Very sad to hear the news that The Ram Club in Surrey has reluctantly decided to close. On its website it says: “Maggie and Bob Wood have been working almost continuously over the past year to prepare for a reopening, negotiating with artists and creating a programme. But closer examination of the issues affecting the club in a post-pandemic era, and the changing circumstances of the organising group, make the decision inevitable.
The digital version of Scandimoot 2021 will take place at the usual time of the early May Bank Holiday weekend, 1st to 3rd May.
DIGIMOOT will run over three days with a mix of live workshops and pre-recorded performances, featuring artists both familiar and new. The digital format has given the festival the opportunity to include artists, workshops and performances in the programme that it wouldn't normally have the resources for, so make sure to have a look at the line-up.
This year's Upton-upon-Severn Folk Festival is being 'Delivered to your Door' with four fantastic days of online concerts, sessions, storytelling, a ceilidh and Morris from 30 April - 3 May.
All delivered for free (though with donations gratefully accepted) there's lots to see.
Guests involved include Jackie Oates & John Spiers, Damien Barber, Sarah Matthews & Doug Eunson, Jo Freya, Phoebe Rees, Rosie Hood, Matt Quinn, Pat Smith & Ned Clamp, Ben Robertson, Chris Lowe, Martin Hughes and Jim Magaeen & Graeme Knights.
A year ago, the Traditional Song Forum, a national organisation based in the UK that brings together those interested in the research, collecting and performance of traditional song, faced an existential crisis. A ‘Forum’ is a place where people meet – and we were having to cancel all our meetings. We decided that we would try to make use of the emerging technologies that made meeting online possible. Our first meeting on Zoom was in May and, since then, we have notched up 21 meetings at the time of writing.
After a lifetime of successful programming for Warwick Folk Festival, Festival Director Dick Dixon is standing down. And such is the size of the gap his departure leaves that the festival needs not one but two people to take up the reins.
Join all the Girvan regulars and friends and visitors from all over the world on the 1st and 2nd of May for the online version of this year's festival.
There will be two headline concerts featuring Gatehouse, Crows, Alan Reid, Maurice Leyden & Jane Cassidy, Nick Dow, Peter & Barbara Snape, Dougie Mackenzie & Brian Miller and several others. Plans are afoot for some late-night-extras and other events.
Find out more at www.girvanfolkfestival.org.uk
The Irish Traditional Music Archive have publicly released previously unheard recordings of the legendary Sligo fiddle player, Michael Coleman (1891-1945). The acetate disc recordings were privately made in 1942, in the New York home of his fellow Sligo fiddle player, James ‘Lad’ O’Beirne (1911-1980). Gifted to Galway accordionist Joe Burke by Lad O’Beirne in the 1960s, the two discs have been personally safeguarded by him since that time.
Over the past two decades acoustic guitarist and songwriter Chris Quinn has made a great name for himself in the world of folk, blues, jazz and acoustic music. His performances have been described by fellow musicians as "a masterclass in the acoustic guitar", his songs have been critically acclaimed in publications such as Acoustic Magazine and SONGLiNES and his recordings have received airplay on countless radio stations across the world including Mark Radcliffe’s benchmark show the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show.
Tobar an Dualchais / Kist O Riches (TAD) is celebrating ten years since the launch of its oral heritage website. There were 10,000 recordings available on the site when it was officially launched in Edinburgh on 8 December 2010 and this number has now risen to almost 50,000.
The 14th Gate To Southwell Festival is now set to take place in September 2021 at a beautiful new location in the nearby village of Kirklington (just outside Southwell). Having had to cancel the 2020 festival because of the COVID pandemic, the GTSF organisers are confident that four days of folk, roots and acoustic music from the UK and all over the world will go ahead from Thursday 2nd September to Sunday 5th September.
Liam Weldon was undoubtedly one of the finest Irish singers of any generation. He was also an outstanding songwriter and a champion of the oppressed, and of the Traveller community in particular, whose influence on his singing stretched back to his Dublin childhood. Unaccountably, his singing never really received the accolades it deserved, and he remains largely forgotten since his death, 25 years ago.
