'Laid-back' roots supergroup Harley Kimbro Lewis head to The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth this weekend | Interview

Harley Kimbro Lewis are a supergroup of sorts, two-thirds American to one-third British, and are touring in support of their recently released self-titled debut album

Martin Harley, the highly esteemed blues and slide guitarist, joined forces with Grammy-nominated Tennessee bassist Daniel Kimbro and Nashville singer-songwriter Sam Lewis, dubbed by country music giant Chris Stapleton as ‘a modern Townes Van Zandt’.

As Martin says when asked about the album’s reception: ‘I don't think we have had any bad reviews, if anyone has said anything with a negative connotation, they've said that “it's very laid back”.

‘But clearly that's the album we were trying to make – it does sound very laid back!

‘You don't sit around with your friends in Nashville shooting the shizz and making the album you wanted to make in a completely no-pressure environment and think to yourself: “Woah! Where's the up-tempo dancefloor filler on this one?” That was never the MO.’

The three’s friendship goes back to when Martin ‘inadvertently rented a room from Sam while working in Nashville.

‘Someone said to me, you should check out the east side of the city – this was nearly 10 years ago, and east Nashville was a buzzing sort of new community of "creatives". At that time it was a really exciting part of the city.

‘I met Sam and he showed me places where you can see some of the best people in the business playing on a Monday night for five bucks entry – keeping themselves sharp for their big shows on the road.

‘He showed me the ropes, then I met Daniel through Sam. We're all good friends and we've all worked together in different formats over the years, and we'd always resolved to try and make a record together.

‘It just so happened that after three or four years in the planning, we all had a window of opportunity at the same time, so we jumped on it and did it. And then suddenly we had the pandemic to deal with...’

The initial sessions took place with them all together in Nashville, but with the players being forced into lockdown it had to be finished with the musicians on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

‘The guys went in to the studio in Nashville when they could and I went to Pembrokeshire – Nashville of the west of Wales!' he laughs. ‘It's a great studio there called StudiOwz, run by a friend of mine called Owain Fleetwood Jenkins in a converted chapel – it's a glorious place to be.’

When it came to songwriting for the album, it all sounds very democratic.

‘It is almost exactly split three ways – we each brought a couple of almost entirely finished songs, and then there were a couple which were either co-writes of me and Sam or Sam and Daniel.

‘I describe the album as a home for lost dogs, where songs that might not have fitted on a Martin Harley record settled in to the, quite surreal at times, surroundings of this record.

‘There's no brand, there's no band, there's no one to worry about offending, there's no fanbase to lose!

‘There's a great freedom in doing something to please yourself and that's exactly what we've done.

‘But I think it's a really fun record – and splitting the writing credits as we have, and splitting the weight of arrangements has made it much less labour intensive perhaps than a solo effort. It's been great to share that.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​’

As Martin explains, they had assumed they would be able to finish the album as they started it – together, but ‘assumption can be redefined now – particularly in the music industry.

‘It's a strange time, isn't it?

‘I find a lot of musicians just don't know what to do now and audiences are the same, people have got more used to being at home, there are more ways of watching music remotely.

‘I think a lot of musicians have got into different stuff because if you played music pre-pandemic and then you lost your revenue stream, a lot of people moved to different employment out of necessity.

‘It's interesting coming back to it, but the long and short of this record is that I'm just glad we got to make a record as friends – and still are friends after the first 12 dates of the tour!’

And the live aspect is key for the band.

‘I really would have felt like someone had taken the jam out of my doughnut if we hadn't got to do tour at least once. It's great to be back on the road, and the last night of this tour is at The Wedgewood Rooms.

‘Me and Daniel have done quite a lot of work here together, so we thought we were drawing on the strongest fanbase by playing here, and Sam also has an independent fanbase here – we thought the UK was a good place to start, but we will probably tour in The States early next year when things have settled down a bit.’

While all three have numerous other projects on the go, Martin hopes the album won't be a one-off.

‘We all have different stuff that we do, which is why it took so long for us to get together in the first place, but I would hope that we continue with this.

‘Albums are extremely expensive to make, so we would like to do some more touring, here, Stateside and in Europe where we can at least pay for the record. I don't think this will be the end of it, but how we do it next I'm not entirely sure.

‘This was something we just wanted to do because we knew it would be fun and everyone has something really fresh to bring to the project.’

Harley Kimbro Lewis are at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea on Sunday, March 27. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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