Those in the know can’t understand why Geraint Watkins isn’t a bigger solo music star. The Welsh piano and accordion wizard is one of the best UK session and touring musicians, having played with the likes of Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Van Morrison, Andy Fairweather Low, Bill Wyman, Eric Clapton, Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Mark Knopfler, Carl Perkins, John Martyn, and many more. As a solo artist, he has released occasional solo albums over the years, and for a while, he was in the UK’s best Cajun band, the Balham Alligators. He made the trip from his native South Wales to London with Red Beans and Rice, who caught the last days of London’s original pub rock scene. This proved to be prophetic, as Geraint Watkins has kept the spirit of pub rock alive throughout his years as a solo live artist playing predominantly in London, with the occasional foray into the provinces. If you catch him in the UK today, he will probably be backed by his band, The Mosquitoes, with the occasional special guest, playing their own mix of roots rock.
What may surprise some UK americana fans is the size of the pub rock scene in Scandinavia. The Swedish band The Refreshments had close working relationships with British acts such as Geraint, Dave Edmunds, Rockpile’s Billy Bremner, and Albert Lee, and managed to establish a presence on the Swedish charts. Against this background, Geraint Watkins has quietly built his own Scandinavian following over the years, culminating in the Swedish release Warent Atkins Trio – Arse In Gear in 2024. In 2013, he was playing in a trio with long time associate and ex-member of The Refreshments, saxophonist Micke Finell, and Swedish drummer Ingemar Dunker, who sadly died in 2024. Fortunately, there is a record of one of their performances at the Akkurat Bar in the Southside Pub in Stockholm in January 2013.
One of life’s great pleasures is to catch musicians who are at the top of their game playing in a local watering hole, and here they are caught playing their version of Geraint’s Deep In The Heart of Texas. Geraint’s first album was 1979’s Geraint Watkins & The Dominators on Vertigo, and featured rootsy covers except for Geraint’s own Deep In The Heart of Texas. The Dominators were made up of the cream of Welsh musicians, and the album was produced by Andy Fairweather Low. While the album didn’t set the world alight commercially, it did set out Geraint’s musical agenda, and Deep In The Heart of Texas became something of a roots music classic, being covered by Dave Edmunds, NRBQ, and numerous American, Scandinavian, and British roots musicians.
The trio format allows Geraint’s piano work to really shine, as Ingemar Dunker keeps everything anchored with a rock-solid beat. Some people in AUK Towers question the place a saxophone has in americana music, but I’m sure most listeners will agree that Micke Finell provides just the right colour and counterbalance to Geraint’s instrumental work. The arrangements of live performances that feature The Mosquitoes may be richer, but the trio format shows what a world-class musician Geraint Watkins really is. Also. It gives a glimpse of the calibre of Swedish musicians. The bottom line is that if you get the chance to attend a Geraint Watkins gig, then grab it with both hands, he is, after all, Bob Dylan’s favourite English piano player.
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