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 Intro: Fairport Convention - Medley: The Lark in the Morning/Rakish Paddy/Fox Hunter's Jig/Toss The Feathers - Liege & Lief - A&M Records





Brand new releases and Little Rock Folk Club and, lest we forget, the Battle of Hastings 10/14/1066 :-) 


Pete Shirley - Starlight And Angelglow - Sunset Katy And Other Stories - Pete Shirley https://www.facebook.com/peteshirleyfolksingersongwriter/
Blackbeard's Tea Party - The Ballad Of William Kidd - Reprobates - BTP www.blackbeardsteaparty.com/
Calan - Giggly - Dinas - Sain www.calan-band.com/

Loren And Mark - China Blue - Onward - www.lorenandmark.com/
Happy Traum - Church Street Blues - Just For The Love Of It - Lark's Nest Music www.happytraum.com/
Alison Brown - Carolina in The Pines - The Song of the Banjo - Compass Records www.alisonbrown.com/

Pete Shirley - A Roving I Will Go - Sunset Katy And Other Stories - Pete Shirley https://www.facebook.com/peteshirleyfolksingersongwriter
Blackbeard's Tea Party - Jack Ketch - Reprobates - BTP www.blackbeardsteaparty.com/
Calan - Jig-So - Dinas - Sain www.calan-band.com/

Loren And Mark - Borsalino - Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarbwww.lorenandmark.com/
Happy Traum - Spanish Is The Loving Tongue - Just For The Love Of It - Lark's Nest Music www.happytraum.com/
Alison Brown - The Moon In Molly's Eyes - The Song of the Banjo - Compass Records www.alisonbrown.com/
Bernard Wrigley - The Battle Of Hastings - Magnificent Monologues - Loofy Records www.bernardwrigley.com/


Pete Shirley: 
"Coke and Iron and Smoke and Steam
Deep Marl Pits and Dark Coal Seams
Fill My Waking Hours But Not My Dreams
A Roving I Will Go

From the Pits and Pot Banks of North Staffordshire and the rise and fall of it's green hills and valleys -names and places gone but not forgotten -this is the stuff that makes up my songs - then northwards, eastwards,coast to coast
tumbling skies, stubble fields, winter woods , sweet evening sunshine, the lashing of rain , braving the storms , running for home , English songs , as English as rainy days , a jar of plum porter, a fire cracking in the hearth......
timeless songs, for the world we live in but rising from a bygone age, love lost and found , gone but not forgotten, dreaming songs , battle hymns , five minute journeys of faith, country poems and folk tunes, all played out through the ringing and the rumbling and stirring of bronze and steel strings of my faithful Turner Acoustic Guitar and North Sea Bouzouki

"So Up The Hill Top I Will Ramble
Where The Cattle Freely Roam
Far From The World And All It's Scandals
That Wears A Man Down To The Bone "" - artist's website

Magical album of well crafted and wonderfully performed songs and tunes - very much in the style of his old pal Pete Coe, though certainly not imitatively. An album to revisit often.

Blackbeard's Tea Party: "Playing together since summer 2009, Blackbeard’s Tea Party began as a busking, function and ceilidh band, but quickly grew a reputation as a formidable live act. They soon found themselves selling out venues in their home town of York. Word quickly spread, and the band began to play gigs further afield, including a number of noteworthy festival concerts and ceilidh bookings through 2010 and 2011. These included Sidmouth, Shrewsbury and a headline slot at Galtres, amongst others.
During this time, Blackbeard’s Tea Party released a mini-album (Heavens to Betsy, 2009) and a full length album (Tomorrow We’ll Be Sober, 2011) to excellent critical acclaim and public response. Both were recorded in Kajunga Studios (a series of progressively bigger bedrooms) and were funded and distributed independently.
Since the release of Tomorrow We’ll Be Sober – which R2 Magazine gave a five star rating – Blackbeard’s Tea Party have gone from strength to strength. They were recognised as one of the best live bands in the UK in the 2011 FATEA Awards and 2012 saw a long run of festival bookings, including Cambridge and Whitby, and return visits to Sidmouth and Shrewsbury, amongst others. 2013 saw the band continue to grow. In April, Blackbeard’s Tea Party issued their second full length album “Whip Jamboree”, released nationwide through Proper Music Distribution and reaching #4 on the Amazon MP3 folk charts alongside continued critical praise. In support of the release the band embarked on 2 UK headline tours playing far and wide in both the Spring and Autumn." - artists' website

