Shrewsbury Folk Festival

SFF Tune workshops 2009

2009-06-30T10:12:00.002Z

This year Izzy has organised two tune workshops, one aimed at beginners and and one at improvers.

From the Tune Workshops page of the main SFF website link you will find downloadable tunebooks and supporting materials.

The Improvers Session follows the same format as previous years where we will play any set of tunes requested from this year's book.

The all-new Beginners Session has nine well known tunes and accompanying audio files so you can play along and practice the tunes before the workshop.

As always, our aim is not to teach you the tunes on the day but to give you common ground with which to enjoy each session. Enjoy!

Those who've attended these sessions over the last couple of years, will remember how friendly and accessible they are, and how those who've never had the confidence to sit in on a session in the past have sat in, played and loved every minute of the experience.

Have a look at the tunebook, listen to the MP3 samples, practice a little, and then join us over the weekend!

Breabach - School's Project Year 2

2009-06-25T10:40:00.004Z

We’ve just completed year two of our three year Heritage Lottery funded school project where we take musicians into school for a full week to explore the folk traditions of Great Britain.

Year one saw The Demon Barber Roadshow, and this year we looked at Scottish traditions, and had fantastic band Breabach in Radbrook Primary School for a week, with a final concert in the Theatre Severn on Friday 19th June with 30 children from the school.

The band performed a concert exploring the dance, music and song of the Scottish tradition, and throughout the concert they were joined on stage by the 30 children who had been working with the band all week – the children demonstrated Scottish set and step dances, traditional song, and 10 children played traditional tunes on whistles.

It was a fantastic week for the band and the school, but especially so for the 30 children who worked with the band over the week.

There will be a full report and pictures of the full week our website in the coming month.

Richard Shindell - The Hive

2009-06-15T17:08:00.003Z

The hundred people who packed into our first small show at The Hive in Shrewsbury, were treated to a world-class performance from Richard Shindell.

In the late afternoon he held a songwriting workshop that saw him explain how some of his songs had come about, from how tricky last verses had just fallen into his lap through good fortune; to how his newest song, 'Abi's Gone to the Country', had been written in a couple of hours in Florence only days ago.

The sound for the evening was a perfect as could be imagined and Richard held the audience for 2hr 5mins with a superbly varied and engaging set.

Those fortunate enough to be in the audience will never forget the atmosphere of the room - it genuinely was an evening of real magic.

We're already looking into other shows in the same venue...we'll keep you posted.
Photo courtesy of Alan Surtees

Darwin Artist Video Interviews

2009-06-11T11:40:00.002Z

Folk magazine website Spiral Earth have just listed video interviews with each of the Darwin artists (Chris Wood, Karine Polwart, Jez Lowe, Mark Erelli, Emily Smith, Rachael McShane, Krista Detor - not sure where Stu Hanna's video went!)

http://www.spiralearth.co.uk/video/default.asp?channel=/video/darwin.xml

These videos were recorded on the Monday of the songhouse week, and are excellent interviews that show the thoughts of the artists in the middle of the songwriting process.

RADIO BROADCAST TONIGHT
Radio Devon are broadcasting a Darwin programme this evening (Thursday 11 June, 7pm - 10pm) where you have the chance to hear some of the songs from the Darwin Song Project.

It's likely there will be between 8 and 10 songs broadcast through the 3 hour programme, with most being played after 9pm.

It will be available to listen live from 7pm here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/

Darwin Song Project - MP3 samples & pre-orders

2009-05-27T17:47:00.003Z

THE CD
The mixing of the CD is now complete (mixed by Stu Hanna), and earlier today
the disc and artwork were signed off and sent for manufacture - we should
have finished copies around June 12th - as soon as the disc arrives in stock
then all pre-orders will be fulfilled.

There are details of the CD, along with MP3 audio samples of every track on
the Darwin Song Project website

We're now taking pre-orders for the disc on the Darwin website (paypal
only), if you'd prefer to pay by credit card or cheque, the disc is also
available from Fish Records

We also have limited quantities of the fantastic Darwin Song Project brochure -
this is only available direct through the Darwin website.

-------------------------------------------------

CONCERT
The artists all gather together again in August 2009 at the Shrewsbury Folk
Festival, where they will perform the entire concert again on Saturday 29th
August.

Individual Saturday tickets have now sold out, but weekend tickets that
allow you entrance to venues for the whole weekend are still available; if
you'd like to see all 8 artists on stage performing the Darwin Song Project
concert then please pick up your tickets sooner rather than later as it's
almost certain the festival will sell out in advance, festival tickets

Darwin Song Project - Clock of the World

2009-05-18T16:23:00.003Z

We're getting close to sending the Darwin CD off to be manufactured - just the odd tweak to audio here, an edit on the pack design there and we'll be done......we expect to have finished retail copies here by July.

