About this concert
Described as like a young Billie Holiday gate-crashing a Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones recording session, or a moody Mary Margaret O'Hara, duo Ma Polaine's Great Decline continue to build a reputation as an intriguing and hard to pigeon-hole act with influences in folk, blues, jazz and country.
From the start Beth Packer and Clinton Hough always sought to keep their song-writing influences open, and have a sound with oddness, sparsity and a subtle quality that is their own. The duo have been tightening their unique sound whilst remaining decidedly easy and loose with the range of influences they draw from. Blues, jazz and folk feature strongly, but what this duo admire most in others is individuality, artists who have been unafraid to be themselves musically and in attitude.
2018 album release The Outsider has had wide-spread radio play, including Tom Robinson's BBC 6 show, Verity Sharp's Late Junction on BBC Radio 3, The Radio 2 Blues Show. 2018 ended on a high with a runners-up spot for the band in the fRoots Editor's Choice album of the year.
2016's EP release Small Town Talk gained rave media reviews, building on 2015's nomination as an emerging artist in the British Blues Awards for the album Got Me Out Of Hell, also winning a Reveal Records emerging act competition, and earning an international song-writing semi-final spot for Suffer It Well from 2013 EP of the same name.
fRoots: think a moody Mary Margaret O'Hara
The Morning Star: each songs beguiles with its uniquely absorbing multilayered musical ambiance.
Fatea Magazine: The Outsider is an album to be relished, the aural delights proffered are plentiful and compelling, with a mark of individuality that is refreshing.
Roots Music Report: one compelling and unique musical presence.
Liverpool Sound and Vision: The Outsider is a series of continuing brilliance to which cannot be contained or pigeon-holed.
Folking.com: If you've ever felt that the whole world is cross-threaded, The Outsider is your kind of record
Blues in Britain: haunting and compelling.
Blues Matters: it is Beth with her stark and crystal-clear vocals that underpins this sound.
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Ma Polaine's Great Decline Biography
Ma Polaine’s Great Decline are delighted to embark on a Spring tour supporting their fourth album release. The band offer a beautiful blend of folk tinged americana with their new album Molecules, due for release on the 22nd March 2024,
The final song “Molecules” is like an umbrella for so many emotions explored throughout the album. Human connections, our necessity for it, companionship and its fragility, the injustices in the world, acknowledgment of our flaws, passion, love, and hope…
Ma Polaine’s Great Decline are an award-winning band praised by MOJO Magazine for their unique blend of pop, folk, blues, and Americana. Ma Polaine’s music resonates as both comfortably familiar and refreshingly innovative, creating a truly engaging experience. With airplay on BBC 6 and BBC Radio 2, and the support of Cerys Matthews, the band's genre-defying charm unfolds through songs that explore the intricacies of human connections, weaving tales of light and dark with uplifting melodies and heartfelt storytelling.
Throughout their journey, they have released three albums and five EPs. "City of Love," their album from June 2020, was a pivotal moment for them, when they received "Best band/duo" award from Fatea Magazine. The band had fantastic reviews in publications like MOJO with a 4 stars review. In 2020 they were due to perform live on BBC Radio 2 for Cerys Matthews when the world ground to a halt, faced with lockdown. In spite of this difficult time they had some wonderful moments such as BBC 6 radio play on International Womens Day.
Live, Beth has a black humour that gives the audience the chance to laugh at themselves, our human connection, love, and the complex facets of pain, with an understanding life can go a bit wonky sometimes. The band seeks to offer a raw, authentic portrayal of real-life experiences that will resonate with audiences from all walks of life. There’s a cathartic nature to Beth’s lyrics, song writing and sound that hugs the listener and draws them in.
“..an album to be cherished, replete with enchanting musical treats around every corner”. Folk Radio UK
"Ma Polaine’s Great Decline have evolved a pop-folk-blues-americana style that is warmly familiar, yet is sufficiently unhinged to keep you guessing…" MOJO
“Packer’s voice has a superb range, but it is her interpretative skill that entrances, with the effortless shifts that imbue her evocative lyrics with rare emotional charge”.
Morning Star
“..an album to be cherished, replete with enchanting musical treats around every corner”.
Folk Radio UK
“This is 21st-century music chock full of mystery and acute observation”.
Blues Matters
“…an intangible element peculiar to themselves”.
R2 Magazine
“…it’s the singer’s compelling and never overplayed delivery, however, that gives this set its sustained, just-under-the surface intensity”.
Roots Music Report
“The icing on the cake is their vocalist. Stunning singer Beth Packer is someone to get to know”.
Blues And Soul Magazine
Read MoreThe final song “Molecules” is like an umbrella for so many emotions explored throughout the album. Human connections, our necessity for it, companionship and its fragility, the injustices in the world, acknowledgment of our flaws, passion, love, and hope…
Ma Polaine’s Great Decline are an award-winning band praised by MOJO Magazine for their unique blend of pop, folk, blues, and Americana. Ma Polaine’s music resonates as both comfortably familiar and refreshingly innovative, creating a truly engaging experience. With airplay on BBC 6 and BBC Radio 2, and the support of Cerys Matthews, the band's genre-defying charm unfolds through songs that explore the intricacies of human connections, weaving tales of light and dark with uplifting melodies and heartfelt storytelling.
Throughout their journey, they have released three albums and five EPs. "City of Love," their album from June 2020, was a pivotal moment for them, when they received "Best band/duo" award from Fatea Magazine. The band had fantastic reviews in publications like MOJO with a 4 stars review. In 2020 they were due to perform live on BBC Radio 2 for Cerys Matthews when the world ground to a halt, faced with lockdown. In spite of this difficult time they had some wonderful moments such as BBC 6 radio play on International Womens Day.
Live, Beth has a black humour that gives the audience the chance to laugh at themselves, our human connection, love, and the complex facets of pain, with an understanding life can go a bit wonky sometimes. The band seeks to offer a raw, authentic portrayal of real-life experiences that will resonate with audiences from all walks of life. There’s a cathartic nature to Beth’s lyrics, song writing and sound that hugs the listener and draws them in.
“..an album to be cherished, replete with enchanting musical treats around every corner”. Folk Radio UK
"Ma Polaine’s Great Decline have evolved a pop-folk-blues-americana style that is warmly familiar, yet is sufficiently unhinged to keep you guessing…" MOJO
“Packer’s voice has a superb range, but it is her interpretative skill that entrances, with the effortless shifts that imbue her evocative lyrics with rare emotional charge”.
Morning Star
“..an album to be cherished, replete with enchanting musical treats around every corner”.
Folk Radio UK
“This is 21st-century music chock full of mystery and acute observation”.
Blues Matters
“…an intangible element peculiar to themselves”.
R2 Magazine
“…it’s the singer’s compelling and never overplayed delivery, however, that gives this set its sustained, just-under-the surface intensity”.
Roots Music Report
“The icing on the cake is their vocalist. Stunning singer Beth Packer is someone to get to know”.
Blues And Soul Magazine
Acoustic Blues
Alt-folk.
Blues
Jazz
Oddly Stylish
Roots Time-travellers
Americana
Simultaneously Familiar And Exotic
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