Ben Glover, The Orphan Brigade

Ben Glover’s most recent album Atlantic was released in September 2014 and received rave reviews and airplay across BBC Radio 2.

Ben will be joined on this tour by Neilson Hubbard and Josh Britt. The trio will perform sets featuring Ben’s solo material as well that from their collaborative project The Orphan Brigade which is a musical collaboration whose new album “Soundtrack to a Ghost Story” is set to be released in the UK on 2nd November.

The album was written by the three musicians and the recording features other notable Nashville-based artists including Gretchen Peters and Kim Richey. This is a ghost story set to music… The group spent a year writing and recording an album in one of the most haunted houses in the Southern United States - The Octagon Hall, Franklin, Kentucky. They set out to tell the story of this eerie architectural oddity and of the family, soldiers, and servants who lived and died there.

A most engaging evening’s entertainment. Ben and Gretchen Peters receive a UK Americana Awards 2016 nomination for their song Blackbirds for International Song Of The Year! The inaugural awards ceremony will take place in London in February 2016.

What the press said about Atlantic:

"Singer-songwriter attempts his own Atlantic crossing…Northern Ireland's Ben Glover has been leading a double life, splitting time between his homeland and the southern US, soaking up the best of both worlds. The influences of each are hugely evident here as Glover attempts a marriage of their spirits and traditions. If it's weighted more heavily towards Americana than the folk of Christy Moore or The Pogues that Glover grew up playing in home and pub sessions, it's more to do with the fact that at heart he's a rock'n'roller, the greasy blues groove of Take And Pay being ample proof. It's the heartfelt lyrics, however, that will keep you coming back to this album time and time again. All the usual hallmarks are there - love, death, tragedy, redemption, loss - but sung with such direct conviction and warmth that Steve Earle is the nearest comparison. Let's hope the marriage lasts many years." MOJO - 4 out of 5 stars

"Former law student makes Deep South-Irish connection. County Antrim-raised and Nashville resident since 2009, Ben Glover makes his fifth album a bringing-it-all-back-home beauty. Recorded on the Donegal coast it looks to, and finds, inspiration in the land beyond the great divide of the album title. From the lucid rumination of "Oh Soul" (co-written with Mary Gauthier) to the pedal steel wanderlust of "True Love's Breaking My Heart", themes of redemption, loss and pain loom large. Glover's fully rounded artistry is equally at home channeling The Pogues on table-thumping exile return on "Sing A Song Boys", as purveying Townes Van Zandt gothic on the Gretchen Peters duet, "Blackbirds". Uncut - 8 out of 10

"Singer-songwriter Ben Glover has that rare quality of making you stop in your tracks and listen to his every word. "Atlantic" is a deep, earthy, Southern-gothic blend of storytelling that's of another time." Maverick Magazine (5 stars)

"Ben glover’s new album... Is an absolute triumph." - The Irish News

The Orphan Brigade

Touring in April 2015 as a 3-piece featuring Ben Glover, Neilson Hubbard and Josh Britt, is a musical collaboration who’s new album “Soundtrack to a Ghost Story” is set to be released in the UK on 2nd November. The album was written by the three musicians and the recording features other notable Nashville-based artists including Gretchen Peters and Kim Richey.

This is a ghost story set to music… The group spent a year writing and recording an album in one of the most haunted houses in the Southern United States -The Octagon Hall, Franklin, Kentucky. They set out to tell the story of this eerie architectural oddity and of the family, soldiers, and servants who lived and died there.

The group looked for inspiration and possible encounters with the spirits of this place. In the end they found that and much more. The house became a symbol of how we are all haunted by the things that we cannot let go of. While tracing the lives of these 19th century characters they found a window into universal themes that we all face. What do we leave behind? Will we be remembered or do we ultimately become invisible? Are our beliefs just illusions we hold onto to justify the things we do? If we hold on too tightly to our causes will they ultimately destroy us? These musicians came to tell the story of this house and in the process told their own story…

“To create this masterpiece, these musicians and songwriters had to become what they strove to create—an orphan brigade. After listening to The Orphan Brigade, I think you'll agree that the three young men who created these "deathless songs" are out of their minds. This is an album to experience. To get lost in. Perhaps never to return.” Marshall Chapman

Top notch singing and story-telling.' 4**** - The Irish Times

Folk Radio UK calls 'Soundtrack To A Ghost Story' "Outstanding."

www.benglover.co.uk/