Benjamin Francis Leftwich at Kazimier

Making friends in all the right places, Benjamin Francis Leftwich is set to take the folk world by its throat, and, quite possibly, the mobile phone advertising executives too...

If Bon Iver had hunkered down in, say, the Kielder Forest, instead of the Appalachians, he’d have emerged sounding a lot like Benjamin Francis Leftwich. Sure, the boy’s still growing - and he’s more teddy bear than Grizzly Bear right now. But what a voice - this 22 year old folk singer from York is already creating a buzz in all the right places. And, with debut album Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm (out early July), he’s justified it with a set of songs shot through with more maturity than most of his peers’ overwrought excursions.

Tracks like ‘Atlas Hands’ and ‘Pictures’ - gossamer thin, but with just enough grit to anchor them into our internal MP3 players - show there’s real talent here. The worry? The accompanying videos are very slick, and SevenStreets fears for the boy. He’s got all the makings of a real stayer, but with major league support behind him, support from (shudder) Dermot O’Leary, the right looks and, doubtless, the right stylist, Leftwich needs to act like a big boy, and say no when T-Mobile come calling, which they will…

Catch him while he’s still pure of heart, at Kazimier in June.

Benjamin Francis Leftwich, 1 June
The Kazimier, Wolstenholme Square

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