Calan: "Calan bring together the remarkable talents of 5 young musicians giving a fresh and vibrant sound to traditional Welsh music. With a contemporary and lively approach they breathe new life into the old traditions through their sparkling melodies, foot tapping tunes and spirited and energetic performances of Welsh step dancing.
They blast their way through some of the old favourite reels, jigs and hornpipes with fast paced and uplifting arrangements before melting into some of the most beautiful and haunting songs. Following the release of their debut album, ‘Bling’ in 2008, which attracted four star responses from the critics, the five-piece have been playing to big audiences and rave reviews at concerts and festivals around Britain and Europe, including the coveted Cambridge Festival; Celtic Connections, Glasgow; Shrewsbury Folk Festival; Moseley Folk Festival; Derby Folk Festival; Bromyard Folk Festival, Whitby Folk Festival a concert tour of Italy, Austria and Belgium along with a number of performances at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Brittany, where they’ve received the award for the best group. The group, who’ve raised some eyebrows with a deliberate policy of eye-catching clothes and presentation, despite the ancient roots of their music, see themselves as a new generation of ambassadors, striving to take their new sound to new audiences, while raising the profile of Welsh traditional music on an international level. With their unique instrumental blend of accordion, fiddle, guitar, Welsh pipes, Welsh harp and the percussive sound of the Welsh clogs, Calan have certainly found their musical niche and their plan is to continue to delight audiences far and wide!" - artists' website

Not your safe, ethereal, bucolic harp driven Welsh music of yore! This is trad based music from a thoroughly modern, post- Acoustic Valium, vibrant Wales!


Loren and Mark: Bringing their highly polished performance to Little Rock Folk Club on Sat Oct 24th "Loren Barrigar and Mark Mazengarb share a unique musical chemistry and stage presence seldom found among musicians. Their diverse repertoire of original and arranged music consists of stunning guitar instrumentals as well as vocal duets, giving them wide appeal and strong audience connection. Influenced by Americana, Jazz, Country Western and Classical music, Loren and Marks unique style of guitar playing is largely built upon the thumb-picking techniques pioneered by guitar greats Merle Travis and Chet Atkins, and their songs feature Lorens superb vocals with some beautiful harmonies from Mark. Guitar playing like you've never heard before! Loren and Mark first met in 2005 when they spent a few days working with the great Tommy Emmanuel at Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch guitar camp. Mark was a college kid, just completing his degree in classical guitar at the University of North Carolina; Loren was already a seasoned performer, but it was his first serious look at acoustic guitar. After the workshop, Mark visited Loren and they spent some time picking guitar – and picking each other’s brains. In 2009 they met again in Nashville at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) convention, an international gathering of hundreds of guitarists. That set the stage for the 2010 CAAS convention where they were on the schedule of performers. Though they were not originally listed to play on the big Saturday night finale, they were added to the show due to popular demand from those who heard them throughout the week. Loren and Mark's varied repertoire of original and arranged music consists of stunning guitar duets as well as songs, giving them a wide appeal. Their music is influenced by Bluegrass, Jazz and Western; their style of guitar playing is largely built upon the thumb-picking techniques pioneered by guitar greats Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, and their songs feature Lorens superb vocals and some beautiful harmonies from Mark." - Artists' website 

