Here is a complete listing from the Somerset and Dorset Folk Diary. To receive regular updates to this listing, along with other news items, please subscribe.
Regular events, such as music sessions and dance clubs are listed separately here.
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COVID-19 Note: We’ll be running this weekend with a smaller tutor team than usual, and with reduced student numbers so please book your place early! Our usual Saturday night Ceilidh won’t be dance-based, but more of a traditional ceilidh with participants invited to contribute their own spots (if they wish). See the Halsway Manor website for COVID-19 Guidance for your visit.
Join your host, the first storyteller laureate Taffy Thomas MBE, and yarnsmith Dave Tonge for a weekend packed with stories and merriment, to stir the heart and feed the soul.
Ancestral Voices is our theme for 2020. More details on the programme will follow but expect performances, practical workshops and discussions led by host Taffy Thomas and a top team of storyteller and musicians friends.
Who’s it For?
Tellers of all levels of experience, and those who just want to listen; after all, “if speaking were more important than listening, we’d have two tongues and one ear.”
Taffy Thomas MBE, England’s first storyteller laureate Taffy is the patron of The Society for Storytelling. Taffy received The English Folk Dance and Song Society Gold Badge award in December 2010. With Taffy’s head bursting with stories, riddles and folklore, professional storyteller Giles Abbot once commented, “when Taffy goes it will be like a library burning down.”
Dave Tonge – the Yarnsmith of Norwich – is an author, historian and storyteller from Norfolk. Dave has been telling tales for over 20 years, traveling the land and spinning yarns at museums, heritage sites, festivals, fayres and schools all over the UK, including Halsway!
https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/tales-in-trust-2020/
Coronavirus permitting, we are delighted to welcome back an old friend of the club, Jez Lowe. One of the finest songwriters to emerge from the shattered industry of the North East, with all the history of the coal mining industry and factory life featuring largely in his songs.
Opening support is by upbeat duo Brigands' Brew
£12 pre-booked, £14 unbooked
8.15pm (Legion open from 19.00 Concert doors 7.45pm)
Contact Kathy Dunn: 01202732239
kathy.dunn AT btopenworld.com
www.wessex-acoustic.co.uk
If this event needs to be cancelled you will be refunded. Face masks need to be worn whilst moving around the venue, but not whilst seated at your table. Chapel Arts is COVID ready!
Following the success of last year’s intimate one man show, Steve’s latest outing is intended for anyone fascinated by the art and craft of song writing.
Exploring his extensive back catalogue and introducing unheard, new material he explores the themes and stories that inspire him and shows how music and words can become lyrics and chords and notes can meld to create songs that acquire a life of their own!
www.showofhands.co.uk
8:00 pm - 10:30 pm (Doors: 7:30pm)
Advance: £20.00
Advance ONLY
https://chapelarts.org/events/steve-knightley-2/
To find out more, visit www.efdss.org/youthfolk
COVID-19 Note: See the Halsway Manor website for COVID-19 Guidance for your visit.
The National Youth Folk Ensemble celebrates excellence in youth folk music, bringing together talented 14-18 year old instrumentalists from across England to create and perform inspiring new arrangements of folk music. Sam Partridge, Artistic Director will be joined by a team of leading folk musician-tutors.
The National Youth Folk Ensemble is an English Folk Dance and Song Society programme funded by Arts Council England. To find out more, visit www.efdss.org/youthfolk
To start your application for the 2020/21 Ensemble you need to sign-up to attend one of the NYFE Sampler Days which take place at locations across the UK. To find out more, visit www.efdss.org/youthfolk
EFDSS are looking for confident instrumentalists aged 14-18 who are dedicated to developing as folk musicians and excited about collaborating with others who share their passion!
The Team
Sam Partridge is an outstanding multi-instrumentalist and composer most often seen performing on timber flute, whistle and English concertina. Growing up in the High Peak, he galvanised his musical ability through studying classical bassoon at Junior RNCM. After falling in love with folk music through local weekly sessions in Glossop, he chose to study on the Folk and Traditional Music Degree at Newcastle University. While in Newcastle Sam immersed himself in the strong woodwind traditions of Irish, Scottish and Breton traditional music. He spent time at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick and subsequently embraced traditional English music through a Masters degree at Newcastle University.
Sam is a member of Pons Aelius, The Rachel Hamer Band, Jordan Aikin and Bad Phantom, and has recently formed an exciting duo with fiddle player and clog dancer Grace Smith. With broad musical interests, including jazz and composition, he is a highly skilled and committed educator who has experience teaching on the Folkworks programme at Sage Gateshead and at Folkworks Summer Schools; tutoring at Newcastle University; working as a music teacher in a secondary school; and leading other youth and adult folk music learning projects across the north of England. In 2017 he was involved in a teaching and performance project at Xiamen University in China, and he has taught at a number of National Youth Folk Ensemble residential courses.
https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/national-youth-folk-ensemble-4/
If this event needs to be cancelled you will be refunded. Face masks need to be worn whilst moving around the venue, but not whilst seated at your table. Chapel Arts is COVID ready!
