIVAL BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Paul Adsett from Terrace Cred
