Just over a year ago I did that thing I’d been nervously thinking about doing for a long time. I crossed over to the other side and started putting on folk gigs. After years of performing at gigs big and small, observing the good and the bad, I decided it was time to take control and make something new happen in Liverpool. Not alone, however. Almanac Folk was born of several late night conversations with Lindsay Rodden, a writer, singer and folk music enthusiast (who’s Uncle, Paul Rodden, will be known to many in Ireland as an artist and banjo extraordinaire in folk band, The Pyros). From the offset we were reacting against complacent promoters nonchalantly filling support slots around a main act with whoever might be willing, with no regard for tone or coherence, often relying solely on artists to bring the audience.

Lizzie Nunnery and Vidar Norheim at the Palm House, by Magnus Blikeng

Our aim was clear from the start- we wouldn’t be tied down to a place or a monthly slot- we wouldn’t put on any show we didn’t feel desperate to put on. We’d hand craft themed nights that would get artists writing new material, collaborating together, with the aim of contributing to an already flowering new folk scene, and working in a way that’d help artists to develop, rather than just giving them a platform to play the same old songs. We wanted to connect old and new folk in Liverpool- to show people what a living tradition could really mean. And we wanted artists and designers, actors and poets to be part of it all too. Such were our great ambitions.

We started out tense with nerves in April 09 in the glorious Mello Mello on Slater Street in the city centre- a street better known for pound shots and the shortest skirts in the land, but if you keep on walking you’ll get to a self styled “raggle taggle café” run by volunteers, decorated by local artists, nothing sold but organic produce… you get the idea.

Greta Svabo at Mello Mello by Gianni Bianchini

They offered us the place rent free in exchange for a cut of the bar and we were away. It proved to be the perfect atmosphere for our first outing, “The Parting Glass: a night of drinking songs and leaving songs.” At seven thirty our hearts were in our stomachs worrying if anyone was going to come at all but by nine o’clock every seat was filled and it was clear that this was something Liverpool had a hunger for- traditional songs sung by the whole room, heartfelt inventive performances (Hannah Peel and her magical music box has to be seen to be believed, and Alan Wright of The Loose Moose String Band delivered an unsurpassable baritone version of “Wild Mountain Thyme”) an atmosphere somewhere between a folk club and a foot stomping gig which is as inclusive as it is polished and purposeful. I remember feeling a tremendous sense of pride when I got up to play my set that night; not that we had made it all happen- but that I lived in a city where it was all just waiting to be tapped in to.

Atlantic Massey at the Palm House by Magnus Blikeng

Since then we’ve put on Revolution Songs in the Bluecoat Arts Centre, Protest Songs at the Black-E Gallery, Radical Liverpool songs in the Everyman Theatre and staged a massive “Twilight Garden Party” at the Palm House in Sefton Park; as well as returning to our much loved Mello Mello for nights of murder ballads, fighting tunes and city songs. A promoter or curator can only ever claim so much. We’ve been lucky enough to have hosted an incredible range of artists included the much acclaimed John Smith, the phenomenal Andy Hickie with his arresting Welsh tones, the folk pop majesty that is Atlantic Massey, Greg B Hall, Nina Jones, Stealing Sheep, Mark Byrne, Dave Owen, Greta Svabo… whether or not you’ve heard any of these names before you should absolutely have a listen to them all.

We also can’t claim to be the only ones making special things happen in folk music in the city. Local multi instrumental band the Random Family (who brought the house down at our Everyman Theatre gig last week) put on a monthly Family Folk Up booking the best of local and national acts, with a star studded backlist including The Unthanks, Martin Simpson and Martin Carthy. They also hosted the first Liverpool Folk and Roots Festival last autumn to massive success.

Palm house view by Magnus Blikeng

As a further jewel in the crown, in the last year or two Gerry Donaldson at the Palm House has begun to utilise this beautiful Victorian greenhouse for concerts, with a varied and carefully crafted line up. Past joys have been Dave Swarbrick, Juan Martin and recently Jace Everett. In addition there are a host of acoustic and folk nights across the city, putting on local talent; Homegrown at Parr St Studios, Folk Upstairs at the Zanzibar, Liverpool Acoustic at View Two, to name but a smattering. Thinking back to a few years ago when you’d most likely have gone to a folk club on the outskirts of Merseyside to hear traditional music, or come in to the centre to hear noisy young bands, I feel like something really important has been done in bridging the gap, mixing things up, putting traditional and alternative takes on folk alongside each other and allowing them to fizz. I think we’ve got a scene.

www.lizzienunnery.co.uk
www.myspace.com/almanacfolk