In the meantime, here's a quick peek at one of the songs 'Clock of the World', written by Krista Detor and performed by Krista, Karine Polwart, Rachael McShane and Emily Smith.

The video and audio were recorded at the Darwin Song Project Concert in Shrewsbury on March 19th 2009.

Shrewsbury Concerts - Richard Shindell

2009-04-22T08:23:00.006Z

The festival works with various partners in Shrewsbury to promote folk shows in the town over the year - our first concert was Show of Hands and Megson last week, and we have Seth Lakeman, Breabach, Oysterband and Chris Wood coming up at Theatre Severn throughout 2009.

These are obviously large shows (650 seats), and we've been keen to arrange some smaller, more traditional folk club type shows.

Our first 'folk-club' show is Richard Shindell on Sunday June 14th, at the fantastic Hive Theatre in the centre of Shrewsbury.

There is both a concert in the evening, and a workshop in the afternoon, it will be a fantastic event....

Richard's appearance at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2007 was his first trip to the UK in a decade, and the chance to bring him back to Shrewsbury after only two years was certainly too good an opportunity to miss.
One of the finest acoustic singer/songwriters of his generation, American born but Argentinean resident, Shindell is an enigmatic singer/songwriter whose work veers from the bitterly comic to the profoundly spiritual and all points in-between. A stellar guitarist and singer, Richard Shindell is a master-craftsman and this intimate show is a rare opportunity to see him in the UK.

This show is being put together by Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Shropshire Council in conjunction with their 'Seen it, Done it, Got Creative" scheme, and there will be a guitar and songwriting workshop with Richard Shindell on Sunday afternoon.

Workshop tickets are FREE, but must be applied for - please email Neil Pearson for details neil@shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk

Concert tickets are available from the Hive, 01743 234970

Ticket Sales

2009-04-07T10:50:00.001Z

The take-up of festival tickets during the early bird offer has been phenomenal.

This means that the remaining tickets available for sale is reduced and we feel that the festival will sell-out before the event starts on August Bank Holiday.

We do not wish to create a panic because we are sure weekend tickets will be available for several months yet. However, many of our regulars turn up on the weekend to buy their tickets and we do not want them to be disappointed. So please consider getting your tickets sooner rather than later.

Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman

2009-04-05T06:27:00.002Z

When the festival first moved to Shrewsbury in 2006, we booked Kathryn & Sean to play at a function in the Spring where the festival was formally introduced to the great and good of Shrewsbury.

It was always our intention to book them to play at the festival proper, but with Sean committed to Seth's band it was always a real problem.

We kept a Saturday slot open for the duo this year, and we're proud to announce that we've confirmed them for the festival in what will be their first show for a couple of years.

The full bio and details will be added to the main website in the next week or so - and that completes the line-up for this year!

BBC Radio 4 Broadcast

2009-03-27T15:31:00.004Z

The Darwin Song Project documentary was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Fri 27th March), sadly it's no longer available on the BBC listen again feature (the contract we signed only allowed one week of listen again); it was a fascinating piece of radio with interviews with the artists and excerpts from many of the songs. I'm looking into the possibility of a stream from the main website, but it will take months

The tracks are being mixed for the live CD which will be available later in the year, and the artists get together again at the festival in August.

We have a great set of pictures from Carey Gough, we'll work out an online gallery in the next week or so.....here's one to keep you going!

Darwin Pictures

2009-03-22T13:15:00.003Z

The Darwin Song Project ended on Thursday with a concert in the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury; the artists played an exceptional concert of 19 new songs to a sold out audience in the theatre and the quality and consitency of the songs was better than even we and the artists expected!

We'll start posting more reports and information about the project in the coming days, but in the meantime photos from the concert are beginning to appear.

Allan Price (BBC Shropshire) has some great pictures from the press afternoon and concert on flickr here

We also had an official photographer (Carey Gough) with the artists, we expect to have her pictures soon, but in the interim here are a couple of shots, one that I took in the house, alongside an official group picture from Carey.

Darwin Song Project

2009-03-16T19:16:00.004Z

The artists all gathered at the song house on Friday evening where they had the chance to share supper and talk with Randal Keynes (Charles Darwin’s great great grandson) – since then they’ve been working on new songs as individuals or in groups of varying sizes, and these songs will be premiered at the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury on Thursday March 19th.

There was a media afternoon at the song house today, where the press had chance to interview artists and thanks to the fantastic weather we had chance to take our formal photographs for the project and the forthcoming CD release.

While our photographer Carey was carefully positioning the artists for the pictures, I snuck in and took a couple of quick shots too – the picture above is from the lawn in front of the songhouse.

