Firstly, this preview is for the Saturday night.  Tickets are available soley for this or you can buy a joint ticket for this and for the follwing day’s all day event in Porthcawl which is previewed seperately on this site.  Pictured are Richmond Fontaine, headliners on the Friday night and one of my favourite bands in the world!  So favourite that Diverse Records are releasing the vinyl version of their new album.

Across The Borders is a new partnership event between independent music programmer Gathered In Song, Bridgend County Borough Council’s Arts and Culture Service and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council’s Cultural Services department. Bringing some of the biggest names in international americana and alt. folk to South Wales over two days…

Buy a ticket for one show or a discounted weekend package which includes a free bus service from Ponty to Porthcawl after the show on Saturday.  Diverse and Spillers have tickets to this (£19 inc BF), the Sunday (same price) and it’s £33 for both gigs and the bus.

Sat 5th September 2009 @ The Muni Arts Centre, Pontypridd
7.30pm-11.00pm

RICHMOND FONTAINE
Richmond Fontaine’s new album “We Used to Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River” was released on Décor Records on August 17th on CD, and will be out shortly on Diverse Records on LP.

Richmond Fontaine are from Portland, Oregon, playing brittle and evocative alt-country with lyrics that draw powerful and sometimes troubling portraits of life along the margins of the contemporary American West. Equal parts Uncle Tupelo and Charles Bukowski, or Ryan Adams’ Whiskeytown meets the gritty realism of Heartworn Highways, Richmond Fontaine is the brainchild of singer, guitarist, and songwriter Willy Vlautin, born in Reno, NV.

At 16, Vlautin formed his first band, but after several years he became disenchanted with the limited opportunities to play original music in Reno, and moved to Portland, in 1994. Not long after he relocated, Vlautin met bassist Dave Harding; discovering their shared enthusiasm for the Blasters, the Replacements, and Hüsker Dü, Vlautin and Harding decided to form a band, and recruited drummer Stuart Gaston to form the first lineup of Richmond Fontaine.

After gigging locally, the band recorded their first album, Safety, for the local Cravedog Records label in 1996. Lots of West Coast touring and a few trips to the East and Midwest followed. In 1997, the band recorded and released their second album, Miles From, and set out on another nationwide tour. By the time their third album, Lost Son, came out in 1999, Sean Oldham had replaced Gaston on drums; their fourth album “Winnemucca” soon followed.

With a now solid line up and a common goal, the next brace of albums were to define not only their style, but the underground alt-country sound of America. The classic “Post To Wire” (which was named 4th best album of the year by Uncut behind Brian Wilson, Wilco, & Loretta Lynn), the pared down “The Fitzgerald” and the landmark “Thirteen Cities” all met with critical acclaim both sides of the Atlantic.

The new album, seen as the band’s most accessible yet, was produced once again by JD Foster (Calexico, Richard Buckner, Laura Cantrell), who was at the helm for the last three albums. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Brainard steps in with pedal steel, trumpet and piano and the core line up of Willy Vlautin (guitars, vocals), Sean Oldham (drums, vocals), Dave Harding (Bass) and Dan Eccles (guitars) remains.

“Raw autobiographical brilliance” – Uncut editor Allan Jones – 5 stars, September 2009

Sunday Times- 4 stars (16 Aug 2009)

Q – “Eighth and best album from Oregon four-piece” 4****

Word – “Gorgeously lyrical guitar-pop from America’s Northwest”

The Express – 4****

Mail On Sunday – “their finest record since 2004’s definitive Post to Wire.”

The Independent- “Alcohol, Winnebagos, freeways, motel rooms.” 4****

The Independent called lead singer/songwriter Willy Vlautin “the Dylan of the Dislocated” and The Sun said Willy is now an equal songwriter to Tom Waits and Springsteen….hell, we can’t argue with that! It sounds impossible but they have topped their last three masterpieces.

WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY
“one of the great American bands, with a classically accessible songbook and controlled musical power matching any contemporaries” The Independent

PETER BRUNTNELL
“one of the finest songwriters in Britain” The Independent

Full info can be found HERE