at The Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft – Tuesday 16th April 2019
The audience at the Seagull Theatre was treated to an evening of exceptional harmony singing from 2 of the top artists currently operating on the Canadian roots music scene.
JUNO and SOCAN award winners Good Lovelies were on a UK tour during April accompanied by Fortunate Ones
A good sized audience at the Seagull Theatre was treated to an exceptional performance by a young multi-talented 5 piece band from Boston USA who came to Suffolk on their first ever tour of the UK.
by Les Ray
Strummers’ 3rd Birthday Bash - CB2 Bistro, Norfolk Street, Cambridge, 26.1.19
Back in early 2016 Deirdre Murphy persuaded a group of like-minded musician friends to join us in setting up Strummers - with music with a social conscience as its tagline - as we felt there was a demand for a left-leaning club on the local folk scene. After two years, we made the tough decision to leave the club to devote our energies to our band Red Velvet, confident that we had left it in very capable hands.
It was therefore a great pleasure for me to go along to Strummers’ 3rd Birthday gig on 26th January, to catch up with old friends and - of course - to listen to some great music. The line-up for the evening was very strong: singer-songwriter Tony Phillips, exciting folk duo Causton and Walker and chocolate-voiced Norwich-based songster Marina Florance.
Strumming and Dreaming - Yarns and slow airs
by Les Ray
“For me life is a craft, music is a craft. So if I’m knitting, that’s got just as much influence and inspiration as my music, as has nature, as has colour, as have oceans or birds... or drawing. Everything’s all connected, and knitting is something that makes me calm. I love its regularity and rhythm ... the form, the shape, the contrast, the colour, and those are all things I talk about in music. I feel that my accordion could be a garment really, it’s something I wear; it’s part of me.” .
These are the words of Karen Tweed, virtuoso accordionist and Renaissance woman, spoken to me in an interview for my show on Cambridge 105 Radio a few days before her concert at Cambridge Folk Club on 22nd February.
I went along to the concert having never seen Karen perform live before, not even in previous guises, as a member of The Poozies or with Roger Wilson or Kathryn Tickell, who gave Karen her first break in folk music by inviting her to tour Sweden.
Speaking of Kathryn Tickell, support for the evening was ably provided by fellow Northumbrian pipe player Mike Nelson.
Northamptonshire born, like myself, now residing in the Orkneys, the much travelled Karen took us off on a musical journey. Starting the evening by playing her childhood instrument the melodica (“Everyone should play one”), she went on to entertain us with the story of the variable names of her mum from County Kerry and dad from Willesden, before performing the beautiful “Miss Hanoria McNamara of Ballybunion”, inspired by her mum.
The evening proceeded with Karen alternating between the role of raconteur and that of consummate musician, eyes closed, smiling serenely, delighting us with beautiful melodies and subtle syncopation.
My favourite piece in the first half was My Dear Julia, inspired by a photograph of John Herschel by pioneering 19th-century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron; the piece is Karen’s imaginings in music of what Herschel’s letters to Julia might have contained.
The second half tended more towards the ebbs and flows of Karen’s music than to her storytelling, and included an ambitious 20-minute set of tunes that even took a dip into Moon River, with the audience gently singing along, before continuing on its musical journey.
by Holly D Johnston
I am always surprised when people talk about Suffolk as a sleepy quiet place. My own experience is that on any given night I have to choose between events to go to and wonderful experiences to have. I personally lean towards folk and acoustic music, but I try as many different genres as I can and have noticed that when I chat to people at folk clubs, they are just as open. This past weekend I have loved the variety on offer and have been to two events I feel inspired to write about.
Friday 8th March 2019 marked International Women’s Day and there were a number of events going on around Suffolk to mark the occasion. I took myself off to the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket where the Soapbox was hosting an evening of performance, poetry and debate.
