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Newsletter 2nd April 2009 |
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Contact
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A good time was
has by all at the Eliza Carthy concert on Wednesday. To see more photos
from the show, click here for
our MySpace site and
follow the Pics link. | ||||||
A
reminder of our upcoming shows: |
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REMINDER - Eliza Carthy
is live in session on BBC radio 2’s Bob Harris show on Saturday 4 April,
around midnight. And if you came
to the Mark Erelli gig in March, you may be interested to read his
comments about the Darwin Song Project on the BBC
blog. | |||||
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Easter
Monday 13
April |
A very rare appearance
by
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Ravenswood,
Sharpthorne |
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Monday 4 May |
Karine
Polwart
Support:
Dan Reed |
Ravenswood,
Sharpthorne |
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Friday 8 May |
Kate
Rusby |
The Hawth
Crawley |
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Thursday 21 May |
Cara
Dillon
Support:
Horses Brawl |
Chequer
Mead |
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Monday 8 June |
Dick
Gaughan
Support:
Mary Hampton |
Ravenswood,
Sharpthorne |
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Friday 19 June |
Show of Hands
SOLD
OUT
With
Miranda Sykes |
Chequer
Mead |
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Ester
Monday, at
The
Ravenswood with
special guest: Tickets are also
available at Hobgoblin in Crawley and Bullfrog in Click
here for News Release (PDF file) |
A very
rare performance by the late John Peel’s favourite singer-songwriter from
the 70s, Bridget St John.
London-born, Her
popularity peaked in 1974 when she was voted among the top 10 most popular
female singer in that year's Melody Maker readers poll, alongside Sandy
Denny. A highly-accomplished guitar player, Commercial success did not
follow the critical acclaim that Joining
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Monday at
The
Ravenswood Support: Dan Reed Tickets are also
available at Hobgoblin in Crawley and Bullfrog in Click
here for News Release (PDF file) |
Award-winning Scots songwriter
Karine Polwart combines sharp observations, expressive vocals and
pop-inflected melodies with a probing intellect and compassionate
lyricism. Possessed of a tender heart, the emotional depth of her lyrics
effortlessly incorporate both contemporary and traditional folk
influences. Twice
winner of Best Original Song at the BBC Folk Awards and nominated for two
2009 awards (Best artist, Best Album), she’s collaborated with alt folk
balladeer King Creosote, Idlewild front man Roddy Woomble, the
intellectual maverick of English folk song Chris Wood, bluegrass ace Tim
O’Brien and even the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra. A
former children's rights worker, and driven by a strong sense of social
justice, Karine allows images, narratives, questions and wry comic asides
do much of her work. She tries never to say too much. And whether
it's the dilemmas of modern parenthood, the unsettling kindness of lies,
or the resilience of hope, she admits most of her songs are an attempt to
make sense of the fact that “there are people in this world who don't
think like you do” (as she sings in her 2006 song, Daisy). All of
which is precisely the kind of sideways, allegorical approach to
contemporary living that you might expect from someone with a Masters
degree in philosophy. Following the breakthrough of
her debut album Faultlines, which won Best Album at the 2005 Awards, and
its more lush and polished 2006 successor Scribbled in Chalk, Karine took
time out to give birth to her son in 2007. In an extraordinarily creative
and productive maternity leave, she recorded not one but two albums,
including Fairest Floo'er, a collection of Scottish traditional songs.
This return to her origins had a profound influence on her current
bittersweet collection of original songs, This Earthly Spell. Indeed all
four of her solo CD releases prove she's a writer able to combine ancient
traditions with sharp contemporary observations and an independent
sensibility. “She
weaves a deliciously thought-provoking magic that draws you back, time and
again, for more.” “a
passionate, perceptive songwriter”
Uncut magazine “exceptionally
subtle and melodic” Q
magazine “takes
the heart to places few singers even know exist”
WORD
magazine |
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Friday |
Kate
Rusby was born into a family of musicians. After learning to play the
guitar, the fiddle, and the piano, as well as to sing, she played in many
local folk festivals as a child and adolescent, before joining (and
becoming the lead vocalist of) the all-female Celtic folk band The
Poozies. Her
breakthrough album came in 1995. A collaboration with her friend and
fellow In
1997, with the help of her family, she recorded and released her first
solo album, Hourglass. Since then she has gone on to receive acclaim in
her home country and abroad, and her family continues to help her with all
aspects of her professional career. Rusby
is today one of the British folk scene’s best loved artists. With numerous
awards under her belt (well – actually on the mantelpiece!), she is taking
folk music to a new audience and a whole new
generation. “A
great singer, not just a great folk singer” The
Guardian “The
finest female folk singer to hit the scene in two decades”
The
Times |
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Thursday Support: Horses Brawl
Click
here for News Release (PDF file) |
Irish
songstress Cara Dillon has a rare talent that you only come across a
handful times in your whole life. Her staggeringly beautiful voice has the
ability to reach inside the soul of a song and imbue material with not
only profound sweetness but also poignancy and depth.
