Mountain Firework Company

It’s been a long climb, but the peak is in sight…

Local legends Mountain Firework Company have been together for over a decade now, getting together in the room above the
Sidewinder pub, spearheaded by singer songwriter Gareth McGahan, whose love of folk and country-blues eventually permeated the band. “I picked up the guitar when I was 18, 19, doing that folky finger- pickin’ kind of stuff I was obsessed with; it was all I did. But that went on the back burner a bit when I was managing the Sidewinder. When we first started we were a different band but it all started to click when I started to write and sing properly and get back to my roots, folksy, bluesy thing.”

Despite a superb live show, three well received albums and a large, and sometimes fanatical fanbase, the band were never able to really take off due to the time-honoured restraints, responsibilities and commitments of family, work, and other band projects –paying the bills as it were. But the band are just too good at what they do to give in that easily, and patently love the music and vibe they create. They’ve now got an agent on board, and their first gig of the year will see the return to the band of guitarist Matt Oldfield, a lynchpin of Mountain Firework Company before he moved to Australia a few years ago. “It seems 2014 could be an exciting year for us,” says Gareth. “We’re off to Kansas for the Folk Alliance International [the hugely respected folk music conference and ‘camp’ which this year features Graham Nash delivering the keynote speech], playing some festivals [including Shetland Folk Festival in April and Larmer Tree in July] and we’re up at Celtic Connections at the end of the month, supporting Imelda May.”

As well as the superb musicianship of this seasoned band, that includes Simon Russell on double bass, Mike Simmonds on fiddle and Grant Allardyce on drums, there’s a deep repertoire of beautifully crafted and original songs, alternatively melancholy and uplifting, dynamic and fluid, topped by McGahan’s distinctive Irish accent and iced with some gorgeous vocal harmony work. Whilst working within the fields of country, folk, Americana and bluegrass, their sound is their own, as beguiling as you could wish. “We’ve got a lot of new material in the pipeline, it’s just a case of getting it rehearsed and finding a way of getting it recorded, hopefully some time this year.”

Mountain Firework Company, The Greys, Monday 27 January, 8pm, £8