Polly and the Billets Doux

"...To a rapturous reception, Polly & The Billets Doux arrived and you’d have thought they’d just finished their encore, let alone not started. The whole band knows how to please, deftly working with effortless skill, bringing in each instrument and element, layering and lifting it into dreamy blues-tinged delights. Welcome to the gospel according to Polly." - ~ Chris Roberts.

“..Oh go and see these good people! The singer (Polly) has the gutsiest voice I have heard in a long long time. If you see them playing near you, really do yourself a favour and go along. You will not regret it”. – - Acoustic Life

Polly & the Billet Doux are perched on the invisible bridge between jazz/swing/smoky nightclub music and guitar-slinger indie-songwriter territory, and making it look so effortless too; you know sometimes when you hear a band you can tell that they’re in it for the long term, this is music that will run and run. But it doesn’t take long to fall in love with them, as recent Indie Chart hit ‘Head of Steam’ proves - Steve Henwood

There’s Something cockle warming about this little gem of a CD that starts from the beginning as Polly and the Billets Doux confidently and casually spread out their Wares. Andrew Steen’s perfectly judged slide guitar opens the track with a smart little lick that gains a fleshy glow when the bass and drums kick in and a jazzy depth when Polly Perry’s smoked homey voice leads off. It’s a timeless sound, pure and unadorned, nothing too much and everything perfectly and effortlessly in place. These original songs sound like lovingly restord blues and soul numbers with a contempory lyrical sheen that recalls Ricky Lee Jones’s less over-produced moments. It’s a real disappointment when the disc stops and you remember there is only 4 tracks; their myspace
promises an imminent album and I can hardly wait! ****

- Tony Benjamin

Isn’t it great that with all these hugely popular bands you can have one of your Festival moments at a bandstand planted in one of the many Festival highways. Everyone wants one of those stolen ‘Woodstock’ moments with sunshine, free dancing, happy faces and the music that sets the whole thing off.
Polly and the Billets Doux offered time travel back to festival days gone by with country, gospel and blues flowing from the flower covered stand. Barefooted lovers skipped in time as this hearty bunch set the scene for summer. Polly offered a great accompaniment to the double bass and guitar, showing good range in delivering a rock n roll ‘Don’t Trouble Trouble’ and a slower, more thoughtful number that would have put Norah Jones to shame. For me the band was made even more interesting by some timely harmonising that gave it all a great country twist.
This short sharp injection of nostalgia reminded me exactly why I only rarely make it to the Pyramid Stage; there seems to be much more hidden in the countryside.
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- Ian George