Down By The River

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Down By The River

Down By The River DBTR is a not-for-profit live music promoter. All generated income is paid directly to musicians.

'DownByTheRiver is one of those forward-thinking promoters.' - NARC magazine

20/02/2025

This. Coming to Claypath, Durham and The Georgian Theatre, Stockton in April. Cannot wait. + Ani Sandwith in Durham

19/02/2025

This Sunday (23rd Feb) - Down By The River Presents... Mississippi MacDonald

MacDonald is an English Soul-Blues singer/songwriter/guitarist who has appeared on Cerys Matthews BBC Radio 2 Blues Show and has played live extensively in the UK and the US including a Blues Society showcase on Beale Street during the International Blues Challenge. He has recorded his music in the US with established artists Vaneese Thomas (Rufus Thomas), Benny Turner (Freddie King, Mighty Joe Young), and the Reverend Shawn Amos.

🎟️: https://georgiantheatre.co.uk/live-events/blues-in-the-bar-featuring-mississippi-macdonald/

19/02/2025

Really looking forward to these two! and
🎟link in bio

10/02/2025

07/02/2025

Thanks folks. Looking forward.

05/02/2025

DBTR is ready to rock…see you on the other side…

🎸🔥 ¡Hoy arranca el 31st Rockin’ Race! 🔥🎸

Estamos listos para vivir 5️⃣ días de puro rock & roll, rockabilly y rhythm & blues en un ambiente único 🚀💃

Agradecemos a Turismo de la Diputación de Málaga ❤️ por su valioso apoyo, haciendo posible que esta gran fiesta siga creciendo. ¡Gracias Vive Costa del Sol por estar un año más con nosotros! 🙌✨

Música en vivo, baile sin fin y diversión asegurada. 🎶✨ ¿Preparados para disfrutar? ¡Nos vemos en la pista! 😎

🔗 Toda la info en 👉 rockinrace.com

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🎸🔥 The 31st Rockin’ Race kicks off today! 🔥🎸

We’re ready for 5️⃣ days of pure rock & roll, rockabilly, and rhythm & blues in a unique atmosphere! 🚀💃

A huge thanks to Turismo de la Diputación de Málaga ❤️ for their valuable support, helping this amazing festival keep growing. Thank you for being with us once again! 🙌✨

Live music, endless dancing, and guaranteed fun. 🎶✨ Are you ready to enjoy? See you on the dance floor! 😎

🔗 All the info at 👉 rockinrace.com

30/01/2025

Our upcoming gigs previewed in this months - copies available from both Claypath in Durham and The Georgian Theatre in Stockton.

28/01/2025

Looking forward to this one

28/01/2025

Jim White show's here are always awesome.... and he flies over to tour Europe in a couple weeks ...
https://wegottickets.com/event/630980

25/01/2025

We know there’s loads of choice in the north east so whenever someone buys a ticket for one of our gigs we are always very grateful. Next two feature award winning bluesman Mississippi MacDonald. 22/2 at Claypath in Durham and 23/2 at The Georgian Theatre, Stockton 🎟 link in bio

22/01/2025

Our March Blues in the Bar at The Georgian Theatre in Stockton features the brilliant Deep Six Blues
Sunday 16/3 3pm £10
🎟 link in bio
All ticket sales paid directly to the musicians

20/01/2025

How it feels for a lot of us. Thanks to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy for the words.

17/01/2025

This will be excellent

New year, new folk programme... 🎻

We kick off 2025's F Word with the duo, Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmonds. Based in the folk and country roots genre, they have made 4 acclaimed albums and been nominated for a Radio 2 Folk Award (Best Original Song).

Paul is also known as the chief songwriter with legendary folk rock band The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Naomi has co written and sung on ‘Funny Break’, a Top 20 hit with Orbital and has appeared on Later with Jools Holland. The duo's most recent album ‘Strange News Has Come To Town’ appeared in the summer 2024 an album "full of splendid songs and gorgeous harmonies." (The Arts Desk)

Their Appalachian Ballads album, ‘Singing It All Back Home’ was featured as Guardian's Folk Album of the Month in 2019, and was also featured in session on the Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 2 show.

And we can't wait for them to tour here in The Black Swan Bar & Venue! Get your tickets now for this first instalment of our monthly Folk programme and Folk Club, The F Word 🎼

Tickets 👉 https://newcastle-arts-centre.co.uk/product/the-f-word-naomi-bedford-and-paul-simmonds/

As always, will be opened by the , a platform for local Folkies to share their stuff with us 👏

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Saturday's gig at Claypath Delicatessen featuring Trevor Babajack Steger + Oliver Hunt was just amazing. It’s hard to put into a few words just how wonderful these gigs in Durham City are. Good company, superb live music, great food and wine; those 4 components always make it a very positive experience for me, and the feedback I get from musicians is also very positive. Thanks to everyone who has supported these events throughout 2024, it is much appreciated. We’ve got a beautiful thing going on here…looking forward to doing it all again in 2025. Starting with Mississippi Macdonald on Saturday February 22nd.

