Artist: Ally Venable Band, Garret T. Willie

Venue: The Exchange - Bristol

Date: 17th September 2026 

The Exchange is one of the smaller Bristol venues, set in the very heart of the city centre. Although the show is not sold out, the room is packed solid. Ally Venable is a young Texas Blues-Rock guitarist and vocalist who has been on the music scene for a number of years, gaining a very good following in the USA and Germany. She does not appear that often in the UK, so it is a real treat to see her and her band appearing in the West Country.

At 20.00, support Garret T. Willie and his band appeared on stage. The band is also from North America. They did a superb thirty-minute set that had the audience really warming to them. The songs were Blues-Rock based and they also included a great cover of ‘Sin City’ by AC/DC. Unfortunately one of the strings broke on his guitar, so mid-tune Willie changed it whilst the rest of the band ad-libbed for five minutes. Based on tonight’s performance, and the crowd response, they will be playing larger places when they return. Ones to watch out for in the future.

Venable and her band, EJ Bedford (bass) and Isaac Pulido (drums) appeared on stage at 20.50. They opened with ‘Unbreakable’ from her latest album ‘Money & Power’. The sound engineer had done an excellent job, as although it was loud, you could hear the vocals and the instruments perfectly. This was followed by ‘Brown Liquor’, which was a heavier version than the one on the same album. It had her playing her signature wah-wah pedal tones on her very uniquely decorated Gibson Les Paul. The first of the Blues tunes, ‘SteamRoller’ was up next. It was a song that was originally an acoustic number written by James Taylor back in the seventies. Tonight, she turned it into an eight-minute humdinger of a song that showcased her vocals and guitar playing. There was then a mention of a tour coming up with Buddy Guy, before launching into the song that was co-written with him, ‘Texas Louisiana’, which had Bedford on supporting vocals.

The rest of the set was ‘Broken And Blue’ with its out of this world extended guitar solo, ‘Stopper Back Papa’, a Soul-Funk song with ear worm riffs, ‘Feel That Sting’, that started off as a Blues number but later changed vibe with its out of this world guitar sounds and prog-like guitar solos, ‘Plectrum Electrum’, an instrumental where Venable and the band got to show off their musical skills, ‘Fire’, where she transferred from a Les Paul to a Stratocaster and performed a superb version of the Hendrix classic, and ‘Lenny’,  a ten minute instrumental with Venable playing some awesome guitar solos paying tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn. After seventy-five minutes, she left the stage to thunderous applause. It was noticeable that as the crowd left, they had large smiles on their faces and were making lots of comments about what a fantastic night it had been.

This was a superb night of music. The performance by Venable and her band was outstanding. Her vocals were spot on, her guitar skills were phenomenal and there was a variety in the songs to please everybody. Make sure you catch her the next time she returns to the UK.

Review: Paul Gregory

Photos: Andy Balcam