The Harrison, Kings Cross
Friday 7th July
Doors 7:30pm, Live Music 8:15pm
Tickets £12 (advance), £14
“One of the brightest new names to have emerged full-grown on the country’s folk scene in recent years” FOLK RADIO UK
Odette Michell is an award-winning British singer-songwriter, guitarist and bouzouki player with rich foothold in the folk tradition.
A dynamic live performer, Odette has performed alongside the likes of Show of Hands and Seth Lakeman, and has opened for folk legends Martin Carthy, Phil Beer, Boo Hewerdine, Nancy Kerr, Reg Meuross and BBC R2 Folk Award nominees Ninebarrow amongst others. Odette’s highly anticipated second studio album is due for release in early 2024.
Born in Yorkshire with an Irish heritage, Odette grew up in a musical household and first picked up the guitar at fifteen. Inspired by the resurgence of folk and acoustic songwriters at the time, she began writing her own songs when she was just sixteen years old. Growing up in the vibrant city of Cambridge allowed Odette to take advantage of the many stages and performance venues there, including two early club stage appearances at the Cambridge Folk Festival – her first appearance there being when she was just 22 years old. Having been recently based on a rural 18th century dairy farm in the English countryside, Odette draws on these rich influences and life experience and weaves them together to form the basis of many of her songs.
In April 2019, Odette released her debut album ‘The Wildest Rose’. The album gained widespread positive acclaim followed by a string of live interviews, and featured notable musical contributions from Phil Beer (one-half of multi-award-winning acoustic folk band Show of Hands), and Toby Shaer (Cara Dillon, Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys).
Calum Gilligan is a songwriter and guitarist from Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, now based in the beating heart of British music, Liverpool. Influenced by the likes of Christie Moore, Paul Brady, Paul Simon, Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie, he plays a subtle blend of Scottish, Irish and American folk music with captivating imagery and the lyrical maturity of a much more experienced songwriter. His guitar playing provides enough intricate melodic accompaniment to his singing that he can easily command a stage and captivate an audience on his own. Calum has been described as a ‘gifted musician, playing the guitar beautifully…’ by Spencer Leigh from the Liverpool Echo, and as ‘… a gifted songwriter with a voice to back it up’ by Folk Radio.
His 2019 release, ‘Maybe Half a Lifetime’, was named BBC Radio Folkscene’s ‘EP of 2019’ after a sell-out launch show in Liverpool. He followed this success up with support shows for the likes of Talisk, Kitty MacFarlane, Chloe Foy and Molly Tuttle up and down the country, as well as numerous festival appearances, the most notable being Cambridge Folk Festival 2019.
Returning to live music in 2021 saw him support the likes of Martin Simpson, Emily Portman, Martin Carthy and Ian Prowse across the country. He was also named as the 2021 winner of Purbeck Folk Festival’s Purbeck Rising competition before returning to a triumphant headline show in the Iconic Cunard Building on Liverpool’s waterfront.