BY MICHAEL CHOWNE
Yet another fantastic night of live music put on by Ian Flavill and Alter States Promotions at Live at Acanteen, Chelmsford on Thursday 12th November 2026.
Headlining was the extraordinary Sorrel Nation who, together with her talented band, played a superb set to promote her brand new album, ‘Creeping Thyme’, without doubt one of the albums of the year. Thanks go to Graham Jackson of GJ Artist Services for organising this tour.
Playing alongside Kent born Sorrel, who accompanies her own very special voice on acoustic guitar, were her partner, Theo James Holder on cello, Sam Anderson on both resonator and acoustic guitars and Hollie Garwood on bass guitar and musical saw! All three also provided strong backing vocals and the sound created when the whole band comes together with Sorrel is just sublime – ‘Ran Jonny Ran’ sounded particularly special. A wonderful mix of folk, americana and a little country with some fabulous songwriting certainly sets Sorrel apart from the crowd – I’d urge you to see one of her live performances as I’d wager you’ll be back for more time and time again!
Last night we were treated to a full run through of the album, along with some older favourites including ‘Eggshells’ and ‘Crazy For You’. A deserved encore came with a wonderful version of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rhiannon’, with some considerable power in Sorrel’s voice being added to the silky smooth beauty. Thankfully, that wonderful voice held out after Sorrel’s recent illness when she had no option but to cancel a show (something any independent artist always hates to do).
We’d earlier had a good opening set from BUCKLE N BOOTS, despite them being disrupted by their guitarist getting stuck in traffic and not making it. Matt Sofianos, who we were told more usually plays fiddle and banjo in their trio format, sadly had to ditch those instruments and stepped up well to accompany singer Bee Ounsworth on acoustic guitar. Bee is a country singer originally from Brixton and it was really good to see more originals in her set than the last time we saw her at The British Country Music Festival in Blackpool. I particularly liked her mental health song which I think was called ‘So See Me’ – the pair also gave us good covers of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ and Luke Combs’ ‘Beautiful Crazy’.
Worth noting that they’ll be no Live at Acanteen in December and then, in the New Year, they’ll be switching to the third Thursday of every month for their new slot.
