Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee are a country, bluegrass band from East London. They don’t sing in American accents and their songs feature tube trains, Bethnal Green, sick days, flat lemonade and unmade beds. HWT&L perform weary singalongs; fragile and flawed ballads that wipe a tear and force you to smile.

Darren Hayman (ex-Hefner) formed the band with Dave Watkins, in 2005, as an antidote to their ‘career’ bands. The idea was that this would be a band with as little ego as possible, with everybody taking vocals, submitting material, leaving and arriving as they wished. The group is as much about playing around Darren’s kitchen table as it is playing on any stage.

In fact the original idea was even to avoid the notion of doing records. However when the titular Trout and Lee left to be replaced by Dan Mayfield (violin) and Dave Tattersall (The Wave Pictures, guitar) it became obvious that they had something worth preserving, particularly as Dave brought with him a whole repertoire of blues and country songs, as well as his own fantastic ballads.

Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee let you peer though the cracks of their kitchen, and hit nearly all the right notes in the process. Let them give you a warm handshake.