Liz Jones & Broken Windows / Disque Bleu, Mid Wales Rhythm & Blues Club, The Muse, Brecon, 18/04/2026.

Mid Wales R & B Club’s latest presentation at The Muse was headlined by the Edinburgh based sextet Liz Jones & Broken Windows, fronted by vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Liz Jones.

Support was provided by Disque Bleu, a duo from nearby Builth Wells featuring guitarist Julian Lewis and bass guitarist / vocalist Ian Jones.

Tonight’s show represented a second visit to The Muse and MWR&BC for Liz Jones and her Broken Windows colleague Suzy Cargill (percussion, mandolin, backing vocals). The pair had performed for the Club as a duo in September 2025 with Disque Bleu in support, an occasion reviewed for the MWR&BC website by Nick Hay.

That evening was so successful that it was decided that Liz and Suzy should be invited to return with the full Broken Windows band in tow. At Liz and Suzy’s request it was also decided that Disque Bleu should again appear as the support act.

Another impressively large crowd was in attendance at The Muse to witness tonight’s event, which proved to be yet another memorable evening at MWR&BC. I’m grateful to the Club’s Angus Kings for inviting me along to cover it.

DISQUE BLEU

First to take to the stage were Disque Bleu, who played an intriguing mix of blues standards, country songs, an Ian Jones original, and even a copy of a Broken Windows song.

Ian Jones proved to be a highly capable bass player and his ability to sing convincingly at the same time, a notoriously difficult feat, was genuinely impressive – and even more so given that he could do so in several different languages.

Meanwhile Julian Lewis was equally skilled as a guitarist and most songs featured one of his concise but tasty solos.

The duo kicked off with the swaggering “I’m Ready”, a much covered song written by Willie Dixon and famously recorded by Muddy Waters. This was followed by another blues classic, “Crosscut Saw” with its lascivious, double entendre lyrics.

Ian Jones sang convincingly in Spanish on a Beatles inspired rendition of “Besame Mucho” and later repeated the feat in French as the appropriately named Disque Bleu tackled an Edith Piaf song.

Elsewhere there was a return to the classic blues repertoire with the Jimmy Reed song “Baby What You Want Me To Do”, but the duo also crossed over into country territory with the humorous “All My Exes Live In Texas” and the similarly amusing “Driving Nails In My Coffin”. Humour was a vital component of Disque Bleu’s performance and the duo’s wry between songs banter often raised a smile.

That said Ian Jones, once of Builth band The Cardboard Box Thieves, turned a little more serious with his own song “Great Magic”, with its evocative lyrics.

The duo then brought something of a Tom Waits feel to their cover of Liz Jones’ song “Can’ Go Home”. Broken Windows were to perform a very different version during the course of their own set.

Freddie King’s “Same Old Blues” represented a further dip into the classic blues repertoire and a very entertaining set concluded with Brecht & Weill’s “Alabama Song”, aka “Whisky Bar”.

Disque Bleu were well received by a the supportive crowd at The Muse and this was a very tasty appetiser for the more full on main course that was to follow.

LIZ JONES & BROKEN WINDOWS

Liz Jones – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, John Bruce – lead guitar, Jamie Hamilton – keyboards, backing vocals, Suzy Cargill – percussion, mandolin, backing vocals, Rod Kennard – bass guitar, Gary Davidson – drum kit

Tonight’s event was the latest stop on a national tour currently being undertaken by Liz Jones & Broken Windows.  Named after the title of one of their songs, thus following a noble precedent set by none other than Black Sabbath, the sextet has currently released four full length albums, “Songs” (2017), “Bricks & Martyrs” (2021), “Double Measures” (2024) and “Live in The Dams” (2025), the latter recorded at gigs in Rotterdam and Amsterdam during a 2024 Dutch tour.

Liz Jones, the group’s principal songwriter, also records and tours as a solo artist and also goes out on the road in a duo format with Cargill, as previously noted, or with Bruce.

Much of tonight’s material was sourced from the latest studio release “Double Measures”. Liz doesn’t like genre labels, but describes her group as a “rootsy rocking six piece”, which represents a pretty fair summation. Broken Windows’  music is certainly blues adjacent, hence the invitation to appear at MWR&BC, but the all original songs also embrace something of an indie rock / pop mentality allied to a more conventional singer-songwriter sensibility.

