DAVY KNOWLES BAND Afternoon Matinee

EXTRA GIG ADDED FOR THE FRIDAY AFTERNOON

PERFORMING AT BARNOLDSWICK MUSIC & ARTS CENTRE — FRIDAY 5TH JUNE MATINEE DOORS 12.30PM

There are guitarists who impress, guitarists who entertain, and then there are the rare few who seem to carry the very spirit of the instrument within them — players whose sound feels less performed than summoned. Davy Knowles belongs unmistakably to that last and most elusive tradition. Whether coaxing breath-held silence from an acoustic guitar, channelling Delta shadows through a national steel, adding shimmer with mandolin textures, or unleashing the full cry of a road-worn electric Telecaster, Knowles plays with a voice that is instantly recognisable: fierce yet lyrical, rooted in blues history yet burning with modern fire.

His emergence onto the world stage with Back Door Slam and the 2007 debut Roll Away felt less like a beginning and more like a sudden arrival. Critics heard something timeless in the sound — the Seattle Times famously writing, "I heard the spirit of Jimi Hendrix." That early sense of destiny only deepened with the follow-up album Coming Up For Air, produced by guitar legend Peter Frampton, who recognised immediately what audiences around the world were beginning to feel, calling Knowles "the gunslinger guitarist of the 21st century." From there, the road opened wide. Tours alongside Jeff Beck, The Who, Joe Bonamassa, Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Thorogood, Brian Setzer, Sammy Hagar's Chickenfoot, and Joe Satriani placed him firmly among genuine rock and blues royalty, while multiple Top-5 Billboard Blues charting albums, major U.S. television appearances, and a steadily growing international following confirmed that this was no fleeting moment, but the unfolding of a lasting career.

Live, Knowles has drawn glowing praise for performances described as mesmerising, emotionally charged, and electrifying in equal measure — shows where delicate acoustic passages can fall to a whisper-quiet room before erupting into soaring electric crescendos that feel both spontaneous and inevitable. Reviewers frequently speak of the depth of feel in his phrasing, the purity of tone, and the rare ability to balance virtuosity with genuine soul — that elusive quality that separates great technicians from true artists. His catalogue mirrors that same restless creative spirit, stretching from the thunderous, classic-rock pulse of Three Miles From Avalon to the haunted acoustic blues of 1932, through to the reflective, deeply human songwriting of If I Should Wander and the continued evolution of his more recent work. Even the boundaries of Earth itself have not contained the journey: Knowles became the first musician ever to perform live to the International Space Station, transmitting from Mission Control in Houston, his music later travelling into orbit with astronauts aboard the station — a moment that feels almost mythic, blues carried beyond the sky.

For devotees of true guitar lineage, his role within Band of Friends, honouring the immortal music of Rory Gallagher alongside Gallagher's own bandmates, places Knowles within a living continuum of blues-rock history — not imitation, but inheritance; not tribute, but torch-bearing.

And yet, for all the global stages and far-reaching milestones, music of this depth finds its most powerful meaning in intimacy — in rooms where every note can breathe. That is where Barnoldswick Music & Arts Centre becomes not just a venue, but a destination. Here in this quiet Pennine town, within a room of barely 60 souls, the distance between artist and audience disappears entirely. You don't simply hear the music — you feel the vibration of strings, the hush between phrases, the shared electricity that only truly close performance can create. It is the old way of experiencing blues, folk, and rock 'n' roll: raw, immediate, human, and utterly real.

On Friday 5th June, that rare convergence arrives in Barnoldswick. The travelling guitar-slinger steps into one of the most intimate listening rooms in the country, and for a single night the wider world falls silent while wood, wire, voice, and soul speak clearly in the dark.

Davy Knowles. Live. Up close. Unforgettable.