Almost exactly nine years ago Downend Folk & Roots peeked, slightly hesitantly, into the world. Back then it was Downend Folk Club but the first, proper, headline act was Bella Hardy fresh from winning The BBC Folk Singer of the Year award. She was astonishing that night and gave the Folk club a glow ofContinue reading “Bella Hardy – Downend Folk & Roots – June”
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Bristol Folk Festival – The Trinity, Bristol Cathedral – May 2023
The really great thing about Folk music is that some things are different but some things stay the same. The new is made from the old. Some things are new but others feel warm and comfortable. For the Bristol Folk Festival this year some things are different but some things stay the same. The venuesContinue reading “Bristol Folk Festival – The Trinity, Bristol Cathedral – May 2023”
Caitlin Rose – The Fleece – April 2023
About ten years ago Nashville singer songwriter, Caitlin Rose, looked as though she was destined to be the Country-Star-Most-Likely-To. She had all of those weighty magazines that take music very seriously indeed in a right old froth. She released The Stand In and was hailed as “the future of country music”. Acres of column inchesContinue reading “Caitlin Rose – The Fleece – April 2023”
Three Cane Whale – St George’s – March
St George’s was made for nights like this one. Where the acoustics allow the instruments to soar and the musicians are of such rare quality that nothing else matters but the sounds being made. And what sounds they are. Two bands, six musicians and some of the most transportive music that you’ll ever hear. FirelightContinue reading “Three Cane Whale – St George’s – March”
Butler, Blake, Grant – The Redgrave Theatre – March 2023
How’s this for a party game? One that you could play for the rest of time? Which three singer-songwriters would you like, guitars in hand, to play together? Each taking turns to play their best loved songs? Each harmonising and adding new bits? The possibilities are endless. Early on a member of the audience shoutsContinue reading “Butler, Blake, Grant – The Redgrave Theatre – March 2023”
The Dream Syndicate – The Fleece – March 2023
1980s Los Angeles seemed like a very long way from 1980s England. Sunshine. Glamour. Colours. All sorts of things that we seemed to lack really. 1980s Los Angeles also had this really cool bunch of bands. The Three O’Clock, The Bangles, Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate. They plugged themselves into punk rock, garage rock,Continue reading “The Dream Syndicate – The Fleece – March 2023”
Courtney Marie Andrews – The Trinity – March 2023
It seems like only yesterday that Courtney Marie Andrews was hiding behind a fringe and a guitar case full of loneliness and heartbreak. She was always alone on her stage, a one-woman, one-stop shop for the broken and busted. Tonight the singer-songwriter from Arizona is a different proposition. She’s now eight albums old and, farContinue reading “Courtney Marie Andrews – The Trinity – March 2023”
Frankie Archer – Folk House – February
Have you ever been there at the start of something new? Something exciting? Something that crackles with possibilities? Have you ever been given a little glimpse of what might be? Frankie Archer crackles with possibilities; on this, her first tour, she is entirely solo. Just her, a violin, a box of clever samples and aContinue reading “Frankie Archer – Folk House – February”
Sam Sweeney – Wardrobe Theatre – February 2023
Right at the start of this packed, intimate, wonderfully relaxed gig Sam Sweeney is lost in tuning one of his violins. He’s talking about Morris tunes and, with a grin, he says “Did you know, Morris is cool now?”. The audience chuckle because they know. They know that Morris has never been cool but theyContinue reading “Sam Sweeney – Wardrobe Theatre – February 2023”
Tom Moore & Archie Moss – Downend Folk & Roots – February 2023
Tom Moore and Archie Moss are artists. They’re magicians. They’re conjurers. They might hold a viola (Moore) and an accordion (Moss) but they could just as easily use paints, film or the supernatural to create their world. This is folk music by way of black & white European cinema, by way of haunting, fragmented sketching. Continue reading “Tom Moore & Archie Moss – Downend Folk & Roots – February 2023”
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