Hailing from the South West UK and spanning nearly a decade together, folk punk outfit Black Water County deviated over time from the well-trodden path of teenage insolence (plus a lot of booze) to a vigilant state of introversion; hoping to gleam affinity through stories of the downtrodden and heartbroken. With a necessary touch of spirit and spirits.
To date the band’s UK festival appearances have included WOMAD, Boomtown Fair, Beautiful Days, Belladrum, Black Deer, Tunes in the Dunes, Camp Bestival, Larmer Tree and Teddy Rocks along with hundreds of smaller UK festivals and festival slots across Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, The Netherlands and France.
In 2017 they independently released their first album “Taking Chances” and embarked on their first UK tour before signing with booking agent Midnight Mango the following year. The two subsequent years saw three national headline tours with an ever-increasing number of venues selling out at each new stage, as well as a number of elevating support slots across the UK and genres spanning all the way from modern folk to classic, left field ska punk.
In both 2016 and 2018, Black Water County won their place on Fireball’s ‘Fuelling the Fire Tour’ supporting Less Than Jake, Flogging Molly, The Bronx and The Skints amongst others. They subsequently featured in Kerrang!’s online coverage of the tour, received an endorsement from Fireball UK and also appeared on BBC radio stations with the single ‘Rise and Fall’.
The band’s second studio album, “Comedies and Tragedies” was released in March of 2020, with a second sold-out show at The Old Firestation, Bournemouth (the first in 2019). However, the plug on the album tour was suddenly pulled when just three days later the global pandemic hit, and the live music world was turned on its head.
If “Taking Chances”, is a post-university tale of being in your early twenties; rebelling against anything that stands in the way of a good time, then consider “Comedies and Tragedies” to be a reality check sequel; rife with uncertainty and the struggles of self-identity.
With venue doors finally re-opened, the band besieged their way back out into the world with an eagerly awaited, first ever headline show at the O2 Academy Bournemouth in March 2022 – a rare unsigned event for the historical venue. With a reprieve of the cancelled album tour in mind, the Spring also saw another sell out UK tour, followed by a slew of UK and EU festival appearances throughout the summer alongside an even bigger UK tour in Autumn to round out the year.
