|
Towersey Festival
|
|
Oh, there was some
good stuff at Towersey, with loads of Anglo Australian
connections.
Kristina Olsen from
the USA was playing with the Aussie cello player Peter
Graling, who is one of the very few artists I have seen get
a spontaneous burst of applause for a solo at a folk event,
and that happened three times in one concert. Kristina said
she played together with Peter whenever she could. Lets hope
this happens a lot more in the future.
A new voice for us was
Colum Sands from Northern Ireland. You may know some of his
songs from the singing of others, but he is a delightful
performer, and puts across the peace message in a gentle,
fun way, sharing his music in a very appealing way.
English artists who
were great, and who you should endeavour to get to know,
Coope, Boyes and Simpson, the unique three piece accapella
group and Kate Rusby, Barnsley's fine young talent who is
getting well established on the English scene.
There was a CD launch
of "The Reality Check", a four piece Anglo Oz line up
including Eliza Carthy and Peter Graling.
There were a couple of
workshops on playing French music for dancing, which
reminded me of playing in some of the big Bush maxi bands
that Wongawilli keep putting together, in that there were
over a hundred musos playing these tunes together, on all
sorts of instruments. It really is magic to be part of that
sort of sound.
Oh and there was Roy
Bailey, Les Barker, Chipolata 5 and Martin Carthy all UK
artists who have toured Oz.
The final event in the
open air arena was a dance party led by Honky Trash from
Byron Bay (NSW), not your traditional folk band you might
think, but great fun.
|
|
Nancy Kerr and
James Fagan
|
|
I am pleased to say
that James and Nancy were a real hit at Towersey, playing
several gigs, their final gig playing to a full house in the
main concert tent with the crowd insisting on an encore,
which turned out to be a great version of the John Warner
song Andersons' coast. There second CD as a duo was
available just in time for the festival and it is certainly
very good. The music these two create is real magic, and
done with such confidence, timing and great fun.
Gigs
list
|
|
Fiddlers'
Bid
|
|
The programme said
they were a sensational fiddle driven group of young
musicians from Shetland, and sensational they were. Having
seen the Canadian group "Barrage" a couple of weeks earlier
at Cropredy, which consists of a seven fiddle line up with
several other musicians, it was easy to make comparisons
with the four fiddle lead of Fiddler's bid. Barrage were
well schooled, good musicans and had obviously spent a good
deal of time getting it together so they were note perfect,
but they good not compete with Fiddler's bid for sheer
exuberance and excitement. Katrina played backing keyboards
and helped really drive it all along with sheer joy, but
when she moved across the stage to play the harp, the whole
late night audience went completly quiet and just listened
and wondered.
|
|
Festival
notes
|
|
One very large (about
1200 seat) marquee for concerts, one of equal size for
dancing. An outside arena stage for displays. Another
marquee and the village hall for smaller events. Huge tent
for the main bar, and a similar one for music concessions, a
good selection of food stalls. Only one pub for sessions,
but it does have a barn which is as excellent venue for the
unaccompaned singing session, that seems to go full on for
the whole festival.
|