Born in
Dungiven in 1975, Cara was brought up in a close musical family immersed
in the rich cultural heritage of her native Co. Derry. Having won the All
Ireland Traditional Singing Trophy aged only 14 she went on to sing with
Oige, De Dannan and then Equation. It was in this band that she met her
husband and musical collaborator Sam Lakeman. The combination of Cara's
expressive vocals and Lakeman's rippling piano and fresh production
squeezed new life into ancient material. Their original songs sit happily
alongside the traditional, reinforcing the debt they owe, whilst pointing
to a distinct and distinguished musical identity all of their own.
It was
Cara's unrivalled vocal talent and Sam's musical and arranging skills that
have seen them signed to major record labels since they were 19. First,
Blanco Y Negro (Warners) and then the enviably hip Rough Trade Records who
released her 3 solo albums to date, which have earned astonishing critical
success and showered her with countless awards and accolades. During the
course of their careers they've performed to appreciative audiences the
world over and have featured in some of the most exciting projects and
events around. Apart from giving birth to premature twins, 2008 saw the
release of Cara's first live DVD called " The Redcastle Sessions" and in
February 2009, she released her acclaimed 4th album " Hill Of Thieves".
The album immediately went to No 7 in the official UK Indie album
charts. Whether
she's singing her native traditional songs of lost love and emigration, or
their original compositions, you will be hard pressed to find a more
emotive and captivating performer. Cara Dillon is at the very top of her
field and one has the feeling she'll be there for a very long
time. Support: Innovative
instrumental duo from "What
may well be the world's most beautiful female voice..."
Mojo "Dillon's
crystalline, angelic voice is an instrument of rare beauty capable of
melting the sternest of hearts" BBC Support: Innovative
instrumental duo from |
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Monday at
The
Ravenswood with
special support: Tickets are also
available at Hobgoblin in Crawley and Bullfrog in
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Scottish singer and guitarist
Dick Gaughan is just as strong and inspirational as when he started out,
over 30 years ago. He grew up steeped in the music of the Gaels with
his Scottish and Irish ancestry. Both parents were musicians - his mother
a singer and his father a fiddle player - and he started playing an
instrument when he was seven years old. His
first solo album won him a Folk Album of the Year award, and almost twenty
years later in 1989, Folk Roots Magazine voted his album, A Handful of
Earth, Album of the Decade. In 2005, Gaughan was nominated for the BBC
Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year Award. Restlessly imaginative,
passionate in his beliefs, Gaughan remains a commanding presence on the
musical scene. You go home from a Dick Gaughan session feeling
exhilarated, not just at the wonderful skills of the most potent singer
ever to emerge from the Scottish folk-music revival, not just at the
astonishingly fluent and explosively eloquent guitar playing, but by the
sense of the stark exposition of wrong and the tremulously argued
legitimacy of right. "There
are very few singers who can inspire audiences with the commitment,
passion, emotion and downright understanding that Gaughan has consistently
achieved over the last 30 years or so. A truly masterful performer."
Folk
Roots "Commitment.
Passion. Honesty. You'll rarely find a review of a Dick Gaughan recording
or concert that doesn't come up with one of these terms"
Living
Tradition Special
guest support for this show is Mary Hampton, whose 2008 release, My
Mother's Children, was Mojo's Folk Album of the month in August 2008.
"My Mother's Children' is an album I know I am
going to love for life." Eliza
Carthy "Songs
that recline with shimmering sensuality in various shady cloaks of
weirdness...fragility, desolation and humour...scurrying around “Coffee-table-shattering
purity...these are songs of unnerving delicacy, elemental and acoustic
simplicity...potent and enchanting" **** Uncut |
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Don’t
forget that as well as our own shows, the Acoustic Sussex website has a
Regional Gig
Guide and links to
venues and clubs in the South East that offer folk, roots and acoustic
music – and our MySpace site
contains over 500 links to a variety of other MySpace ‘friends’ sites,
including musicians, venues, magazines and lots
more. |
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For
your
future diaries... |
Future 2009 dates in the
Acoustic Sussex programme include: Ø
26-28 June – Crawley Folk
Festival Ø
6 July – Christine
Collister + Alex
Hall Ø
20 July - Iain
Matthews + Mary
Leay Ø
7 September – Sam Baker
(band) + The Haley
Sisters Ø
21 September – Corinne
West + Tinderbox Ø
12 October – Uiscedwr Ø
9 November – Chris
& Kellie While Ø
23 November – Jez Lowe and the Bad
Pennies Ø
11 December – Rachel Unthank & The
Winterset 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. |
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Click to listen
to sample tracks of upcoming shows on our MySpace
jukebox UNSUBSCRIBE | ||||