If you’ve ever wondered what had happened to noughties Leeds rockers The Plight, lead guitarist Lewis Pugh has just announced his fourth solo album.
Signed to Visible Noise Records and noted for the classic 2009 debut Winds Of Osiris, The Plight carved a name for themselves sharing stages with the likes of Gallows, Converge, Poison The Well and Cancer Bats, as well as appearing at Download in 2010. Since then, Lewis has taken a different tack.
The follow-up to 2024’s Bullets For Bread, the mostly acoustic Heretics & Heritage sees multi-instrumentalist and producer Lewis ploughing a folk and Americana furrow, covering banjo, guitar, snare drum, double bass and vocals. The record also features two members of internationally renowned north-east bluegrass band The Often Herd, Bradford-based folk musician Vince Cayo, and various collaborators from Lewis’ country and rockabilly outfit, The Burner Band.
He’s trailing the album with a lyric video for his version of the 19th Century Suffolk murder ballad, ‘The Ballad Of Maria Marten’.
The album’s themes could be categorised as social history, with a lament about Joan Little, an African-American woman charged and then later acquitted of murder, ‘Bertie’s Song’ which tells the story of a footman from St. Vincent who worked at a stately home, and ‘Anna Haslam’, a lament dedicated to the Irish women’s suffragist, who happens to be a relative of Pugh’s. Other topics include the tradition of lifting huge stones as a ‘rite of passage’ in countries such as Ireland and Iceland, which has seen a resurgence in recent times thanks to largely to the work of David Keohan. Musically the album draws from bluegrass, folk, punk and country to form something which acknowledges its influences while still being unique.
Brought up on bluegrass and folk festivals as part of a musical family, Lewis’ appreciation of roots music came at a young age. After playing in countless punk and metal bands in his youth, including the Visible Noise-signed The Plight, he gradually shifted back to the music of his upbringing, self-releasing his first solo album Dog Songs in 2017, followed by Dark Wheels Turn Above Our Heads (2020) and Bullets For Bread (2024), finding a sound between country, folk and bluegrass with a distinct political slant. He’s also released two albums with The Burner Band and multiple singles and EPs, often benefitting homeless outreaches and foodbanks. Last year also saw the release of an experimental instrumental banjo album Tao Banjo and a mini-album of songs aimed at 7 to 11-year-olds For The Kids.
A seasoned performer, Lewis has opened for artists as diverse as Ferocious Dog, The Mary Wallopers, Bob Log III, Gallows, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Rod Picot, Jerron Paxton and The Wildhearts, as well as playing to packed houses at the legendary Topic Folk Club in Bradford, Otley Folk Club, Black Swan Folk Club and Leeds Folk Club plus numerous festivals including Maverick, Gate To Southwell, Orwell Bluegrass Festival and Strummercamp.
Lewis also recorded with Jason & The Scorchers frontman Jason Ringenberg and ex-Hey! Hello! singer Victoria Liedtke on the Grammy-nominated Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner tribute More Than Words, contributing guitar and banjo, and collaborates regularly with friend and fellow Yorkshireman, Serious Sam Barrett.
Set for release through Shedload Records on 16 April, Heretics & Heritage is available to pre-order here.
You can catch Lewis live at….
Feb 12 – Topic Folk Club, Bradford*
Feb 19 – Victoria Inn, Derby
Feb 20 – Nether Edge Bowling Club, Sheffield*
Mar 8 – Red Shed, Wakefield
Mar 11 – What’s Cookin’, Leytonstone, London (w/Swill Odgers)
Mar 12 – Black Swan Folk Club, York*
Mar 22 – The Wynd Craft & Beer, Marske
Apr 11 – Beef Stock, Boom, Leeds
Apr 13 – The Grove, Leeds*
Apr 18 – St Saviour’s Community Hall, Retford*
Apr 23 – Fox and Newt, Leeds (w/Gypsy Pistoloros)
*w/Serious Sam Barrett & David Broad
