There’s something lovely about watching friends singing, swapping stories, and having fun. At one stage this evening, prolific singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams dissolves into a fit of giggles and Dan Willson (aka Withered Hand) looks on with mock bemusement. They’ve just been telling a story about their friendship, just been singing harmonies that are so jigsaw-puzzle perfect, justContinue reading “Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand – Folk House – June”
Category Archives: Folk
Good Habits – Downend Folk & Roots – May
Sometimes folk music can take itself a bit seriously. There are a lot of drowned sisters and poisoned knights, lots of murder and longing. It’s a bit of a relief, then, when a duo like Good Habits come along. They are full of sunshine and stories, full of friendliness and fun. They blossom like Sunflowers.Continue reading “Good Habits – Downend Folk & Roots – May”
Lady Maisery – Bristol Beacon – May
Bristol loves folk trio Lady Maisery and they love us right back. Having played here countless times over the last 14 years, Hannah James, Rowan Rheingans and Hazel Askew always seem to enjoy their Bristolian outings. They often describe this city “the Sheffield of the South West” and they treat it as a home from home. AsContinue reading “Lady Maisery – Bristol Beacon – May”
Johnny Flynn & Robert MacFarlane – Bristol Beacon – May
Assumptions are funny things. You might assume that an evening with Johnny Flynn, actor and singer of The Detectorists theme, and Robert MacFarlane, acclaimed nature writer, would be all sun dappled, golden-hued gentleness. You might assume that there would be perfect crop circles and lazy dust motes. At the end of their 90-minute Prog-Folk suite, full ofContinue reading “Johnny Flynn & Robert MacFarlane – Bristol Beacon – May”
Bristol Folk Festival – St Georges – May
What is folk music? Dr Anna Rutherford, Bristol’s busiest polymath and Creative Director of the folk festival, reckons it’s about a feeling, she says that it makes being alive feel better. This weekend Bristol Folk Festival makes that statement impossible to argue with. The sun shone (most of the time) and life felt demonstrably better. Continue reading “Bristol Folk Festival – St Georges – May”
Katherine Priddy – Strange Brew – May
There’s probably some kind of a law that says that you must go and see some folk music on May Day. If there’s not, there should be. It’s fortunate then that Birmingham-born singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy starts her tour on May Day, in Bristol. Her latest album, The Pendulum Swing, is a glorious thing and the combinationContinue reading “Katherine Priddy – Strange Brew – May”
Eliza Carthy and Jennifer Reid – The Folk House – April
Folk music is built on a babble of voices. From storytellers to political orators. From heavenly serenaders to the earthy burr of honesty. From barroom celebrants to diaphanous fairy children. Voices are the thing. Eliza Carthy and Jennifer Reid, playing to a packed Folk House, have two of the finest folk voices that you’ll everContinue reading “Eliza Carthy and Jennifer Reid – The Folk House – April”
Christina Alden & Alex Patterson – Downend Folk & Roots – April
There is something undeniably lovely about the quiet voice that has important things to say. On the first properly Spring-like evening of the year, two fantastic bands were gently insistent and spoke of the beauty around us. Christina Alden, Alex Patterson and The Lost Trades effortlessly showed the best of contemporary folk song. The LostContinue reading “Christina Alden & Alex Patterson – Downend Folk & Roots – April”
Longest Johns – Bristol Beacon – April
You can just feel it. The excitement, the anticipation, the jubilation. The Longest Johns are back home and the queue is snaking through the venue, chatting, laughing, drinking. There are people dressed as pirates, there’s a light-up-duck-hat down the front (as usual), there are palm trees on the stage. Bristol Beacon is up for a huge sea-shanty partyContinue reading “Longest Johns – Bristol Beacon – April”
Gadarene – The Folk House – April
Bristol based Folk-dub-jazz-almost-everything-else-in-the-world five piece, Gadarene, are massive festival favourites. It’s not hard to see why. They play infectious, wildly upbeat, wholly instrumental dance tunes that cause feet to twitch, smiles to widen. You’d be forgiven for thinking that a set of sixteenth and seventeenth century instrumentals, featuring fiddle and flute, might be a little bitContinue reading “Gadarene – The Folk House – April”
TallFolk 