Michael Weston King has already received rave reviews from us. ‘They Call Her Natasha’, his story-in-song play focusing on the music of Elvis Costello, was a tour de force up at the Everyman earlier this year. And now he’s back on Hope Street - this time doing what he does best: a singer/songwriter telling stories.

The word troubadour gets thrown around far too easily these days, but it’s a description that fits the Southport-raised artist perfectly. “The Liverpool gig takes place on the day of the Royal Wedding, so we should have a nice, anti-royal protest feel to the evening,” he says. We will. Especially as Weston King is on the road to promote his latest record, ‘I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier’.

Half the artist’s favourite protest songs and half brand new music, the record has been a hit with fans and critics alike.
“It’s been a while since this kind of music infiltrated the charts but this is the music I’ve been listening to since the George Bush-era in America - artists like PJ Harvey are now commentating on what’s happening around them, but when I recorded the album it was just the usual suspects (Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle etc). I was listening to a lot of protest music and the new songs I was writing at the time reflected that.”

It wasn’t really one step beyond though, as Weston King has always been known as a singer with something to say: “My back catalogue is filled with songs that have social comment - but I’ve always just written what comes along in my head.”
Long may he run. — Alan O’Hare

Michael Weston King, Friday April 29th
Rodewald Suite, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Hope Street
www.liverpoolphil.com