NEW Year, new campaign and 2019 has kicked off in terrific style for Holy Moly and The Crackers with a new single All I Got Is You out now and a new album heading for an April 5 release on the band’s own Pink Lane Records.

In March they zip off on a European tour with Skinny Lister and return to the UK the following month for the album's launch tour, culminating with their biggest headline show ever, at London's Scala.

Before that though music fans can tune into the band at Kendal's Brewery Arts Centre on Thursday, February 14.

Holy Moly and The Crackers make riotous party music for the masses.

Take A Bite - their third album - is a concise, passionate take on folk, blues and indie rock.

Formed in Newcastle in 2011, apparently the group began as little more than a laugh, an excuse to busk through some foot stomping folk pop.

They developed from a four piece to a six piece, with Ruth Patterson on vocals and fiddle, Conrad Bird on vocals, guitar and trumpet, accordionist, Rosie Bristow, Nick Tyler on guitar, bass player, Jamie Shields and Tommy Evans on drums and backing vocals. Conrad says that when they started out they were a real ragtag folk band: "We want to tell a different story now."

The first taste from Take A Bite is a mouth watering euphoric single, All I Got Is You. These guys are good, seriously good, and All I Got Is You is a real cracker of a pop song.

It should certainly get the Brewery bouncing, and also demonstrates the band’s commerciality and ambition.

Working once again with producer Matt Terry (The Prodigy/The Enemy), the recording process for Take A Bite was marked by a shift in technique too: "For this album, we did it song by song," continues Conrad.

"Usually, you’ll record all the drum tracks and then all the bass tracks. But this time we recorded one song at a time and completely lived it."

The band even went one step further during the recording of the Byrds-influenced, folk-rock Can’t Get Enough, with producer Matt creating an immersive 1960s experience in the studio. "Matt's mad. And for that one he made us dress up in 60s clothes, bandanas, suits, flares," laughs Conrad. "And it was really silly, but it really got us to live it."

While the violin and the accordion remain, the whole thing feels more raw. Dare we say, riff-heavy, even. With melodic choruses more in the vein of American rockers such as The Black Keys and Jack White, than the tweed and waistcoats of traditional UK folk, the music reflects the diverse tastes of a band: six friends with six individual music tastes, who come together to make a sound greater than the sum of its parts. "We’ve kept an element of the folk side but just kind of fused it together," adds Ruth.

“We all listen to each other, we all share stuff, but the music’s less about storytelling in the folk tradition now. It’s more observational. More about real experiences.”

"This album is asking the audience to take a chance on us," explains Ruth.

“Obviously we’ve got a bit of a daft name and we look a bit mad, but I think once people actually come to a gig, they’re always swept up in the music and the energy. We get kids, old people, Goths, hippies, whatever. Everyone’s invited, everyone’s part of it. And people seem to lose themselves. No one’s like, "Oh, how do I look?' while dancing. They don’t care. It brings everyone together."

"All roads lead to the stage," says Conrad. "The arguing, the loving, the making, the listening - it boils down into one manic, riotous party.

"That's where we connect with the audience and with each other and that’s what we're all about."

"We’ve arrived at a place here, with this album, where we can start the journey that we want to be on. This is who we are now; this is what we’re doing."

Check them out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXaJNmz7eB4 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNnf-aY9gYw

Brewery box office 01539-725133.