Happy Traum: "Happy Traum was smitten by American folk music as a teenager and began playing guitar and 5-string banjo. He was an active participant of the legendary Washington Square/Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1950s and ‘60s, and studied guitar with the famed blues master, Brownie McGhee. Over the past five decades he has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan, both as a soloist and as a member of various groups. His avid interest in traditional and contemporary music has brought him recognition as a performer, writer, editor, session musician, folklorist, teacher and recording artist. In 1967, Jane, Happy and their three children moved to Woodstock, NY, and Happy and his late brother, Artie Traum, formed a duet that, according to Rolling Stone, "defined the Northeast folk music style." Their performances at the 1968 and 1969 Newport Folk Festivals helped to gain them an avid following and a contract with famed manager Albert Grossman. This strong musical partnership lasted until Artie's untimely death in July, 2008. Perhaps Happy's most important and lasting musical contribution has been Homespun Tapes, which he and his wife, Jane, co-founded in 1967. This dynamic and growing company has a catalog of more than 500 music lessons on DVDs, CDs, books and downloads, and their products are distributed and sold around the globe." - artist's website

Alison Brown: "doesn’t play the banjo. Alison Brown plays music on the banjo. In the instrumental food chain, the five-string banjo is one of the more dominant beasts: loud, brash and very hard to tame. In 1945, Earl Scruggs made the biggest leap in harnessing its raw power, bringing a revolutionary precision of touch and depth of tone. Thousands of three-finger style banjo players have since made their marks, but none has cut such a path or moved so far along it as has Alison Brown. She’s acclaimed as one of today’s finest progressive banjo players, but you rarely find her in a conventional bluegrass setting. Instead, she’s known for leading an ensemble that successfully marries a broad array of roots-influenced music: folk, jazz, Celtic and Latin. With her new Compass project, The Song of the Banjo, the 2015 IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award and 2001 GRAMMY Award-winning musician/composer/producer/entrepreneur plants another flag in her ongoing journey of sonic exploration. As one might expect from a Harvard-educated MBA and co-founder of Compass Records, for 20 years old one of the most respected bluegrass, folk, Celtic and Americana labels, the title of Alison’s first album since 2009 was carefully considered. It comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling, but she says the reason she chose it was that, “It points to the lyrical side of the banjo, which is the side I’m drawn to.” She and Compass co-founder, husband and bassist Garry West have assembled an all-star cast, including some of Nashville’s most adventurous session players, as well as special guests Indigo Girls, Keb’ Mo’, label mate Colin Hay, ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, legendary drummer Steve Gadd, fiddler Stuart Duncan, resophonic guitarist Rob Ickes, upright bassist Todd Philips and, on guitar and bouzouki, Irish phenom John Doyle. Brown’s choices for cover songs are even more surprising, from her bouncy take on Orleans’ soft-rocker “Dance With Me” (featuring great interplay with Ickes) to Cyndi Lauper’s hauntingly beautiful “Time After Time” to 1980’s instrumental chart-topper “Chuck Mangione’s “Feel So Good,” featuring Shimabukuro’s tenor uke and the drumming of Gadd, a boyhood friend of Mangione. In Brown’s masterful hands, all three sound as if they were written for the banjo. “Time After Time” is particularly stunning. “It’s just lays out so beautifully on the banjo,” she says, “and I figure if it was good enough for Miles Davis it’s good enough for me.”" - excerpted from a Larry Nager review on artist's website.-

Bernard Wrigley: the magnificent Bolton Bullfrog! "From starting in folk clubs as a child bride, and then writing & performing at the Octagon theatre in Bolton, the career has always combined singing and acting. From TV programmes and films such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Phoenix Nights, Dinnerladies, Alan Bennett films, Brassed Off, My Son The Fanatic & Steve Coogan’s Coogan’s Run, to the many radio plays and programmes presented or guested upon, there has throughout been a steady stream of LPs and CDs - eighteen to date, the early ones all now remastered to CD. There are three books of daft one verse poems – Shorts For All Occasions released in 2006 and The Longs & The Shorts Of It released in 2008. The third book is Shorts Forever and was released in 2015. As well as performing at concerts and folk clubs, he loves the varied nature of it all, such as one week reading a series of very silly customs on the Mark & Lard show on BBC Radio One, then being a prisoner in a TV advert for Walls’ Sausages, being murdered on TV in Harbour Lights and later going to Norway for a commercial." - artist's website

 

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