Huddled round a single vintage microphone, singing intimate duets with just mountain dulcimer, dobro and guitar, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage are an acoustic duo that sound classically timeless, yet their music is unique. Since emerging in 2016, the duo have recorded two studio albums, Before the Sun (2016) and Awake (2018), produced by award winning producer David Travers-Smith in Toronto, both of which gathered praise for the crafting and skill of their musical writing and arranging.
The duo have toured the UK, North America and mainland Europe, enrapturing audiences at shows and on festival stages with the sparkling beauty of their acoustic style. They also appeared at the West Java World Music Festival, Indonesia in 2019.
www.hannahbenmusic.com
8:00 pm - 10:30 pm (Doors: 7:30pm)
Advance: £12.00
Advance ONLY
https://chapelarts.org/events/hannah-sanders-ben-savage/
COVID-19 Note: A NEW event for our Autumn programme! See the Halsway Manor website for COVID-19 Guidance for your visit.
We’re delighted to welcome Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer to Halsway to run a weekend ‘Scandi Gathering’. We’ve had to cancel several events this year that would have been run by one or other of the duo, including several nyckelharpa events, Jonny’s popular Swedish Accordion week, and also Vicki’s Sackpipa / Swedish bagpipe music weekend…
Although we are still figuring out an exact plan for the weekend, we have decided that this event should be more general and take in elements of the various things that have been cancelled, so we are calling it the Halsway Scandi Gathering.
What we can guarantee is that Vicki will be there with her nyckelharpas and Jonny will be there with his accordions. And there will probably be some Swedish elements to the all-important menu too…
https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/scandi-gathering/
Folk legend Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza Carthy, join forces to perform songs old and new. Martin is a legendary ballad singer and guitarist who influenced a generations of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, while Eliza has been twice-nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and a multiple-award winner at the BBC Radio Two Folk awards.
£20.00 advance / £23.00 on the door | Starts at 8:00 P.M.
https://www.marinetheatre.com
Archie is one of the UK’s finest young box players, having rapidly made a name for himself on the folk circuit with Moore, Moss, Rutter (BBC Young Folk Award winners in 2011), Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys and False Lights. His extensive teaching experience includes tutoring for Halsway Young Folk, National Youth Folk Ensemble and Leeds College of Music, and we’re delighted to invite him to run a day of small group workshops at Halsway.
Beginner/Improvers workshop: 10:00-12:30
In the morning Archie will focus on the bellows; how to shape notes and control the sound from your melodeon. This workshop will help players discover the variety of sounds that can be created from the melodeon.
Intermediate workshop: 13:30-16:00
In the afternoon Archie will talk about the use of ornamentation – how, why and where you would use it when playing a tune. This workshop will look to develop a more dynamic ‘toolkit’ for the player.
We may send out a tune in advance for each group to learn, so that the workshop can focus on application, rather than learning the tune.
The Tutor
Archie Churchill-Moss: Widely regarded as one of the best players of English traditional folk, Archie has worked as a session musician for some of the UK’s top folk acts (Cara Dillon, Eliza Carthy, Blair Dunlop), as well as performing with the trio, ‘Moore, Moss, Rutter’ – The outfit which saw him receive the coveted BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2011.
His engaging teaching style comes from a wealth of experience in his position as senior lecturer in ‘Folk Music’ at Leeds College of Music and teaching on the National Youth Folk Ensemble.
10am–4pm
£35 / £42 with lunch
https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/melodeon-workshop-archie-churchill-moss/
COVID-19 Note: We’re expecting to run this course as planned. See the Halsway Manor website for COVID-19 Guidance for your visit.
Join folk polymath Laurel Swift and fantastic multi-instrumentalist Jon Dyer for a dynamic yet relaxing week to spend quality time with your instrument! With a focus on ensemble playing, you’ll explore music in small and large groups, with exercises and tasks to build confidence, tools and tips to improve your skills, and inspiration to develop your own musicality and style.
You’ll also be able to enjoy guided walks on the Quantock Hills and coast, raise your voice with a little communal singing, dedicate some time to private practice – and enjoy socialising with like-minded people!
In this dynamic yet relaxing week you’ll not just learn new tunes, but explore the many options for what to do with them, and focus on creating and playing in a style that is all your own. We will play music, think about playing music, and have the time and space to fully engross ourselves in improving and developing our skills and musicality, and go home inspired!
The retreat will be a great way to learn new tunes, make new friends and discover a very beautiful part of the country!
https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/musicians-retreat-2/
This pioneering Scottish folk trio has always experimented with sound and form; the results have always been complex and thrilling.
Already acknowledged as phenomenal live performers (‘the UK’s best live band’ – the Guardian), Lau arrived at a new creative peak with 2019’s Midnight and Closedown (Reveal Records). That album was produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, This Is The Kit), who said: ‘Lau are in touch with their roots but not bound by them’.
£18.50 advance
https://www.marinetheatre.com
Coronavirus permitting, we are delighted to welcome back the highly entertaining pair of singer-songwriter Anthony John Clarke, along with his pal Peggy (Dave Pegg), multi-instrumentalist and singer.
