This Saturday, 15th January, sees the return to Chepstow of the annual Wassail & Mari Lwyd. This unique annual event is arranged by that hellrasing border morris side known as The Widders.
Kevin Welch proves again on his long awaited solo album, A Patch of Blue Sky, that he still has that great gift of songwriting that first set him off on his career way back in 1978 writing for the likes of Johnny Cash and Linda Ronstadt.
Steve Tilston has unveiled he has other talents outside his folk-singing career with the release of his first novel titled All For Poor Jack. Set in the 15th Century New World and Bristol!
In January each year many of Ireland’s, and the world’s top traditional musicians travel to Glasgow to pay tribute to the late Jimmy McHugh who passed away in January 1999. By all accounts, and I’m told this on good authority, the post concert sessions are some of the best around
Folk-roots acoustic guitar duo Hickman and Quinn embark on their first UK headline tour during February and March to promote their debut album, Times. Co produced by Andy Bell (Sea Sick Steve and KT Tunstall) Times contains all original material from the singer-songwriters.
Jackie Oates along with her full band head out on tour in in March 2011 and as a special treat for fans she will be playing one song request each night. Jackie will announce the winning request from the stage each night!
You only need to read through The Bothy Band history to realise how big they were. All the names are world famous now and there is no escaping that they changed the face of irish traditional music forever.
What an end to a great year for Bella Union, their issue of John Grant’s Queen of Denmark debut successfully found itself in most magazine and national newspapers’ ‘Albums of 2010’ features, and he too headlined the last uniting of label artists at Union Chapel in the summer.
Rising star of the acoustic music scene, Kit Holmes, will release her new album, Driving into the Blue, on 31st January 2011. Kit has just released a new video for Blues for Muse, a track from the new album, which you can watch below.
Celtic Connections 2011 kicks off one week today, with over 1500 musicians set to descend upon Glasgow between Thursday 13th– Sunday 30th January as the annual folk, roots, indie and world music festival celebrates its 18th birthday.
At once haunting and angelic, softly spoken and bitterly sung, the voice of tessa frith is set to see the light of day courtesy of Audio Sketch Record Label & the white leaf collective soon.
Canu rhydd is a superb new album from fernhill. They are one of most amazing and beautiful sounding folk bands I’ve ever heard. With the spell-binding and beautiful voice of Julie Murphy and the bands unique sound it doesn’t get any better.
