What better way to celebrate St David’s day than by watching an alt.country band from Portland? None. None at all.

Richmond Fontaine are one of my favourite bands in the world. We liked the last album so much that we released the vinyl version on our own Diverse Records label. It’s this link up that has given us the opportunity of putting this gig on.

If you’re a fan of wonderful story telling and pedal steel led Americana then you can’t afford to miss these guys. They released eighth album ‘We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River’ back in September. It was number 5 in Uncut’s Americana albums of 2009. If anything, this release is slightly more mainstream and rounds off the country edges a little, what hasn’t been comprised is front man Willy Vlautin’s way with lyrics. Vlautin is also the author of 2 novels (the third ‘Lean On Pete’ is out at the start of Feb and there’ll be news of a book reading from Willy on here soon), this shows in his songs. No clever rhymes or nonsensical verses, every song is a heartfelt tale of real life, often a hard luck story, often heartbreaking, always brilliant. Since 2002’s ‘Winnemucca’ the band have gone from strength to strength and are always a treat in the live arena.

Support comes from The Redlands Palomino Company.  Last time I saw the band in Clwb the gig sold out so get your tickets in advance.

Tickets are £12 in advance and available from Diverse Music, Spillers Records and www.clwb.net