Photo Credit: Press

Blues stalwarts Dennis Greaves and Mark Feltham of NINE BELOW ZERO released their double album ‘Denmark’ in February 2024. To promote the album, the duo went on a low-key acoustic tour across the UK, with a stop in the West Yorkshire town of Farsley.

The seated audience applauded as Dennis and Mark stepped on to the stage, eager to perform a number of reimagined hits from their back catalogue. Perfectly matched, Dennis’s warm guitar and Mark’s spine-tingling harmonica provide a variety of blues, with ‘Sunny‘ being the ideal introduction.

During the show, Dennis and Mark shared anecdotes from their over 40-year careers. Mark had collaborated with artists such as Rory Gallagher and The Dubliners, so it was a nice comic touch to break up the set list that evening. The duo themselves narrate the stories perfectly, so it is worth taking the trip out just for those alone.

Even though Mark Feltham’s famous harmonica playing tends to steal the show during a NINE BELOW ZERO performance, he and Dennis joined in to sing the blissful ‘Carmelita‘, to which the Farsley audience was progressively swaying their heads until the harmonica faded in and Mark showed off his incredible talent as usual.

After the pair entertained the audience, they then left the stage for a little while, stopping to sign CDs and mingle with the patrons before returning for the second half. They continued exactly where they left off, utilising the harmonica’s greatest qualities to perform a rendition of ‘Stone Fox Chase‘ that became a recurring motif for the duration of the evening.

One of the set’s highlights was ‘One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer‘, which gave it the traditional country vibe that the two had been accustomed to over the years. The duo expressed their gratitude to the sound technician, venue personnel, and most significantly, the attendees for their hospitality, which is always a pleasant touch. The fact that the audience cheered their last song of the evening demonstrated that blues is, in fact, still very much alive and well in its own right.