Roman Candle is delighted to welcome Tom Blackwell with special guests Caitlin Gilligan and dbh to The Ship and Mitre, Liverpool, on Friday, 17th April.

​

Tickets are £12 in advance from: See Tickets

​

TOM BLACKWELL

​

Now landed on Teesside after a meandering  journey across all corners of England, Tom Blackwell emerged from the Manchester folk club circuit, where he discovered the country, blues and gospel music that would become the foundations of his work. 

​

Between 2010-2011 a succession of homemade recorded demo collections garnered somewhat of a cult following. In 2012 The Viper label of Liverpool (The La’s, Edgar Jones) released a compilation of these tracks. The record received support from BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music. 

​

After a tumultuous start to 2014, Blackwell found himself embarking on a 3 month pilgrimage of America. Armed only with a guitar and the clothes on his back, he travelled thousands of miles over rail and bus, before a chance meeting in Nashville with sound engineer Matt Wyman led to the recording of Tyrone The Gun. The album found critical acclaim and named as one of Country Music People magazine's albums of the year in 2015

​

In 2018 he decided to undertake an archive project to document his early material in the barest of forms. The ‘Memphis Volumes’ were just that, hushed vocal and guitar takes captured in various Merseyside dwellings onto an old four track  cassette recorder.

His second official long player, Regency Cafe was released in the late summer of 2023 and followed by the ‘Tell Tale Heart’ in 2025.

A prolific writer with a visceral and dynamic performance style, Blackwell has been playing  across the UK and beyond for the last 15 years. He has shared the stage with artists such as legendary Love guitarist Johnny Echols,  and supported many other illustrious names including Terry Reid, Hurray For The Riff Raff and Joshua Ray Walker.

​

CAITLIN GILLIGAN 

​

“... there's a little Linda Perhacs and Vashti Bunyan in the delicacy of her delivery,  though she sings with a singular clear-eyed intensity of her own.” - KLOF Mag -

​

Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist Caitlin Gilligan hails from the rolling hills of rural Galloway. Though now based in Liverpool, her songs still echo the wildness of her Scottish youth. 

​

Her live performaces combine haunting vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo and harmonium to create soul-stirring drones and melodies, weaving age-old folk songs into sets of bare-boned and poetically-crafted originals. She demonstrates refreshing insight whilst simultaneously summoning the voices of times gone by. 

​

She draws much from the well of folk giants such as Anne Briggs, Nick Drake, Lisa O'Neill and Lankum as well as the traditional vocal music of Scotland, Ireland and America.

​

Caitlin has played alongside artists such as Martin Carthy, Nora Brown, The Unthanks, Sam Amidon and Jerron Paxton. 2025 saw Caitlin play shows nationwide with names such as Jim Ghedi, Sabine McCalla, Jude Brothers, Chloë Foy and Yoshika Colwell as well as headlining well-established folk clubs in the North West. 2026 will see plenty more live shows across the country as well as festival appearances, leading into her own headline album tour later in the year.

​

Caitlin is currently working on her debut album at Sloe Flower Studio in Chester, UK, which is due to be released in 2026. Her album so far features illustrious names such as Jude Brothers (backing vocals), dbh (fiddle, banjo, guitar) and Charli Wild (viola). 

​

“Scottish folksinger Caitlin Gilligan creates an array of truly timeless ballads, varying from good old-fashioned storytelling to the occasional protest song. A celebrated performer wherever she pops up..."
- RGM - 

​

DBH

​

dbh is Daniel Bridgwood-Hill, a composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist based in Manchester, England. For a long time, he has had a hand in an inordinate amount of the great music emerging from Manchester’s music scene, his guitar playing driving the exhilarating racket of NASDAQ and the FTSE 100, and his contributions on all manner of instruments illuminating the music of Charles Hayward (This Heat), Kiran Leonard and Irma Vep, to name but a few.

​

As dbh, he plays solo instrumentals, conveying his passion for both folk and popular music with a languid guitar style and playful experimentation. He has released two albums to date – 'Mood' on Thread Recordings (2015) and 'Time Flies' on Crowfoot Records (2013) – and was also featured on the most recent volume of Tompkins Square's guitar compilation series, 'Imaginational Anthem Vol. 7'.

​

dbh has toured throughout the UK and Europe, sharing bills with artists including Daniel Bachman, Bridget Hayden, Jim Ghedi and Nadia Reid.