AN ANGLESEY audience is in for a thrilling evening of “gut-punching singing" and "fevered musicality” when a popular Americana roots/folk band heads to the island.

The Birds of Chicago, who regularly sell-out gigs here, across the Pond and beyond, are set to play at the Victoria Hotel at Menai Bridge.

According to music promoter Owen Hughes, tickets for the rock and roll, poetry, roots show are already “flying out.”

The band is essentially a musical collective, chiefly built around the “chemistry and fire” between husband and wife JT Nero and Allison Russell, augmented with Chris Merrill on electric guitar.

Russell and Nero are most at home on the road, zigzagging across North America and Europe in their family band van with new baby daughter Ida Maeve in tow.

The couple both write songs and sing, but Nero, plays the guitar and percussion, whilst Russell is on clarinet, banjo, ukulele, guitar and also whistles!

They have been riding a swell of rave reviews in the Americana world since their inception in late 2012. The couple both played with different bands in the mid-noughties (Po’ Girl and JT and the Clouds) before finding their way to each other.

Nero’s voice has been described as a “fractured country soul croon,” which is wrapped in Russell’s “silver and gold tones for a harmony blend.”

Fired by the band, it’s an evening of streamlined poems, deep grooves, sharp hooks and joyful singing straight from the gut.

Their brand of rock and roll poetry can be a little hard to categorise - for those people insisting on a specific category - but it is their voices that are at the forefront.

Critics have puzzled to find the right terminology to describe their deep lyricism, gutsy singing and musicality. “Secular gospel” is just one phrase which has been coined.

Their latest album, Love In Wartime has broken through to a wider audience across the world.

Owen Hughes said: “The Birds of Chicago are absolutely fantastic.

“I saw them at the Cambridge Folk Festival and I’m really chuffed they are coming to perform at the Vic. People are in for a real treat and it is a really special show to start the year."

“Most of their gigs are sell-outs these days, and a friend failed to get in to see them when he was in Nashville recently!

On their website The Birds say they "consider themselves to be a rock and roll band first and foremost," but say their gigs attract "a mix of indy rockers, jam-kids and Americana/roots lovers, mixing moments of hushed attention with wild, rock and soul abandon."

Says JT Nero, chief songwriter for the band, “A good show can send you back out into the night feeling — for at least a little while – that everything isn’t broken.

“Right now, we wanna dose out as much of that feeling as we can.”

The inspiring band will be at the Victoria Hotel in Menai Bridge, on Sunday January 27. Doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from Palas Print in Caernarfon (01286 674631) and Mudshark Records (01248 372407) Bangor.