As with all our showcases, 100% of the ticket money goes to the acts. With thanks to Collage Arts for their continued support.

/// ALEX HEDLEY ///

Alex will be known to Karousel regulars as one half of the now sadly disbanded Saturday Sun. Currently finishing up his first solo album, you can expect soaring, vocals, a blend of the rage of Muse's Matt Bellamy, the texture of Nick Drake and the melody of Jeff Buckley. Signed to B Unique for publishing, Alex is a class act both as a writer and as a performer - he'll have a long and fruitful career, and this is a great chance to see him up close and personal before it all goes off for him.

/// ALEX KARALEKAS ///

Making the trip over from Martha’s Vineyard, Alex first came to our attention a couple of years back when he was touring with Willy Mason. The first thing that hits you is that this is a rare, insightful, outspoken and genuine lyricist. It seems impossible in these times of corporate gluttony, greed and the consumerism that eats at the heart of the west, that there are so few American voices telling it how it is, poetically, in the way that artists such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and, in more recent times, Bright Eyes have. Alex is quietly rolling up the times he lives in like homegrown tobacco, and blowing the smoke of their lives gently back into his countrymen's faces. There are hints of Conor Oberst and his friend Willy Mason in the delivery; and there’s an undeniable Dylan-esque approach to the writing… We’re made up that he’s made his way across the pond - one of our favourite songwriters.

“My ancestors were the best/brought the plague and shot the rest/they stole land and charge a fee/for the future and for me/just another severed root, on a broken tree.”

/// CILLIAN LOHAN ///

Every now and then our network of musicians friends unearths a gem in the digital dust. Cillian is an Irish artist who grew to legendary status on Jersey in the noughties, before vanishing from his rock band, disappearing from the island into who knows where. It turns out the 'where' was Ireland, where he has lived an extraordinary existence worthy of Bukowski or Waits, and has the ranconteurisms about him to match. A great story teller in life and in song, Cillian has been in the studio with longtime collaborators James Sinclair and Andy Nunn to lay down the first proper demos for his solo record. You'll enjoy this, he's an amazing human being.