Just over a year ago now, O’Hooley & Tidow released WinterFolk Vol 1. which Thomas Blake summed up perfectly:
“The beauty and importance of this album lies partly in the fact that O’Hooley and Tidow recognise that an appreciation of this time of year – whether you want to call it Christmastime or not – is based on both personal and universal factors. There is the Christmas of public consciousness and, to borrow a phrase from that underwhelming Bob Dylan album, a Christmas in the heart. WinterFolk Volume 1 succeeds in uniting these factors while never sidestepping the important and often unsavoury social issues that come to the fore in the holiday season. Much more than just a stocking filler, this is an album of frosted beauty with a heart as warm as a coal fire.”
Next month, O’Hooley & Tidow return with the second round of WinterFolk touring which begins with a double date at Colne Valley Museum (already sold out). So if you’re looking for an intimate evening of winter song then try and catch them, see dates below.
Another wonderful project that O’Hooley & Tidow led on was The Passerine. Shrewsbury Folk Festival’s co-director Alan Surtees (who died last year) came up with the idea for the project to celebrate diversity through world music and dance in response to the racial hatred stirred up around Brexit. The project premiered at Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2017 featuring a world music band led by folk duo O’Hooley & Tidow and made up of migrant and refugee musicians.
At this year’s festival, the project returned with a theme of “Women in Transit”. The performance featured some of the key songs from 2017 as well as new compositions highlighting women’s personal and political stories, both past and present. Musicians included Belinda O’Hooley & Heidi Tidow, Avital Raz, Sarah Yaseen, Vijay Venkat and Mina Salama, Cormac Byrne, and Michele Stodart (Magic Numbers). Watch the entire performance below.
WinterFolk 2018
NOVEMBER
28 HUDDERSFIELD Colne Valley Museum SOLD OUT
29 HUDDERSFIELD Colne Valley Museum SOLD OUT
30 SALTAIRE Caroline St Social Club
DECEMBER
01 WIGAN Parish Church
02 CHESTER St Mary’s Creative Space
05 FROME Cooper Hall
06 WIVELISCOMBE Cotleigh Brewery
07 CORNWALL Calstock Arts
08 PURLEY-ON-THAMES St Mary’s Church
09 WALTON-ON-THAMES Riverhouse Arts Centre **
12 LEICESTER Guildhall
14 HARWICH St Nicholas’ Church
15 LONDON St John on Bethnal Green
16 SHEFFIELD Shakespeares SOLD OUT
18 BIRMINGHAM Kitchen Garden Café
20 NEWCASTLE Cumberland Arms
21 YORK Thorganby Village Hall
22 HUDDERSFIELD Slawit Civic Hall
** Lunchtime Concert