Carol Hodge and Mary Lee Kortes

Name: Carol Hodge and Mary Lee Kortes
Start: 2025-03-29T19:00:00+00:00
Location: FortyFive Vinyl Café

Schedule

Sat, 29 Mar, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

FortyFive Vinyl Café | York, EN

Come and join us for an incredible and intimate evening with Mary Lee Kortes "One of the most compelling voice in modern rock" - The New York Post and Carol Hodge - Described by Maximum Volume Music as "one of the most innovative artists around right now"
Mary Lee Kortes
“As a writer, you get in a zone. You get possessed by something. If you’re lucky,” says Mary Lee Kortes.
Kortes has found herself possessed by many different forces over the arc of her 25-year career, be it as the lauded front-woman of Mary Lee’s Corvette, a solo artist, author, or social worker. Sometimes the possession comes in the form of Bob Dylan, whose 1975 classic Blood on the Tracks she covered as a live album in 2002, and later revisited in her 2018 non-fiction collection, Dreaming of Dylan: 115 Dreams About Bob. Sometimes, as a short story writer and novelist, it’s by the way fiction roots itself in emotional truths. Other times it’s by music’s ability to be used as a tool in an expressive arts therapy program she created. All of the acclaimed songwriter and performer’s endeavors find themselves connected by the same thread: a deeply empathetic understanding of, and belief in, the power of stories to bring people together.
Will Anybody Know That I Was Here: The Songs of Beulah Rowley, Kortes’s new stunning and immersive album, was born from one of those all-encompassing possessions, from a feeling she couldn’t shake, one she had to write through to fully understand. The singer-songwriter was on tour in England, promoting her 2006 album Love Loss & Lunacy, and already thinking about what her next album would be. She knew she wanted to expand upon a typical album format, wanted it to be less a batch of loosely connected songs and more a cohesive work with a sense of character and purpose to it that could incorporate her love for writing fiction. “I went to sleep with all of this on my mind,” she says, “and I woke up in the morning with this woman in my head named Beulah Rowley, a depression-era singer-songwriter, from the Midwest like me, and I immediately started writing the song ‘Born a Happy Girl.’” There was something interesting there, she thought, a spark in this dream of a woman she felt compelled to explore and understand on a deeper level. She finished her tour and came home to write the biography of Beulah Rowley—and her complete songbook.
Carol Hodge
Yorkshire-dwelling singer-songwriter Carol Hodge is a wonderful musical dichotomy. With her roots and ethics firmly set in punk as a long-term collaborator with Crass frontman Steve Ignorant, Carol is currently touring the songs of Crass around the world with The Ignorant Band, on keyboards, BVs and lead vocals. Yet Carol is also a uniquely gifted songwriter and as able to conjure up beautiful pop-infused, heart-wrenching melodies as she is screaming into the face of authority and injustice.

Described by Maximum Volume Music as "one of the most innovative solo artists around right now", Carol describes herself as a ‘seven-fingered pianist’. She was born with a rare condition called cleft type symbrachydactyly, which means Carol has just two fingers on her left hand. This hasn't held her back as her impressive CV is testament to. Carol also performs as a keyboardist/backing vocalist with various established artists, including The Wildhearts and Steve Ignorant's Slice Of Life.

Since 2022, Carol has toured the UK relentlessly, clocking up over 250 gigs. Playing solo, Carol recently completed an extended 40 date UK tour opening up for Ginger Wildheart, as well as joining him for songs in the encore each gig. She has supported the likes of TV Smith, Bar Stool Preachers, Dan Sealey (Ocean Colour Scene), Marc Valentine, Headsticks and Jess Silk, and played Rebellion, Glastonwick, Settle Down, Gig In A Field, Sun Down and Levy Punk Weekender festivals.

As well as popping up all over the British Isles with a mic and piano, Carol also tours with the inventively named The Carol Hodge Band, who were recently described by Classic Rock as "combin(ing) fat, fuzzy guitar grooves with splashes of synths...clever pop rock bursts and almost Alice In Chains-y shadows...eccentric and unpredictable, in a way that feels totally natural." The band have also opened for Jesus Jones, The Primitives, Space and Spear Of Destiny, and appeared at numerous UK festivals, including Bearded Theory, Off The Tracks, Strummercamp and Manchester Punk Festival.

Carol also found time in the last few years to guest on albums by The Wildhearts, Ginger Wildheart, Paul Morricone, Headsticks, Joe Solo, Lee 'Smiley' Barnard, One Sided Horse and Dealing With Damage.

Carol's fifth studio album EffortLess InSecurity was officially released in January 2025. As ever, Carol’s strength lies in her highly confessional and relatable lyricism, covering topics such as Neurodiversity, Insecure Attachment, Self doubt/Self worth, and Autistic Spectrum Masking. Musically, this is the heaviest and darkest album yet from her, and the first album she has played guitar on.

Co-produced with Dave Draper (who has worked with The Wildhearts, Jazmin Bean, The Professionals, Kerbdog, Dodgy, and Nickelback), the album is far from one dimensional, and takes the listener on a confidently curated journey, with a self-aware irony and plenty of unexpected Prog twists and turns to keep the ear hooked. Previous singles Manoeuvres and Queen Of Fitting In received plenty of independent radio play and feature videos by artist Rob Heilig.

Previous albums 'Vertiginous Drops' (2023), 'The Crippling Space Between' (2021), 'Savage Purge' (2020) and 'Hold On To That Flame' (2018) have now all sold out of physical copies, and routinely featured on several Top Album end-of-year lists, including Louder Than War's. Her 2021 single 'Moan Of A Thousand Years' was awarded Track Of The Week by Classic Rock magazine readers, and two singles from the latest album were also nominated by the publication.

The remainder of 2025 will see Carol teaming up with New York's finest Mary Lee Kortes for an acoustic UK tour in March; playing various festivals with the Carol Hodge Band; releasing an acoustic album and further video content. She is also continuing to tour the songs of Crass around the UK and Europe with The Ignorant Band, and will be joining The Wildhearts on their UK and European dates.