“We sing these songs because we are the same people that would have sung them 200 years ago. It’s not a fantasy, or a cosplay, it’s a reality, for us. Trying to make the music ours, our own tradition, to tease out a link to past communities and all their threads and tendrils, mix and match as people assimilated into the city.” says Kearey

Despite this seriousness, the album’s working-class dry gallows humour carries a stoic “if you don’t laugh you’ll cry” feeling amongst the corruption, scandals and barefaced lies we all observe on a daily basis, with a warning that “only you can fix your deficits” and “it’s your words and deeds that matter…and let me tell you, they speak volumes.”

The gentle persuasion of Carter’s dobro guitar is at once twisted into thug-like distorted riffs, and teased into intricate deft lacework melodies with a Baroque flair, a chimaera that reinforces and underpins the heavy rhythms that are another trademark of Stick In The Wheel’s work. ‘Crystal Tears’ and ‘Steals The Thief’ bookend the record, these are tracks that show more of a modern influence with drones, hardtuned vocal, psychedelic guitars; a reflection of their immediate culture and the sounds of their environment.

“We wanted to make a record that sounded like us, where we’re from, in all its complexity. At the core is our version of traditional music, made in the city, with influences from everywhere” says Carter.

The core of the record imagines a sound of traditional London music, where the musical continuum is unbroken by the population decimated by the world wars, or by gentrification and social cleansing that has forced communities apart, and yet absorbs all the influences of all the communities that call London their home. Carter and Kearey attempted sessions at The George Tavern, Whitechapel, and in Spitalfields, at Denis Severs’ House, and a restored weaver’s townhouse, carrying the aesthetic of the record in their heads as they moved from location to location, before settling into an old factory building and their own workshop. The resulting sparse and economical sound is harsher, more present, more essentially them. It is a mighty haranguing that demands your attention.

Stick in the Wheel will be touring the songs of A THOUSAND POKES with an extensive UK Tour this Autumn. Catch them at these venues as follows:

SITW - 2024 LIVE DATES

25.10.24 Nottingham Bodega 26.10.24 Manchester Deaf Institute 28.10.24 York The Crescent 30.10.24 London Oslo 01.11.24 Aldershot West End Centre 02.11.24 Ramsgate Music Hall 03.11.24 Bristol Thekla 28.11.24 Oxford Common Ground 30.11.24 Totnes Things Happen Here 02.12.24 Birmingham Kitchen Garden Café SOLD OUT 03.12.24 Liverpool Philharmonic 05.12.24 Kendal Brewery Arts 08.12.24 Lewes Con Club 10.12.24 Hayling Island Costa Festival

Tickets on sale now:
https://www.stickinthewheel.com/