Well, that's a wrap for this year! Trevor Babajack Stegerjck Steger and Anth Purdy really rounded off Blues in the Bar at The Georgian Theatre, Stockton for us in fine style. A massive thanks to all the musicians who have played; to everyone who has bought tickets and to the staff at The Georgian. All the best everyone - We'll be back on Feb 23 with Mississippi Macdonald. in the meantime I'm off to the Rockin Race Jamboree in Spain. Yipee!🎸

How it was yesterday at our Blues in the Bar gig at The Georgian Theatre, Stockton. @Trevor Babajack Music and Anth Purdy Music were both absolutely on fire ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nice to hear this weekends gigs getting a mention on the BBC 2 Blues Show. Thanks Cerys Matthews.

He's got the devil inside and he's on his way to Stockton! Last Blues in the Bar of 2024 and it's going to be a hot one. Great support too.

A week this Saturday will be our final gig of 2024 and what a treat we have lined up for you. Only, the UK Blues Federation 2023 Acoustic Act of the Year - Trevor Babajack Steger. Blues Matters Magazine described him as 'A Master Craftsman'. There are a limited number of seats remaining for this one-off intimate show in Durham City. Starting at 7pm with a set from Townes Van Zandt influenced singer/songwriter Oliver Hunt. Come and be 'carried on the wings of a wailing slide guitar' - Blues in Britain

KEEP MUSIC LIVE MUSIC 🎵

He's coming to Durham and he's got the Devil inside! Hope he likes the pizza at Claypath Delicatessen. They'll give him extra chilli I'm sure👿🤘

This Sunday! And it's warming up... The Washboard Resonators are a vintage blues duo from Leeds, who will be bringing their blend of jazz, blues and hokum to The Georgian Theatre Bar. Please note this is a seated gig (unless you want to stand at the bar!) Expect a get down, good time show of originals and era-appropriate classics.

This coming Sunday - 3pm start. Blues in the Bar at The Georgian Theatre, Stockton 'Ma Polaine's live show entails a duet of Beth Packer's emotive vocals accompanied by Clinton Hough's often caustic blues guitar' - NARC Magazine #stocktonontees

Thanks to everyone who came down to The Georgian Theatre, Stockton yesterday for George Boomsma + Ani Sandwith. George finished his set with this Bob Dylan classic and for me it's way better than the original!

KEEP | MUSIC | LIVE

Ahead of Sundays gig, folks are saying nice things about George Boomsma....but make sure to get there early for Ani Sandwith she's great and as she points out 'Making music is all about connection; being onstage with an audience and creating a moment and an experience together is something really special, and it’s what I thrive on as an artist.' #teessidelive #thegeorgian #notforprofit #supportyourscene

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DownByTheRiver is a not-for-profit event based in Durham City operating for the benefit of musicians and their audience All generated income goes directly to the artists.

Tell us about DownByTheRiver, what it is and what does it hope to achieve?

I’ve been involved in grass-roots music promotion on and off now for 25 years. In the mid-nineties I started and ran a gig/label/artist management imprint called Zambra which was based in London, it was quite successful on an underground level but as often is the case these things have a certain shelf life. High points were live sessions on Radio 1, a VH1/MTV live set and sold out gigs at the iconic 12 Bar Club which at the time was located on Denmark Street, W1 or ‘Tin Pan Alley’ as it is better known.

What I’m doing now with DBTR mirrors Zambra in many ways, in as much as it is rooted in DIY culture and ran ethically. It is mainly gig promotion I do now but I have been involved in a couple of recording projects recently – a good friend of mine (Dr Bone) owns The Washoose Studio in Lanark, Scotland and worked with the late-great John Martyn on a couple of his later albums, so he’s my go-to guy as far as recording goes.

In terms of what I want to achieve, it’s pretty simple really. I want to help build the live music scene in Durham, make sure musicians get paid for what they do and give up and coming local artists a listening and supportive environment in which to develop their musicianship. I always insist the audience give the musicians the ‘gift of their full attention’. It seems to have worked because my audience are serious about music and do listen. Musicians appreciate that and always seem to go away with a good feeling which is not always the case, especially in pub gigs.