Expect brilliant songs expertly performed, plus a lot of stories and humour sprinkled along the way.
Support is from the versatile Welsh singer-songwriter Linda Watkins
£12 pre-booked, £14 unbooked
8.15pm (Legion open from 19.00 Concert doors 7.45pm)
Contact Kathy Dunn: 01202732239
kathy.dunn AT btopenworld.com
www.wessex-acoustic.co.uk
A return to the club of one of our patrons, Chris Leslie, with a selection of his own songs and tunes, featuring a range of instruments.
Chris is supported by Simon Loake, with his upbeat folk-rock and more. Simon has been a session musician with many big names over the years and is a widely admired guitarist.
£12 pre-booked, £14 unbooked
8.15pm (Legion open from 19.00 Concert doors 7.45pm)
Contact Kathy Dunn: 01202732239
kathy.dunn AT btopenworld.com
www.wessex-acoustic.co.uk
+ Anne-Louise Richards
This concert has been rearranged after being cancelled earlier in the year.
We welcome Richard Digance to the club as a wonderful entertainer, singing many of his own songs and making us roar with laughter.
Supporting Richard is our own favourite local songstress, Anne-Louise Richards
£12 pre-booked, £14 unbooked
8.15pm (Legion open from 19.00 Concert doors 7.45pm)
Contact Kathy Dunn: 01202 732239
kathy.dunn AT btopenworld.com
www.wessex-acoustic.co.uk
Jim Moray is amongst England’s finest interpreters of traditional song.
His relentlessly innovative recordings can truly be said to have changed the sound of folk music since the early 2000s, and he has won fans and admirers far outside of the folk scene without ever betraying his traditional roots.
A five-time BBC Folk Award winner, his songs have been featured in a season finale of Grey’s Anatomy, he has appeared on-screen singing a specially composed song for Dr Who spin-off Class as aliens attack the earth, and he has presented documentaries on traditional music for BBC Radio 3.
www.jimmoray.co.uk
www.facebook.com/jimmoray/
twitter.com/jimmoray
8:00 pm - 10:30 pm (Doors: 7:30pm)
Door Price: £15.00
Advance: £14.00
https://chapelarts.org/events/jim-moray-with-tom-moore/
A 2 night (3 days) folk dance workshop break on a full board basis,including Sunday lunch, with a programme of activities including a trip out to Exmoor’s secret Snowdrop Valley.
Peter and Moira Gutteridge hail from Worcestershire and have been regular resident musicians at our Folk Dance weekends for many years, bringing a variety of instruments, mainly fiddle, guitar and bass, but also flute, keyboard and harp.
Ray Goodswen is from Somerset and is also our regular caller and has a love of and is a teacher of traditional dance.
from £280.00 per person
Contact Antony Brunt: 01643 821425
hotel AT yarnmarkethotel.co.uk
www.yarnmarkethotel.co.uk
For the first, time Ireland’s Heidi Talbot and Scotland’s Adam Holmes are joining forces to tour, write and record an album of original material, together.
Between them they have been nominated for multiple BBC Folk Awards, SAY awards, Irish music awards and played for First Ministers and US Presidents.
This new collaboration will see the pair work under the name “Arcade”, with plans to record and release a new album of songs in 2019, produced by Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow).
8.00 pm
£22
https://www.thedavidhall.com/event/arcade-feat-heidi-talbot-adam-holmes/?mc_cid=2200ec15b4&mc_eid=7f19f38593
Postponed from March 2020 due to the corona virus.
More details later, but put the date in your diary.
Saturday 8th May 2021 AT 8:00 pm £19
In 1995, Christine Collister, Melanie Harrold, Julie Matthews, Helen Watson and Chris While – acclaimed and appreciated for their individual talents as Folk, Blues, Rock and Soul singers – found themselves at the Cambridge Festival. They decided to sing some songs together….. Magic happened and Daphne’s Flight took off. A widely-acclaimed eponymous studio album and UK tour followed, with a prestigious date at London’s Union Chapel – all of which marked a turning point in the role of women within the English Folk movement.
Five of the finest singer-songwriters of their generation, Daphne’s Flight is a unique and magical blend of individual styles that captivates audiences with complex harmony arrangements, unbridled energy and the infectious joy of performing together.
8.00 pm
Tickets: £19 Full. £18 Concessions.
https://www.thedavidhall.com/event/daphnes-flight/?mc_cid=2200ec15b4&mc_eid=7f19f38593
The 2020 Folk Fest was cancelled, but we'll be back next year.
Put the date in your diaries.
As previous winners of Best Live Act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, there’s no denying The Demon Barbers’ ability to put on a first-class performance.
Over the years they’ve thrilled countless audiences with their live music and dance shows, be it stirring up a frenzy at Glastonbury Festival and Edinburgh Fringe or selling out theatres around the UK!
8.00 pm
Tickets: £19 Full. £18 Concessions.
https://www.thedavidhall.com/event/the-demon-barbers-xl/?mc_cid=2200ec15b4&mc_eid=7f19f38593