Roots 66 is a new folk festival to be held at The Theatre By The Lake in Keswick over the weekend of Feb 5-7th 2016. The festival will incorporate two showcase concerts celebrating 40 Years Of Fellside Recordings.
Fellside Recordings began life back in 1976, started by husband and wife Paul and Linda Adams (main image above). Whilst they may have been on a steep learning curve all those years ago, the fact that they are still running today says something about them. In that time they have survived the big transitions from vinyl to CD in 1990, a blow that was interestingly cushioned by the ongoing production of cassettes. They shone bright as a small independent label from very early on when after only two or three releases Music Week said of their output “The quality puts most other small companies to shame”. A quote they have never forgotten and one which headlined their ‘journey so far’ on their triple CD compilation Landmarks which marked their 30th Anniversary. They’ve launched many a career including the likes of Spiers & Boden and Nancy Kerr & James Fagan but there’s one thing that has always featured highly on their agenda – quality. The production values are always very high, they have a live feel to them or as they’re not afraid to say..they capture the soul of musicians playing together.
Since their 30th Anniversary they’ve continued to capture some top folk music talent, amongst which are some of our favourites including Ewan McLennan, Joe Topping, James Findlay and Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar. Pete Morton released his last two albums on Fellside, his latest ‘The Land of Time‘ is currently one of our Featured Albums of the Month. The likes of A. L. Lloyd, Hedy West, Peter Bellamy, Frankie Armstrong, Jez Lowe, Bob Fox and Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick (Walnut Creek) also feature in their extensive catalogue of releases.
Roots 66 will be held at Theatre by the Lake, Lakeside, Keswick, Cumbria over the weelend of 5-7 February 2016. Below are details of the lineup and a small video taster:
Roots 66 Festival
Featuring:
Chris While & Julie Matthews, Jez Lowe & The Bad Pennies, The Mighty Doonans, Gordie MacKeenan & His Rhythm Boys, The Ciaran Algar Band.
40 Years of Fellside
Fellside recordings will present two showcase concerts featuring: Ewan McLennan, Pete Morton, Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith,
Wendy Weatherby, Fiona Cuthill & Stevie Lawrence, Bram Taylor, The Hut People, Joe Topping, Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar.
Ireby Introduces…
Discover new talent with Ireby Folk Festival programmers who have picked some of the UK’s best young artists, appearing will be Weikie, Lucy Ward, Kelly Oliver (all of whom have featured on Folk Radio UK).
Find out more here: roots-66.co.uk
Photo Credit: Bram Taylor