A question I’m often asked is ‘Why do you do this’? Followed by ‘you are crazy, you are working for nothing’. My answer is this – Musicians changed my life. I had my eyes opened by people like John Lennon, Bob Marley, Joe Strummer and Neil Young and have had so much pleasure listening to, watching and working with musicians, this is my way of re-dressing the balance.

I also read this - written by a guy called Alex Wilson, who describes himself as a mediator, touring musician, hobby philosopher and beard enthusiast. His words really hit home and convinced me that running DownByTheRiver as a not for profit gig is the right thing to do.

Alex said….’I had a conversation backstage recently with a fellow musician about what has been dubbed 'the beans on toast lifestyle'. Basically it involves scrimping and saving 24/7 to stay afloat when your income is severely limited by barely-profitable giging and the costs of running a band, which is essentially a small business. The story everyone already knows about musicians is that they are trading stability for authenticity. What I think is more interesting are the details of how it plays out in reality.

The positive aspects of this lifestyle are not often spoken about, since they get a little metaphysical. But since I started my 'career' as a touring musician in early 2012, I've had the opportunity to travel to over 20 countries, playing my own music to wonderful, happy people from all cultures and all walks of life. Real connections with others are forged - briefly, but powerfully. It's hard to overstate how much of a joyful experience this can be and I'm always looking forward to the next gig, anticipating whatever new experiences might lie ahead.

It also feels like an authentic life, insofar that you are giving pride of place to your creative tendencies, which for most serious musicians is their life-skill, the one thing that they are clearly best at. Being able to forge a space in the world for this, and a space that has the potential to enhance the lives of others in small ways, is a profound experience that permeates one's overall outlook.

The troublesome reality, however, is that the numbers game of the industry means the vast majority of musicians will never earn what most people would consider a reasonable income. Musicians, knowing the odds, do their best to press ahead through the stress and exhaustion of balancing day jobs and band commitments, seeing the financial and social stability that their friends are settling into as a speck on the horizon to try for at some later date.

When I started out I optimistically believed that I could safely balance music with a largely austere life of renting, frugal eating, minimal (non-musical) possessions and negligible disposable income. This view was buttressed by the novelty of touring and the excitement of so many wonderful experiences. As the years passed, I've realised that the contentment that comes from touring is more temporary then I thought and, as it wanes, the feeling that you need to consolidate other parts of your life gets more pressing.

I don't think I'm very different from most musicians in this way - we can experience wonderful things but with a sense that our musical lives exist on borrowed time. We never know exactly when we will get off the ride, but we know there is a final stop somewhere on the road and that there is a significant remainder of our lives to come after that. It can be heart-breaking to realize that your greatest skill cannot be the major vocation of your entire life - a heartbreak that those with a passion for a trade, a science, law or business will not need to grapple with.

That said, let it be known that the majority of musos I've dealt with have a healthily perspective on their struggles to balance matters artistic and financial. The contradiction is a reality that they all live, but they are grateful for what they are able to experience even if they can't achieve the full extent of their dreams’.

How are musicians/artists chosen?

I go out to loads of live music events so I’m always on the look-out. I read the local music press too and do research on line. It has to be something I’m into and a lot of care goes into my programming. I think the audience appreciate that and they know pretty much I try and promote good quality music even if some of the musicians I promote are relatively unknown. I’m quite eclectic in my taste so there is no hard and fast rule. Over the last few years I have featured everything from gypsy jazz to cutting-edge electronica to blues, folk and Americana.

Why Durham? And how were the venues chosen?

I’m a County Durham native so really it seemed logical to put gigs on in our beautiful city, plus there didn’t seem to be that much happening in terms of the music I was into. It started at The Peoples Bookshop. In 2014 I put on a series of gigs by protest singers under the banner of ‘Club Resistance’. It was a success but I felt a bit constrained by the political nature of the gigs and wanted to do something that was not political at all. So I launched DBTR at Empty Shop in Durham in 2016. I have put shows on at The Mining Institute and The Cluny in Newcastle and The Georgian Theatre in Stockton but Durham is definitely home territory.

The venues were chosen because the people who run them bought into my ethical policy. For example, the guys who own the Claypath Delicatessen are music lovers themselves so they enjoy the gigs and take a few quid in drinks and food sales so everyone is happy and working to the same end – building the Durham music scene, encouraging the arts and getting a buzz from putting on something genuinely ethical. Our audience know that when they buy a ticket or pay at the door they are directly supporting the musicians so though it means a lot of work and effort to bring things together it’s definitely worth it in terms of growing something organically.

https://linktr.ee/downbytheriver9

20/02/2025

19/02/2025

19/02/2025

10/02/2025

07/02/2025

05/02/2025

30/01/2025

28/01/2025

28/01/2025

25/01/2025

22/01/2025

20/01/2025

17/01/2025

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