Folk and Roots - The Guide to the Folk, Roots and Acoustic Scene

Folk and Roots presents MondayMonday, a night of the best of the folk and roots scene which will be held on the first and third Mondays of the month in central London.

Our next night will be held on Monday 15th February with Lily Neill and support by Paul Micklethwaite.
MondayMonday is pleased to be hosting this performance by Lily Neill, and on this occasion we are very pleased to be spending the evening at Camden's highly regarded Green Note - see www.greennote.co.uk.

Lily Neill is recognized as "...part of the new Harp revolution extolling aspects of harp music never previously heard," 2005 Irish Music Magazine. She was a prize-winner at the All-Ireland Harp competition and has won numerous awards, honours and scholarships for her technical and artistic abilities as well as her original compositions.
More recently, Lily was named LiveIreland.com's "2006 New Female Artist of the Year." Lily's musical style is at once rich in tradition and uniquely her own.
Her experiences working with artists from different genres and backgrounds, from folk to classical and rock spheres, have played a major part in shaping and continuing to shape Lily's music. Central to Lily's style is her utilization of techniques and repertoire from instruments other than her own. In defining Lily's style, The Green Man Review writes, "It is delightful to welcome a new talent and one that is brimming with ideas, creative energy and yet has a [vice-like] grip on traditional methods and methodology, while pushing the envelope stylistically."

See www.folkonmonday.co.uk for further details and join the facebook group to keep in touch with whats happening and make a note in your diary

Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
1^st	2^nd	3^rd	4^th	5^th	6^th	7^th
8^th	9^th	10^th	11^th	12^th	13^th	14^th
15^th	16^th	17^th	18^th	19^th	20^th	21^st
22^nd	23^rd	24^th	25^th	26^th	27^th	28^th

Folk and Roots provides a monthly guide to whats happening around the Folk, Roots and Acoustic Scene, click on the Calendar above for details.

"Since a chance meeting in a hostel in Barcelona in 2000, the unique acoustic magic of Ember has delighted audiences all over the world – from California to Mexico, Ireland to Spain. Now based in Wales, where they have recorded all four of their albums, Ember has recently caused a stir at Broadstairs, Priddy, Glastonbury, Llangollen Fringe, Big Green Gathering, Warwick, Otley, Fishguard Folk Festival and Sesiwn Fawr, amongst other festivals, as well as folk clubs all over the UK.
The simple yet moving music centres around the miraculous blending of two very different voices: that of Welsh songstress Emily Williams, who also sails through the mix with her violin and sets up chunky rhythms with her nylon-strung guitar, and that of Rebecca Sullivan of Utah who fingerpicks a sparkling steel-string, and breaks out the harmonica for a song or two. . ."

Ember are on the road again during Jan and Feb - see www.embersong.com for details...

Sophie & Fiachra perform a captivating fusion of traditional Irish and Québecoise music, mainly on Uilleann pipes and Fiddle. They sound like a Big-Big band, oweing to the nature of the instruments and their style of playing. Sophie & Fiachra are old Ireland and Québec meeting again."
“I have known Fiachra O'Regan and heard his piping here in Connemara for some years. He has emerged as one of the leading young Pipers in Ireland. So it came as no surprise to me that his own musical curiosity has led him to team up with Sophie Lavoie whose traditional skills have been well admired in her native Québec. The links between our music and the French Canadian Québécois tradition provides fertile ground for collaboration and I am looking forward to hearing more of what these two fine young musicians get up to!” Bill Whelan (Riverdance)
Sophie Lavoie and Fiachra O‘Regan are touring the UK during February, check out their dates at www.sophieandfiachra.com

Mabon - "A celtic festival disguised as a band!"
Miss Mabon at your peril! For the past few years these high octane festival favourites from Wales have been fizzing, frothing and fermenting into the intoxicatingly heady brew they are today.
Shades of Shooglenifty and Peatbog Faeries there may be but Mabon's music is self styled, singular and toe-tappingly good - an insatiable blend of world music, Celtic roots and rabble rousing funk folk. One minute you'll think you're in a Breton bistro, next there are echoes of klezmer, and then they perfectly capture what it says on the can for fusion tracks like "A Hungarian in Brittany" and "Gower Flotsam in Bordeaux"!
Led by the indecently talented accordionist and tunes meister Jamie Smith, this six- piece band also features Young Scottish Musician of the Year finalist Calum Stewart on wooden flute and Oli Wilson-Dickson (Tea Hodzic Trio, The Ian MacMillan Orchestra) on fiddle.
Freewheeling through a frenzied repertoire of feelgood tunes the band is also capable of slowing down the tempo for mellower, moving numbers. But not for long!"
Mabon are on tour throughout February see www.mabon.org for more details.

Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham are performing a special concert at London's Union Chapel on March 27th
Aly Bain is the best known and most significant fiddle player in the Celtic tradition. He is regarded as Scotland's supreme fiddler. As a founder member of Boys of the Lough, Aly has toured extensively in America, Europe and the UK. In 1994 Aly was awarded an MBE in recognition of his services to music and the degree of Doctor of Music from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Phil Cunningham is a world famous accordion player and composer. At sixteen he joined his brother John in the highly acclaimed band Silly Wizard. He was nominated in June 1996 in The Scotsman as one of Scotland's most influential people. Recently Phil's work load has included commissions for TV and film and as musical director for television and theatrical events. His Highlands and Islands Suite and other collaborations have been a highlight of Celtic Connections in Glasgow. In 2002 Phil received an M.B.E. for his contribution to Scottish music. In 2009 he recorded with Mark Knopfler on Mark’s CD “Get Lucky”
See www.kalamazooklub.co.uk for more details of the concert

"The Kittiwakes are Kate Denny on vocals and violin, Chris Harrison on accordion and Jill Cumberbatch on violin, mandolin, and guitar. Their debut album 'Lofoten Calling'’ is being released by Midwich Records, and is original music based around the people, landscape, folklore and history of the Lofoten Islands, - an area above the Arctic Circle in Norway.
The music is song based, and influenced by traditional British Isles and Norwegian folk music."
The Kittiwakes have a number of dates in support of their first CD release see http://www.myspace.com/kittiwakes for more details.

Wendy Arrowsmith's new CD, "Seeds of Fools" was released on 1 August 2009, just in time for the Saltburn Folk Festival (14-16 August) where she performed, and for her tour of the North East of Scotland later that month. The CD features 14 tracks and is a mixture of traditional material and self-penned including "Sleep Well 'till Morning" (Winner - Song for the Sea Competition, Scarborough Seafest 2008) and "Hearth Song" (Winner - Ryedale Folk Weekend Songwriting Competition 2009). Wendy has collaborated with several musicians including the Hartlepool based trio, The Young 'Uns, and members of her own band, Blind Summat!, to give a rich and diverse musical sound throughout.
"Seeds of Fools" costs £10 (+ p&p)and will be available to purchase online from www.wendyarrowsmith.com, (plus other online retail outlets) or at her gigs. To hear some of the new tracks featured on the CD, why not visit myspace.com/wendyarrowsmith

"The greatest Celtic harper of our age" (Live Ireland) and TG4 Irish Traditional Musician of the Year 2001 with "one of the UK's most staggering and influential acoustic guitarists" (fRoots)
"When it comes to virtuoso work on this ancient and delicate instrument, Maire Ni Chathasaigh is in a class of her own" The Guardian
"An eclecticism and spirit of adventure that is quite thrilling... Virtuoso playing... bewitching string fantasies and a wonderfully "Brilliant, innovative harping and guitar-playing of astonishing virtuosity and versatility" Songlines "A gorgeously complex mix of the lovely and lyrical and the positively jubilant by two top-notch players. A real treasure" Dirty Linen (USA)
Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman are touring at the moment, see www.oldbridgemusic.com for details.

"Acoustic chill-out band MuHa is a part of new musical migration movement in the UK known as New Roots from Eastern Europe. It was formed in 2004, when Iryna Muha, Ukrainian born singer and songwriter, moved from New York, settled in Lincolnshire and met Dmitry Fedotov, a Latvian rock legend. They play a mix of Russian/ Ukrainian folklore and the original material influenced by Slavonic traditions. The diverse backgrounds of the band members enrich the experience of their music by Brazilian sounds, Indian rhythms, Irish influences and Cuban elements.
The band features 2 acoustic guitars, harmonica, violin, variety of percussion (bodhran, berimbau, cajon, bongos), jews harp and kathak ghungroos.", MuHa play often around the Midlands area see www.muha.co.uk for details.