| Newsletter 17th December 2006 | 
 | Contact 
      details | ||||
| 
 | Tonight’s 
      specialist folk, roots and acoustic programme on East 
      Grinstead’s 
      community radio station, Meridian 
      FM (at 8pm to 10pm) 
      features live sessions with local musicians Josie Quinn & Edd Mann (at 
      around 8.10pm) and, at around 9.30pm, some great blues guitar and harp 
      playing from Nigel Bagge & Eddie Armer. This set will follow an 
      interview (just after 9pm) with Shirley 
      Collins, a pivotal figure in the English folk revival, who 
      recently completed a nationwide tour of her book, America Over the Water 
      (about her historic 1959  
      field trip to America’s deep South). Original recordings from the 
      show and music from Shirley herself will be featured. 
       If 
      you live in the East Grinstead and surrounding area, tune into FM 87.7 - or alternatively listen 
      over the internet at www.meridianfm.com. |   |   For 
      more information on Acoustic Sussex 
      shows including sound 
      samples, 
      click on the artists' website links below or visit our   | |||
| UPCOMING 
      EVENTS: |   |   | ||||
| Friday 
           | The 
      Classic Rock Society recently presented 
      Dave Cousins with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Thirty 
      years on from their huge album chart successes, 'Grave New World' and 
      'Bursting at the Seams', the Strawbs now tour three times a year with an 
      acoustic line-up - Dave Cousins on guitar, dulcimer, banjo and vocals, 
      Dave Lambert on guitar and vocals, plus 70s band member Chas Cronk on 
      guitar, bass and vocals.  
       The 
      Strawbs have enjoyed major success on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 
      early 1970s, as well as the hit albums, their hit singles ‘Part of the 
      Union’ and ‘Lay Down’ topped the charts. From the mid-1970s they spent 
      more time in the States and Canada where their albums charted for five 
      years as they toured, among others, with Santana, The Eagles, Peter 
      Frampton, Blue Oyster Cult, Joe Walsh, King Crimson, and Frank Zappa. 
       Acoustic 
      Strawbs have recently toured Italy to critical acclaim and played three 
      nights at the Edinburgh Festival at the prestigious Music Hall in the 
      Scotsman Assembly Rooms.  Acoustic 
      Strawbs play classic Strawbs songs with the integrity and musicianship for 
      which the band has been always been 
      recognised. STOP 
      PRESS 
      The long-awaited Strawbs boxed set is released this month (copies will be 
      available to buy at the concert). Sourced from the Strawbs’ own archives, 
      it includes unreleased songs, demo versions, alternate mixes, and live 
      material. According to Witchwood Records, “it includes all the Strawbs tracks that ought 
      to be in a boxed set, but virtually none of the versions that even devout 
      fans will currently have in their 
      collection”.   |   |   | |||
| Saturday 
         | SOLD 
      OUT BETH 
      NIELSEN CHAPMAN 
       Tickets for Beth 
      Nielsen Chapman's concert on 27th January are now sold out 
      (cancellations only).  
       The concert 
      on is a cancer charity 
      fund-raising event, which will coincide with an auction of an 
      electro-acoustic guitar (sponsored by Hobgoblin Music in Crawley) 
      - signed by a number of well-known musicians, which so far includes: Amy Wadge, Ralph 
      McTell, Tommy Emmanuel, Jacqui McShee, Nick Harper, Gretchen Peters, Clive 
      Gregson, Christine Collister, Dougie MacLean, Bob Fox, Billy Mitchell, 
      Dave Kelly, Al Stewart, Laurence Juber, Martha Tilston, Kris Delmhorst, 
      Pierre Bensusan, Martyn Joseph, Simon Nicol, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie, 
      Gerry Conway, Karine Polwart, Steve Knightley and Phil Beer. 
       More details on 
      how to bid for the guitar will follow in 
      January. |   | ||||
|  | ||||||
| Friday 
         | Although 
      Keith James is still, in 
      some respects, a well kept secret, he has recently seen a gradual 
      emergence as one of the country's most valuable singer/songwriters, and 
      concert performers. During January, February and March 2007, Keith 
      performs his eighth UK tour entitled The Songs of Nick Drake, in which 
      almost the entire concert is dedicated to the work of the most loved of 
      all English singer/songwriters. Previous tours across the country, 
      totalling over 250 concerts, have seen audiences filling arts centres and 
      theatres to hear this music again after an absence from the live music 
      scene of well over 30 years. Nick 
      Drake himself, was, during his prolific period, somewhat of a mystery. He 
      only lived to record 3 albums, "Five Leaves Left", "Bryter Later" and 
      "Pink Moon", all of which were regarded at the time as being flimsy and 
      without the substance that was called for to engage popular audiences. It 
      has only been in the last 10 years that many thousands of listeners have 
      come to appreciate their beauty. Nick Drake has now, thankfully, become 
      the most revered of all figures to take their place in the world of 
      contemporary acoustic music. It is with this in mind that these concerts 
      are presented. “A fresh and powerful approach to these 
      wonderful songs”  |   | 
 | |||
| For 
      your future diaries.. | Future 
      dates in the 2007 Acoustic Sussex programme: Ø    
      26 
      February 2007, Anais 
      Mitchell (see 
      website) Ø    
      12 
      March 2007, Thea Gilmore (see 
      website) Ø    
      26 
      March 2007, Richard 
      Durrant  (see 
      website) Ø    
      30 
      April 2007, Charlie Dore 
       (see 
      website) Ø    
      4 
      June 2007, Vin Garbutt  (see 
      website) More 
      information on all up-and-coming artists can be found on our website: www.acousticsussex.org.uk. You 
      can also find us on MySpace (with samples from some of the artists 
      appearing) at: www.myspace.com/acoustic_sussex. 
      If you know anyone who you think may enjoy our events, please forward this 
      email to them. |   |    UNSUBSCRIBE | |||