Do you think that you can see ghosts of the living when they’re not here? Do they send their spirits to us, to stay near when we need them? This evening should have been an O’Hooley and Tidow show, instead Belinda O’Hooley is up there, alone on the stage. Just her and the lovely StContinue reading “Belinda O’Hooley – St George’s – May 2023”
Category Archives: Folk
Laura Cortese – Folk House – May 2023
“This is a lovely idea”, says Nick Hart, about three songs into Laura Cortese & Friends at the Folk House. The idea, as all the best ones are, is a simple one – choose a musician from the town in which you’re touring and collaborate with them throughout the evening. Laura Cortese is a fiddleContinue reading “Laura Cortese – Folk House – May 2023”
Harbottle & Jonas – Downend Folk & Roots – April 2023
“What a great space this is”, says Dave Harbottle, “it’s like the perfect combination of the old and the new”. He’s right too, Christchurch is looking at its very best tonight. The sunset streams through the open doors, blue lights gently uplight the mullioned windows, the woodwork painted subtle shades. It’s an old place castContinue reading “Harbottle & Jonas – Downend Folk & Roots – April 2023”
Goat – SWX – April 2023
In Cookie Mueller’s brilliant book of essays about hanging out with John Waters and various nutcases in Baltimore, she constantly mentions a set of places. These are places that will survive the collapse of civilisation as we know it. They are the convergence of ley lines, special places. Special places if you are oddly unhingedContinue reading “Goat – SWX – April 2023”
Noble Jacks – Lost Horizon – April 2023
Should you be able to have this much fun on Good Friday? Is there some sort of moral or philosophical law against smiling and manically jumping up and down two days before Easter Sunday? If there is a big chap sitting on a cloud up there, did he look down as Noble Jacks whirled LostContinue reading “Noble Jacks – Lost Horizon – April 2023”
Hack Poets Guild – Folk House – March 2023
During the short film that, sort of, supports Hack Poets Guild, Lisa Knapp says that she loves Broadside Ballads because you can “hear the humanity coming through”. Broadsides were single sheets of news, sometimes in the form of songs (the ballads in question), sold cheaply on the streets between the 15th and 19th century. ByContinue reading “Hack Poets Guild – Folk House – March 2023”
The Haar – Downend Folk & Roots – March 2023
There’s a story that, on March 8th 1890, Bram Stoker, Dublin-born author of Dracula, contracted food poisoning from a dressed crab in a fashionable London restaurant. The ensuing vivid nightmare about blood-sucking creatures was direct inspiration for his Goth Count. If that dream had had a soundtrack, then it could have been provided by TheContinue reading “The Haar – Downend Folk & Roots – March 2023”
Jackie Oates & John Spiers – Downend Folk & Roots – December
Not all Christmas concerts have tinsel and fairy lights, not all have you rockin’ around a Christmas tree or wishin’ it could be Christmas every day. Not all are polished to a high sheen or come gift wrapped. Some Christmas concerts are dark and frosty, they are full of shadows and the glimmer of aContinue reading “Jackie Oates & John Spiers – Downend Folk & Roots – December”
The Mary Wallopers – Thekla – December 2022
There’s something stirring in Folk World. Away from the grey hairs and the comfy jumpers, away from the beautifully played fiddles, and the endless Child ballads, something is going on. Whether it’s the weird electronic scratches and scritches of Stick in the Wheel (amazing at Rough Trade last week), the stripped back savagery of LankumContinue reading “The Mary Wallopers – Thekla – December 2022”
Skinny Lister – Thekla – December 2022
How do you get rid of the winter blues? Or, perhaps, on another evening of World Cup disappointment, the winter Les Bleus? The answer’s easy. You go to the Thekla, jump about like a lunatic, sing at the top of your voice and fall into the drunken, loving embrace of the world’s finest shanty punkers,Continue reading “Skinny Lister – Thekla – December 2022”
TallFolk 