Tag Archives: melodeon

August 30, 2016 · 18:18

Folk Music Retreat with Laurel Swift

Street, Somerset

7-9 October 2016

Street retreat

Just a few places left on this first event in Laurel Swift’s 2016-2017 varied teaching programme – a multi-instrumental weekend retreat with the emphasis on developing ensemble skills alongside individual playing and musicianship. Expect dynamic, inspirational teaching in great company, fuelled by wonderful food and drink in glorious country settings.

Oh, and you’ll need to pack walking boots with your instruments!

Glast Tor

Full details and booking here.

For Laurel’s full programme of retreats, workshops and classes, see the Teaching menu on her website.

 

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July 31, 2016 · 11:38

Bushes and Briars

Briar rose

 

Something a little different, a little summery. This beautiful song was the first piece ever collected by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, on 4 December 1903, from the singing of 70-year-old labourer Charles Pottipher in the village of Ingrave, Essex.

Though the song is often rendered very free rhythmically, ace folk-dance band Blowzabella present this more rhythmic but subtle arrangement. Fiddler Dave Shepherd lays out variations on the tune over Andy Cutting’s haunting accordion riff, before piper Paul James’ evocative singing.

I seem to have found the summer fiddle-singing project I was hankering after…

 

Blowzabella

Andy Cutting (diatonic button accordion), Jo Freya (vocals, saxophone, clarinet, whistle), Paul James (bagpipes, saxophones, whistle), Gregory Jolivet (hurdy-gurdy), Dave Shepherd (violin), Barn Stradling (bass guitar), Jon Swayne (bagpipes, saxophones, whistle)

Recorded at a dance in Stowmarket, Suffolk, May 2016.

 

(‘Bushes and Briars by Blowzabella’, YouTube video, 6.31. Posted by Dave Shepherd, 25 May 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-ARR_vSr6M)

 

Blowzabella:  website   Facebook  Soundcloud

 

 

 

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March 30, 2016 · 16:11

Stop press! Multi-instrumental folk music retreat

Folk Music Retreat with Laurel Swift

April 8th – 10th 2016

Thurlby, Lincolnshire

 

Just a few places left on this amazingly good workshop with fiddler/composer/dancer Laurel Swift. Fabulous teaching, playing and walking (and food!) in an unspoilt Lincolnshire village – the kind of weekend where you play your socks off and go home feeling as though you’ve had a week’s holiday.

Thurlby

Don’t forget your walking shoes as well as your instrument/s!

 

Full details and booking on Laurel’s website

 

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March 28, 2016 · 12:46

Great Uncle Henry

 

Fiddler Emma Reid’s composition Great Uncle Henry, played with Rob Harbron’s Waiting For Rain in a set of memorable tunes from the duo’s subtle, engaging album Flock & Fly.

But first…

Gig Alert!

Rob Harbron & Emma Reid play London’s Green Note

Monday 4 April

Details and booking here.

 

Rob Harbron (concertina), Emma Reid (viola)

 

 

You can hear and buy Flock & Fly on Bandcamp here, or by clicking on the player links above.

Rob Harbron:  website  Twitter

Emma Reid:  website

 

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March 13, 2016 · 18:53

Lyvet

 

Sometimes you meet a tune you know is just never going to let go. Acclaimed hurdy-gurdy player Nigel Eaton plays his tune ‘Lyvet’.

A wonderful tune to play against a drone string to catch those gurdy tones.

 

Nigel Eaton (hurdy-gurdy)

In G minor

(https://soundcloud.com/nigeleaton/lyvet)

 

In F minor  – on a hurdy-gurdy made by his father, master hurdy-gurdy maker Chris Eaton

(‘Lyvet’ YouTube video, 1:15. Posted by Nigel Eaton, 27 Feb 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUXJEOVHcb4)

 

Nigel Eaton:  Soundcloud,  YouTube,  website

Chris Eaton,  hurdy-gurdy maker

 

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March 5, 2016 · 12:04

GIG ALERT: LEVERET CONCERT STREAMING LIVE

SUNDAY 6 MARCH 2016, 21:00 GMT

Live from The Convent, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Tune in live and watch in real time on Sunday night, or you can watch as many times as you like in the following week.
£7.50 to stream the entire gig into your living room in glorious HD.

Details and booking here.

Leveret are Andy Cutting, Rob Harbron and Sam Sweeney.

This gig is the last in their current tour launching their second album In The Round.

Leveret

Check out their music on earlier Fiddletails posts Whitefriar’s Hornpipe, Jenny Pluck Pears, Purlongs and The Rising Sun

‘We’re very excited to be playing at this amazing venue and we hope that people will tune in all over the world. Please help us spread the word about it and get in touch to let us know you’re watching it’

Leveret are on  Facebook  and  Twitter (@LeveretBand)

Leveret

 

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February 21, 2016 · 16:30

Jan Mijne Man

 

The melody from a Dutch/Flemish traditional children’s song about a little boy who creates havoc pretending to be a knight.

BoywithSword_440_618

Sometimes found in English morris dancing, the tune is played here live by wondrously funky dance band Blowzabella, first up in a set in Am, then transposing to Bm to morph into second tune Go Mauve (at 1:45).

(Image: Manet, Boy with a Sword*)

 

 

Blowzabella

Andy Cutting (diatonic button accordion), Jo Freya (vocals, saxophone, clarinet), Paul James (bagpipes, saxophones), Gregory Jolivet (hurdy-gurdy), Dave Shepherd (violin), Barn Stradling (bass guitar), Jon Swayne (bagpipes, saxophones)

 

 

(From Blowzabella’s 2010 live album Dance.)

See Blowzabella:  website  Facebook  for 2016 upcoming gigs, band news and recordings

*Metropolitan Museum, New York. Image courtesy of Simon Abrahams and EPPH

 

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