During the day I heard a number of songs in progress that all sounded fantastic – it will be interesting to see how these develop over the next couple of days......

2009 Map

2009-03-09T09:26:00.003Z

We've finalised the layout for the site for this year, and rather than the traditional plan of the site we've used in the last couple of years we've commissioned a new 'map'.

This map will be printed in the programme, but here's a quick peek at the site for this year, and clicking the image will take you to a larger PDF of the image.

Beginners Tunebook and Workshop

2009-02-18T12:01:00.003Z

For those of you who are just starting to play traditional tunes, you can now have something in common with many other players at the festival - the ability to play nine well known session tunes.

Our Beginners Tunebook can be downloaded from www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk/tunebook, and you have plenty of time to learn them in preparation for the festival in August!

Our resident tune monkeys are working on some mp3s of the tunes, but for now you can use the 'listen to' link located at the bottom of individual tunes on http://www.folktunefinder.com/.

When you get to the festival, look out for the Beginners Tunebook workshop and we'll work through the tunes individually, at a steady speed. So there's really no excuse, this is the perfect opportunity to dip your toes into sessions at the festival!

We're working on a few changes for the improvers tunebook for 2009 and will post details soon.

Duhks - Tania's Fiddle Workshop

2009-02-05T19:30:00.003Z

Tania Elizabeth's fiddle workshop was really well attended at the 2008 festival, and we know that you were all promised a video/workbook of the tune you worked on ('Reel Du Pendu').

Tania took lots of email addresses at the festival, but in the melee of touring and moving house she misplaced them - she's asked me to apologise to you all, but the good news is that the video is here! Good luck!

Online Tickets on sale now!

2009-01-27T17:10:00.003Z

On-line tickets went on sale earlier today from the festival website, this year online ticket sales are available with no booking fee!

This is obviously the quickest and cheapest way to order tickets, and up until April 1st our tickets are available at the special early bird rate.

We've also just sent out newsletter off to the printers today, some of you will receive these in the post, and in the next week it will be available on the main website.

If you can't wait,

there's a PDF of the colour segments here

the information insert is here

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Shrewsbury 2008

2009-01-19T07:00:00.001Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here

John Wesley Harding, Shrewsbury 2008

2009-01-19T06:58:00.001Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here

New Rope String Band, Shrewsbury 2008

2009-01-19T06:54:00.002Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here

Lunasa, Shrewsbury 2008

2009-01-19T06:51:00.001Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here

2009 Line-up Announced

2009-01-05T08:26:00.004Z

We launched our new 2009 website (here), and have announced most of the line-up for the two main marquees.

We still have a couple of acts to confirm for the big concerts, and obviously a host of programming for the smaller venues - we'll announce these in the coming weeks.

In no particular order, the line-up for 2009 includes

The Proclaimers
Seth Lakeman
Eric Bibb
The Dhol Foundation
Show of Hands
Hoven Droven
Spooky Men's Chorale
Patrick Street
Chris Wood
Ollabelle
Lau
Jez Lowe
Megson
Karine Polwart
Chris Smither
Breabach
Corinne West
Mark Erelli
Rachael McShane
Emily Smith Band
Krista Detor
The Dust Poets
Duncan McFarlane Band
The Wilsons
Fran McGillivray & Mike Burke

Online tickets will be on sale around the middle of January, but they're on sale now for telephone orders on 01746 768813

Darwin Song Project

2008-12-31T16:06:00.005Z

You may have seen the half page teaser for Darwin in the programme for the 2008 festival…..we’re now close enough to the event to flesh out the detail a little.

The website for the Darwin Song Project is here, with bios for artists and more details on the project.

The headline details are

Chris Wood, Karine Polwart, Jez Lowe, Stu Hanna, Mark Erelli, Emily Smith, Krista Detor and Rachael McShane will all take part in a songwriting retreat for 7 days to write songs that have a relevance and resonance to Charles Darwin.

There will be a premiere of the songs at the new Theatre Severn on March 19th, and all the artists will get together again at the festival in August for a further performance.

BBC Radio 4 are involved in the project and will broadcast a documentary on the week in the house and look at how the songs developed from their earliest drafts up to the final performance.

Tickets for the Theatre Severn show are on sale now – there’s only a very limited number of seats available, so if you’d like to attend then please order them early (direct from the theatre here)

Bellowhead, Shrewsbury 2008

2008-12-05T11:27:00.000Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here

The Duhks, Shrewsbury 2008

2008-12-05T11:26:00.000Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here

The Demon Barber Roadshow. Shrewsbury 2008

2008-12-05T11:24:00.000Z

The above link is to youtube, but we have a high quality version on the main festival website here