Big Eyes Family Players

With a shortened title, the Sheffield-based five-piece band ‘Big Eyes Family’ announce new album ‘The Disappointed Chair’ and share two videos created by Marry Waterson and Lee Mondo.

The Big Eyes Family Players have an uncanny ability to exist outside of the boundaries of musical eras, one that makes their blueprint such a sonically successful one. OH! finds them at the very top of their game and is perhaps their finest album to date.

Ten Songs is hailed by James Yorkston as the best album of the year so far…David A. Jaycock has crafted an album that is eerie, eclectic and often beautiful. It deserves to bring him wider acclaim.

Folk Songs II is the follow up release from The Big Eyes Family Players which features a plethora of fine guests including Alasdair Roberts, Nancy Elizabeth, James Yorkston, Elle Osborne, Mary Hampton, Adrian Crowley, James William Hindle, Heather Ditch and Sharron Kraus.

The Forgotten Works have a unique sound that has a timeless quality and a familiarity, a feeling of belonging to the land, reminiscent of those early explorations into psych-folk.

The Big Eyes Family Players newest album, Family Favourites, is a collection of reworked old songs alongside new material, a “best-of,” if you will, or perhaps a retrospective…

Manchester based David A Jaycock’s last release was his debut 12 track vinyl LP titled Preset. The album image of a headless ghost like woman in black with her leg tied to a table leg should leave no doubt in your mind that this LP is a very deep and surreal excursion.

The Big Eyes Family Players’ bandleader James Green has a busy weekend ahead of him this July 23-24. As part of this year’s Tramlines Festival in Sheffield, Green has co-curated The Folk Forest in Endcliffe Park, a two-day stage featuring Nancy Elizabeth, Rozi Plain, Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Tyde, Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon and many more.

Welcome back to the Friday Folk Music Club. This week we have videos from: Jason Steel, James Yorkston & Big Eyes Family Players, Sharon Shannon, Townes Van Zandt, Julie Fowlis, Nathaniel Rateliff, John Martyn , A Hawk And A Hacksaw and Nancy Elizabeth! Plus audio tracks from The Owl Service and downloads from Spiers and Boden, David Gibb, Cathal Clohessy and Eamonn Costello, Martin Carthy with Dave Swarbrick and The …

I mentioned a little while ago (on facebook) that I was going to be featuring an occasional piece on venues that offer something a bit different and unique. The first place to catch my eye was The Rude Shipyard run by Pete David and Sally Smith in Sheffield. It’s a cafe/bookshop and the sort of place I’d love to have on my doorstep! In their own words: