When Rivers Meet

Did You Know?

• In December 2020, Blues Rock Review listed We Fly Free ninth in their Top 20 Albums of 2020.
• Aaron Bond was born in Downham Market, Norfolk, and Grace Holmes is originally from Ely, Cambridgeshire.
• They met at Bond's local pub in Downham Market, where Holmes had just started working as a bar steward.

History

The husband-and-wife duo Grace and Aaron Bond formed When Rivers Meet in 2016. They first crossed paths in Downham Market, Norfolk, where they were living at the time, before relocating to Brightlingsea, Essex. When they met, Grace was performing at festivals with a Meat Loaf tribute act, while Aaron was playing in local rock bands. Prior to forming When Rivers Meet, they performed together as Holmes and Bond, playing the Brightlingsea Free Music Festival in 2016.

In 2019, the duo hit the road in their VW camper van for a UK tour, which included a stop at the Great British Rock and Blues Festival in Skegness. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in spring 2020 and restrictions were introduced, they had to abandon the tour. Instead, they turned to online engagement, hosting weekly livestreams on Facebook. These sessions proved far more popular than they had expected. In January 2021, Grace Bond told ITV News that the livestreams had received over half a million views from a hundred different countries, calling the response "crazy." She noted that during lockdown, the couple spent their time recording, live streaming, filming videos, or working out something to do online in between.

When Rivers Meet released their first EP, The Uprising, in April 2019, followed by a second EP, Innocence Of Youth, in May 2020. Their debut album, We Fly Free, came out in November 2020. On the album, Grace Bond handled vocals, mandolin, and violin, while Aaron Bond sang and played guitar, including slide guitar. They were backed by Adam Bowers on bass, drums, organ, and piano, and Robin G. Breeze on bass, organ, and piano. Bowers also produced the album at The Boathouse Studio in rural Suffolk.

Tracks from We Fly Free were playlisted and featured on the Planet Rock national digital radio station in 2020 and 2021, and the band received airplay on BBC Radio 2’s The Rock Show with Johnnie Walker and The Blues Show with Cerys Matthews. In March 2021, it was announced that When Rivers Meet would return to touring as the support act for the King King blues band’s UK tour, which was set to begin in October 2021.

Reception

In October 2020, Paul H. Birch, writing for RAMzine, summed up his opinion of the band, stating that it is essentially 4/4 boogie blues with folk rock ambiance, a modern-day female-fronted Medicine Head perhaps, adding that over a series of songs things could get repetitive but there is a compelling intimacy that overcomes that. Writing about the track Battleground in October 2020, Martine Ehrenclou of Rock & Blues Muse opined that Grace Bond has a killer voice, with Aaron providing solid backing vocals and guitar, and drummer Adam Bowers locking it down, to create a vintage rock and roll sound with a contemporary twist. In November 2020, Henry Yates in Classic Rock magazine, writing about the album We Fly Free, stated that the British husband-and-wife are heavy enough to get your attention and quirky enough to hold it, with songs that give you a kicking but leave a boot-print on your heart. A reviewer at Metal Planet Music wrote in November 2020 that We Fly Free is a collection of extremely well written songs, that Grace Bond's singing possesses great range and clarity, and that Aaron Bond's guitar work has a great sound and that he knows when to keep it simple. Describing We Fly Free in May 2021, Adam Kennedy wrote in HRH Magazine that it has that old school sound but with a bit of a contemporary twist, and he summed up the album by saying for blues lovers We Fly Free is a purist's paradise.