Musical Traditions Records was founded more than 20 years ago, with the aim of bringing traditional music field recordings which might never achieve a commercial publication to the small audience which values it. As reported in LT136, Rod Stradling retired from physical records in 2020, leaving the catalogue to date available as downloads only, and with no new releases planned, the label looked set for permanent closure.
Canadian based folk and roots music magazine, Penguin Eggs, has printed for the last time after nearly two decades of publication. The 88th and last ever issue came out in December, meaning that sadly, we have one less magazine committed to promoting folk music on the scene. We wish Roddy Campbell well in this next period of his life.
The Wilderness Yet (Rosie Hodgson, Rowan Piggott and Philippe Barnes) has released a special festive digital album entitled Turn The Year Round. Available on Bandcamp it is a collection of secular folk carols, wassails, and yule songs both old & new!
Get your hands on it at thewildernessyet.bandcamp.com
Talking Elephant has released A Midwinter Miscellany, a collection of spoken word, poems, stories and songs that celebrate the many aspects of the festive season featuring Ashely Hutchings with Becky Mills and Blair Dunlop. Ashley has taken excerpts from a variety of literary sources to inspire new songs. Other writings and poems are given a new treatment with music composed by Blair and Becky. And Becky also contributes several new songs. The annual Albion Christmas Band tour is not able to happen this year, but this recording gives something
The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) has begun a new monthly series that connects artists with archival material to inspire new art. Louise Mulcahy, Martin Hayes, Edwina Guckian, Mary Bergin, Tony Linnane and Brían Mac Gloinn are just some of the leading instrumentalists, singers and dancers who have been commissioned to spend time engaging with collections of their choice in ITMA and to then produce something new that can be shared with the public.
When Roy Williamson died in 1990, most of his instruments were sold at auction, with a few donated to the Falconer Museum in Forres. A notable exception, the famed combolins – priceless instruments he designed and partly built himself, the folk world’s Stradivarius, perhaps – were left in the capable hands of his friend Dave Sinton.
Ewan MacColl (1915-1989) was a giant of folk music: inspirational singer, actor, activist and writer of hundreds of songs including beloved classics Dirty Old Town, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Shoals Of Herring, The Manchester Rambler and more.
The ICC Seisiúns is a collection of 14 acoustic Irish sessions filmed at The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith which are now being screened on ICC Digital, the new online platform of The Irish Cultural Centre. The performances are being shown every consecutive Friday over 14 weeks, and started mid-September.
Much loved English duo, Spiers & Boden, have announced that they are back together and working on new material for a launch at summer festivals in 2021 and a comeback tour in October 2021. John Spiers and Jon Boden rocketed onto the folk scene in 2001, and after many successful years, during which they founded and fronted the band Bellowhead, they disbanded as a duo in 2014. News of their comeback, and of a new album, will please their many fans.
Rothbury Music Festival ‘frontload’ artists’ payments
Like so many events, the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival, which was due to take place in July with performances from the likes of Martin Carthy, Cathal Hayden, Northern Company, 422 and the Newcastle Kingsmen, has been cancelled. However, unlike a lot of other events, the acts and artists who were booked to play will all be offered their fee, paid in advance of the rescheduled festival, which will take place in July 2021.
New album of Doc Watson live recordings
Over the years Doc Watson has inspired countless people to pick up the guitar and learn to flatpick the old melodies of the Appalachians. A continuing influence on music in America and beyond, a new release of some old recordings of Doc alongside his fiddling father-in-law, Gaither Carlton, has been scheduled for the end of May by Smithsonian Folkways.
A new website has been launched that will provide biographical sketches of the 650 folk singers, musicians and dancers who gave their songs, tunes and dances to Cecil Sharp in the Edwardian Folk Revival. In his notes, Sharp left many statements and clues about the performers and it has been possible to identify most of them.
Musician Edward Jay designs and builds 3D printed concertina
Eddy Jay is known widely in folk circles as an exponent of the accordion, and through playing in a duo with Will Pound. But recently he has been developing an interesting idea and using modern technology to develop a new breed of instruments. He has designed and built a new type of concertina, which he presented at one of the three residential weekends of the West Country Concertina Players in Somerset towards the end of last year.
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