The Magpie Arc, the cross-Border band out of Sheffield and Scotland featuring the multi-award-winning talents and wide musical influences of Nancy Kerr, Tom Wright, Alex Hunter, Martin Simpson and Findlay Napier (who replaces Adam Holmes), take flight in 2022 with selected tour dates and festivals.
Formed from the idea of bringing together a group of established folk musicians who would mix their song-writing styles and musicianship in a full-on electric band to create exciting new music and update the classic 60’s and 70’s British folk/rock sound, the possibilities of The Magpie Arc being something special and unique on today’s folk scene became obvious very quickly.
From our interview with the band in 2020 Alex and Nancy spoke about asking Martin to play electric guitar:
“I had the pleasure of working with (veteran Fairport/Denny/Drake sound-engineer and producer) John Wood on Adam’s (Adam Holmes) first album and I remember him saying that in Fairport’s early days, Richard Thompson was viewed as their secret weapon. His opinion was that a strong guitarist was an essential part of any band, and as Martin is the guitar genius that all four of us look up to, we put it to him. The twist was that we were asking world-renowned acoustic guitarist Martin Simpson to play electric guitar, but he was right up for that challenge!” Nancy picks up the theme: “I shouldn’t speak for Martin, but I reckon a couple of albums ago he fell in love with some of those electric guitar sounds and he’s getting to do that now in a way that only he is ever going to do – in the same way that only Richard Thompson ever sounds like Richard Thompson.” Alex continues, “Being in the same room as Martin wielding a guitar is extraordinary. I’ve never played with anyone as perfectly connected to an instrument before, or someone who shows so much joy when a particular phrase or solo fits in perfectly to a song. A lot of people are going to love him on the electric guitar.”
Having three strong writers the focus has naturally been on new material, however, they’ve also tackled some great covers plus their own re-workings of traditional songs. There’s folk and rock, some country and even blues, but whatever the genre the band are already proving to be a musical mix of everything you could expect from such a line-up, with excellent songs, lush harmonies, scything electric guitars, gorgeous fiddle lines and rock-solid bass and drums.
With twelve songs recorded just before “it” hit, the band released a trio of four-track EP’s on their own label in late 2020/early 2021 and since then have been studio-bound recording songs for their first full-length album which will be released in Autumn 2022.
The growing buzz about the band and the anticipation amongst those in the know will all become clear very soon as they hit UK stages in June, September and November, including their very own “Indoor Festival of Folk” in collaboration with EFDSS at Cecil Sharp House, featuring the band, plus Knight and Spiers, Bella Hardy, Blair Dunlop, Lizzy Hardingham and Maddy Prior and Peter Knight in conversation with Matthew Bannister (Folk On Foot Podcast) and UK festivals including Beardy Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, Broadstairs Folk Week and Manchester Folk Festival.
The Magpie Arc Live Dates
9th June – The Cast, Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Buy Tickets
10th June – Town Hall, Biddulph, Staffordshire
Buy Tickets
2nd September – Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex
Buy Tickets
4th November – The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk
Buy Tickets
Festivals
19th June – Beardy Folk Festival, Kidderminster, Herefordshire
Buy Tickets
30th July – Cambridge Folk Festival, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Buy Tickets
8th August – Broadstairs Folk Week, Broadstairs, Kent
Buy Tickets
19th August – Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, Purbeck Valley Farm, Dorset
Buy Tickets
3rd September – Indoor Festival of Folk, Cecil Sharp House, London
Buy Tickets
13th October – Manchester Folk Festival, Manchester, Lancashire
Buy Tickets