Playing acoustic guitar throughout Liz Jones is both a powerful and expressive vocalist and a charismatic front woman with a refreshingly candid and down to earth presenting style. Her singing was augmented by the highly effective vocal harmonies of Cargill and Hamilton. Cargill is a trained orchestral percussionist and her contribution on an impressively diverse range of percussive devices, even including a washboard, added interest and detail to the music. Her equally skilled use of mandolin also added variety and helped to further flesh out an already impressively full band sound. Hamilton’s rack of keyboards added colour and texture and was at the heart of the band’s music as he deployed a variety of piano and organ sounds.

Much of the blues content came from guitarist John Bruce, who sometimes acts as Jones’ co-writer. He was the most frequently featured instrumental soloist, sometimes deploying a finger slide during the course of his incisive blues rock solos. Meanwhile bassist Kennard and drummer Davidson formed a solid and propulsive rhythm team, imparting the songs with considerable momentum. On occasion Kennard delivered a number of appealing melodic flourishes, but as a regular jazz listener I sometimes found Davidson’s drumming a bit too four-square and lacking in subtlety, drowning out Jones’ vocals at times. It was therefore difficult extract too much meaning from the lyrics during the course of the performance.

A mostly high energy, value for money eighteen song set included the bluesy “Jo”, from the “Bricks & Martyrs” album, a song that Jones described as being about “a small town mentality”.

From the same recording the slow burning “Narcissist” represented something of a “fans favourite” with Jones’ powerful and emotive vocals complemented by expansive guitar and keyboard solos and the collective riffing of the band as a whole.

From the “Double Measures” album the song “Broken Legs” incorporated the sounds of mandolin and melodic electric bass alongside a wailing organ solo. Jones informed us that the group used to finish their shows with this song, but have now changed its place in the set list.

Also from the most recent studio album “Lethargy” began with the working title “The Hangover Song”, which gives you some idea of it subject matter, with Jones’ bruised vocals sounding suitably husky.

Written on the islands of Lewis and Harris the as yet unrecorded “Passing Place” was a Donovan inspired ode to Scotland’s wild spaces as Jones unleashed her inner hippy.

The title track of “Double Measures” was more down to earth, another ‘hangover song’ about “seducing someone and regretting it in the morning”. This was the piece that featured the washboard, plus wood blocks,  as the music embraced something of a skewed New Orleans / Tom Waits feel with Bruce the featured instrumental soloist.

“Bala Man” told the tale of an unlikely Gavin and Stacey style long distance romance between a man from the Welsh town of Bala and a woman from the Scottish town of Arbroath. Apparently Jones met ‘Bala Man’ on a train journey and used his story as the basis for a song. All human life is grist to the songwriter’s mill.

The band’s signature song “Broken Windows”, with lyrics addressing post industrial urban alienation,  was followed by a “song about adultery”, the title of which was unannounced.

Next up was a dramatic, almost mantric arrangement of the old blues song “Jonah and The Whale”, powered by Davison’s drums and Cargill’s percussion and featuring a searing slide guitar solo from Bruce.

Bruce could also be heard heading for the stratosphere on “Mother Earth”, a tune from the “Double Measures” album described by Jones as “a psychedelic rock song”.

Two newer songs followed, including “Pretty City”, described as “an angry song about Edinburgh”, Jones’ home for the past fifteen years, although she has South Walian roots, her father hailing from the Rhondda Valley. It’s even been suggested that she and Disque Bleu’s Ian Jones might even be distant cousins. This was the cue for Broken Windows’ full band version of “Can’t Go Home”, the song previously covered by Disque Bleu, with Bruce again making effective use of his finger slide and Cargill performing on mandolin.

Finally we heard “Jesus”, notable for its shamanistic swamp rock rhythms as Davidson and Cargill combined to generate an irresistible momentum behind Jones’ hoarse, bluesy vocals and Bruce’s blistering slide guitar.

The deserved encore brought the only non-original song of the set, a thoroughly convincing cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Playing With Fire”.

Despite occasional minor quibbles this was a highly enjoyable and entertaining show with Liz Jones and the Broken Windows band playing with energy, conviction and a high level of musical skill. Jones is an accomplished songwriter, a powerful and charismatic vocalist and an engaging personality and it’s easy to see why she and her band have begun to accrue something of a following. I treated myself to a copy of the “Double Measures” album and have also listened to some of the group’s other songs on Bandcamp. Liz Jones & Broken Windows sound pretty damn good on disc too.

This review also appears on the Mid Wales Rhythm & Blues Club website;
http://midwalesrandb.club/

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus