Thursday, 11 March 2010 
Jaywalkers: Life since the Young Folk Awards
Best Of The Noughties - Part 2
Best Of The Noughties - Part 1
Jez Lowe tour blog
Hobopop blog #7
John Alexander: Orkney's Blues Festival
Jennifer Crook: A farewell to Jim Couza
Landermason Autumn Tour - Part 1
Judy Dyble: Judewibble
Hobopop blog #6
RSS Guest Blog Feed
Afro Celt Soundsystem to tour in 2010
A debut album... after 25 years
Bearded Theory Festival to partner with Spiral Earth!
Introducing The Safires
Ruth Notman free download
Willkommen Collective with the Leisure Society & Sons of Noel and Adrian
Pamela Wyn Shannon live dates
Krista Detor album and live UK dates
Levellers live dates
Tangerine Dream 40th Anniversary “Zeitgeist Concert”
Jaywalkers: Life since the Young Folk Awards
Posted By: Jaywalkers 07/01/2010 10:31:03
After reaching the final of the BBC Young Folk Award (Dec 2008), Mike and I (Jaywalkers) immediately went on to increase the size, and develop the range, of our repertoire. Despite performing together on an informal basis since approximately 2003, we had never really rehearsed or arranged any material as a duo; entering the Young Folk Award with only a few months practise and 4 or 5 performable pieces under our belts. A few weeks on from the final itself, we recorded these songs for later demo purposes and then continued to expand our material in preparation for the following year. By March 2009 we’d brought together a repertoire to fill two forty-five minute sets – giving us the ability to play full length Jaywalkers gigs.
Best Of The Noughties - Part 2
Posted By: 02/12/2009 16:10:51
We all like a list. And to prove the point various folkie types have been deep in thought compiling their best of the noughties.
Best Of The Noughties - Part 1
Posted By: 02/12/2009 16:08:18
We all like a list. And to prove the point various folkie types have been deep in thought compiling their best of the noughties.
Jez Lowe tour blog
Posted By: Jez Lowe 19/11/2009 10:52:12
The Bad Pennies’ tour of Holland, our first for three years, actually begins at Dartford Folk Club in Kent, one of our favourite clubs, and to whom I presented the Folk Club of the Year award at the 2008 BBC Folk Awards. So a great night among friendly faces is followed next day by a three hour cruise out of Ramsgate on the good ship Primrose, a Marie Celeste of a ferry, where we are among a mere eleven passengers on board for the crossing. Graffiti in the gent’s toilet reads “F**k the Channel Tunnel”.
Hobopop blog #7
Posted By: Mat Martin 15/10/2009 10:23:18
Well we promised updates on the progress of our 'No. 5' show, and it is now late in the day, but here we are weighing in. It's not surprising that something as multi-faceted as a full band live album recording should take up all of our energy and time I guess, but nothing can really prepare you for this kind of whirlwind...
John Alexander: Orkney's Blues Festival
Posted By: John Alexander 04/10/2009 10:03:28
Now that I’ve almost recovered from Orkney’s Blues Festival I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the weekend.
Jennifer Crook: A farewell to Jim Couza
Posted By: Jennifer Crook 20/09/2009 11:15:36
Jim Couza sadly died on the 2nd August this year after a long struggle with ill-health. An unforgettable, larger than life character, Jim was a big influence on me as a young adult. (It's a little known fact that before I took up the harp I attended hammered dulcimer weekends!) but it wasn't the instrument itself that really made an impact, it was the way Jim played and sang with such commitment and conviction - throwing himself into the music with such passion. I remember hearing him sing "Hard Love", and something in me suddenly 'got it' - that music could really heal those broken places and give expression to our deepest feelings, and help us rise above it all.
Landermason Autumn Tour - Part 1
Posted By: Landermason 09/09/2009 10:48:49
We just love touring…and because we spend almost as long setting up the tours as actually doing them, we try to make the most of every single day on the road. People often say to us…why don’t you get a camper van? But half the fun of touring is meeting new people, staying over after the gig and sharing stories! Being club organisers ourselves - see links below - we find this extra time valuable for exchanging info about venues and musicians, not to mention audiences!
Judy Dyble: Judewibble
Posted By: Judy Dyble 05/09/2009 17:44:39
It's been a bit of a year, one way or another..not only have I reached (and acquired) buspass age, and become a grandmother for the first time, but have also released an album that has taken the best part of two years to make and is my favourite so far..
Hobopop blog #6
Posted By: mat martin 13/08/2009 19:55:32
I consisntently become engaged in debates with friends about the worth or danger of online music and file sharing. I invariably take the side of the arugment that is most under-represented in the room, as this tends to make for good sport and because I genuinely feel for both sides of the argument. As I have said before right here though, it seems to me to be inescapable that the future of the music industry is likely not to involve selling recordings of performances. I am told that concert ticket sales are up, even in the recession. Our experience on the road would suggest that this could be true, although my feeling is that audience figures have become unpredictable in this ‘recession’, as it is called. Certainly, the figures for our autumn album recording are extremely encouraging (incidentally, if you fancy coming and haven’t got a ticket left please be quick!).
Hobopop Blog #5
Posted By: Mat Martin 08/08/2009 08:11:43
It's been a good while since we checked in here, although those of you who are regulars will know we've been popping up on other parts of the site with new projects. In fact, this is precisely why we haven't been blogging too much lately - we've been under wraps preparing the live album project which you can currently see advertised on the front page of SpiralEarth, courtesy of our lovely hosts.
Jim Byrne: Adventures in the big smoke
Posted By: Jim Byrne 27/07/2009 19:56:11
We've (myself and Pat, my wife) recently came back from a wee mini-tour of London; playing in three different venues on consecutive nights. The highlight was the gig in 'What's Cookin' - upstairs at the Sheepwalk in Leytonstone. It is a fantastic venue - made so by Stephen who runs the club. Stephen has really made a big effort; the stage is elaborately decorated and the country and rock 'n' roll sounds from the resident Dj's were great; he also does a great job as a compere - setting the friendly upbeat tone.
David Kushar: Guitars, Guitars, Guitars - Part 2
Posted By: David Kushar 12/06/2009 08:18:28
As we had already seen with the Fyldes and Lowdens, for a thriving guitar-makers scene, you needn't look beyond these shores. There's a plentiful supply of top notch builders on your doorstep and our favourite artists are taking full advantage.
David Kushar: Guitars, Guitars, Guitars - Part 1
Posted By: David Kushar 12/06/2009 08:13:48
It was love at first sight when I was given a cheap classical guitar for my eighth birthday. But even with a few decades of playing on progressively better guitars, to this day, if I have a tune in front of me, it still might as well be the phone book. However, this hasn't tarnished my passion for the six-stringed beauties and when I was invited to join the Spiral Earth team my first thought was, Do I get to talk to people about guitars? Closely followed by, Do I get to meet Bert Jansch? For me, these were tantalizing prospects, having had a long term obsession with both for quite some time. The later has remained elusive but I have made significant inroads with the former.
Rachel Taylor-Beales: Recent gigs and ramblings...
Posted By: Rachel Taylor-Beales 05/06/2009 16:17:55
It's been a good few months since I last wrote here - May has been a particularly fun month - starting with a Bob Dylan concert, (Bill and I were not expecting much from him- but were happily surprised and pleased as thought he performed a great set). Also enjoying his new album... My birthday celebrations seemed to last the whole if the bank holiday weekend, much merriment, music making, whiskey drinking and chocolate cake consuming were part of it all... Bill and I also caught a Devon Sproule gig which was great- she's a really engaging performer ...
Living in a digital world
Posted By: Tom Rose 25/05/2009 20:47:44
In recent months like many millions of music lovers I’ve enjoyed listening to digital mix tapes, music sent to me by friends via links in newsletters, social networking sites and seemingly everywhere I look.. everyone’s using the legal music website Spotify.com.
Sarah McQuaid Twittering - Part 2
Posted By: Sarah McQuaid 25/03/2009 11:16:40
In her "Musician's Twitter Roadmap", Ariel Hyatt advises that all artists "Tweet 3x A Day" (I'm lucky if I manage once) and "Follow At least 100 People", below which she writes "TIP: Take the time to look at each person's profile to get to understand them more deeply."
Sarah McQuaid Twittering - Part 1
Posted By: Sarah McQuaid 25/03/2009 11:07:56
I've been Twittering daily for the past week or so, and I still don't understand why. I'm told that these days no musician can afford not to Twitter, so I'm Twittering away and waiting for the magic to happen. In the short time that I've been Twittering I've acquired a number of "followers" on various continents who apparently want to know what I'm up to from day to day, but their motivation for this is utterly beyond me.
Hobopop Tour Blog - part VI
Posted By: Hobopop 23/03/2009 10:51:52
19.03.09 - We’re about halfway through our March dates now. Currently packing to go south for a show with the Hobopop Collective in St Albans, then back up to the North West for more band shows in Oldham and Manchester. We finally have Kreg Viesselman in the country too. He is playing the first show of his tour tonight before hooking up with us tomorrow.
Sounds from the Undergrowth
Posted By: Sophie Parkes 08/03/2009 14:29:00
Since writing that last blog post, I had a call from Mat Martin (of Kirsty McGee fame, you’ll have been reading his earlier blog posts) with a very interesting proposition.
Hobopop tour blog part V
Posted By: Kirsty McGee 08/03/2009 14:23:22
It’s March! I’ve been in London two weekends in a row now working on the new Brute Chorus album recording show, and down south for a minute there was definitely a hint of spring in the air... It seems long overdue, too. I came back up to Manchester to find that cold snaps are apparently still abounding though...
Sunday 9.35 am
Posted By: Tom Rose 08/03/2009 14:00:55
Through the centre forty leaded oblongs of my suburban upstairs window, I have a favourite Sunday morning view, which is best seen lying down and on a day like today (bright morning sunshine, pale blue sky with occasional perfect cotton wool cloud drifting along). Within this view, birds of unknown (to me) varieties come and go from seven phone lines which unite together, then continue on, from just the one lone telegraph pole which sits beside a Laburnum tree out front, offset perfectly by the clear sky.
Lori Watson on International Women's Day
Posted By: Lori Watson 08/03/2009 10:33:49
OK, so maybe we use 13,000 more words on average per day than the menfolk, but communication's important and when you put it to good use good things can happen, changes for the better.
Harping on about folk music
Posted By: Sophie Parkes 28/02/2009 16:55:56
In May 2008, Manchester’s section of the city, the Northern Quarter, hosted its own festival, snappily entitled MAPS (Music Art Poetry and Stuff). I was invited to curate an evening of music and spoken word and having always wanted to give it a go, I agreed. I already had a folk music zine by the name of For Folk’s Sake which I printed whenever I had enough money, so I thought the night would be the perfect opportunity to launch the next issue.
Lucy Ward, Young Folk Award Finalist
Posted By: Lucy Ward 23/02/2009 23:17:47
Hey everyone, my name is Lucy Ward. I’m a singer songwriter and folk artist from Derby (that place right in the middle of the country that you have probably passed through/near many a time on cross country travels) and I am well chuffed to be blogging for Spiral Earth!
I Love This Town...... I think! Clive Gregson
Posted By: Clive Gregson 23/02/2009 18:06:00
Feb 21st, 2009 Well..... I'm in Manchester, my home town, for a spot of parent watch while my siblings are on holiday overseas. Needless to say, within three days of getting off the plane, I have the mother of all colds. Unsurprising, since everybody in the UK also has it and it would be churlish of me not to join in.
Hobopop Tour Blog pt. IV -At the end of the day there’s nothing like having a beer and then a blast on a banjo
Posted By: Kirsty McGee 12/02/2009 13:55:02
08.02.09
It’s a funny thing how so much goes on in this world. As I sit here in the dressing room of our favorite ever venue (so far), the Plalacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, between a surreal interview for Basque television and our onstage call, I am listening via linkup to the rehearsal of ‘Carmen’ which is happening in the larger space here, being piped to a speaker on the wall. It was playing right through our interview, and I was trying not to listen, but these people’s voices seem to come from a different planet to ours. That these two things should be going on under the same roof makes me somehow very happy. As long as everyone doesn’t go there instead of coming to see us, naturally. The best bits are when the singers drop out of their performance to giggle or shout at the pianist. Then they are from our world again.
Hobopop Tour Blog pt. III - Bilbao and the Guggenheim
Posted By: Kirsty McGee 12/02/2009 13:52:46
07.02.09
The thing I love about coming to Bilbao the most, I think, is the Guggenheim museum. There, people, is a lesson in how to design, build and organise a gallery. The building itself remains the most amazing exhibit of all, yet doesn’t interfere with the shows - in this case a big collection of Cy Twombley’s paintings and sculptures from the 1950s which was, in places, quite inspirational. I’d never heard of this guy, but his large scale chalk and oil paintings were just beautiful - a group of canvases showing intimately rendered dull surfaces (think of a 10 year old, well-used blackboard) with intruiging and simple white markings dividing them up. All about space, I say to myself as I consider the set list for this evening’s show.
Hobopop Productions Tour Blog pt. II
Posted By: Kirsty McGee 12/02/2009 13:50:33
06.02.09
It’s lucky my new year’s resolution wasn’t to stop doing stupid things, because I have been coming up trumps in the last few days. I surprised even myself the day before our departure for Spain though, when I walked into my local music shop with my banjo uke, left it on the counter and walked out again.
Feb 9th 3.55am - Celebrate on all fronts!
Posted By: Tom Rose 09/02/2009 10:20:10
I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed real snow (you know when it’s over your boots snow.. not mucky pavement slush snow..) there was for the short time I was home, a sense of excitement, unscheduled holidays for the kids and days off for ‘health & safety’ reasons for the teachers and council workers I know round here…generally speaking, people who were not caught in south London or in Scotland unprepared seemed to be saying ‘hurrah for snow’.
hobopop productions - “Do not lean. You might fall”
Posted By: Mat Martin 02/02/2009 16:25:28
Having promised a tour blog to our friends at Spiral Earth, all we needed was a tour... It’s now February, and rehearsals for our Spanish shows this week are beginning in earnest...
LAU made a new album!
Posted By: Tom Rose 19/01/2009 13:34:43
Just how good are Lau.. YES correct,they are INSANELY GOOD. “Arc Light’’ is like LAU PLUS. Its got the inventive self penned tunes that seem to be made by many more hands than they are, the experimentation and the songs. Kris has recorded some of his own songs for the first time (don’t all rush off trad fans!) and to give you a measure of how good they are upon hearing one called ‘Wintermoon’ I contacted him to find out who wrote the words’. ‘ me boss’ came the reply.. so there we have it I was shocked his stuff sounded so old but I shouldn’t have been he’s a dark horse.. I have a sneaky feeling he’s got more up his sleeve. The trio Lau are certainly not alone in making deadly new albums. JON BODEN’s solo album is phenomenal writing and to hear he plays every note of every instrument on it himself.. is all the more remarkable, MARCH 2nd for that one..
Tom's New Year resolve..
Posted By: Tom Rose 19/01/2009 13:32:00
Weeks late in writing again here (sorry Iain)…best laid plans and all that, but 2009 has just started with this explosion of activity from all areas in my working life …actually hold on.... talking of exploding.. some maniac on either a motorbike or one of those flying space travel bikes from star wars .. just ripped past my house doing what sounded like many hundreds of mph with one of those tweaked exhaust pipes (eek) that make a sound like the most intense industrial metal, albeit booming from the loudest carnival sound-system.. not wishing to come over all Mr Grumpy-neighbourhood watchman or owt.. where was I?
Darren Black: The new old new
Posted By: Darren Black 16/01/2009 08:44:15
It's a new year, with new smiling, new expectations from a new American president, and a new interest rate spawning a new record making it lower than when the Bank of England was new in 1694. New levels of spending, new levels of borrowing, new statements and proclamations about it, and new demands on the majority of the population to make ends meet. New car sales down, new signings-on up. New conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, bringing new gas prices. New oil prices and new instability. The more I think about it, the more I conclude that society seems to dote on the word 'new'. The new this, the new that - and so much is re-packaged, re-marketted and sold as the new old. There is very little taboo these days, and in our relatively short history it would be a shame if the spell was broken so soon.
Jim Byrne welcomes the new year
Posted By: Jim Byrne 12/01/2009 21:59:33
On new years day I played at the Ettrick in Old Kilpatrick - to a crowd of New Year revellers - all in a good mood and all in party mode. Old Kilpatrick is of course Pat's (my partner) home village - so it was a night of familiar faces, hugs, kisses and big smiles. I have a little history of my own connected to Old Kilpatrick - as it was during my years as a member of Dexter Slim and the Pickups (in the late 80s I think) that we travelled over to - and played at - the Letterkenny Music Festival. It was part of a mini-tour organised by Pat - and we travelled there - with what seemed like half the village in support. It was one of those adventures that those 'from the village' still talk about - with misty eyed affection for the good times.
The Jaywalkers experience the Young Folk Awards
Posted By: Jay Bradberry 05/01/2009 14:29:11
My name is Jay and I play fiddle, guitar and sing in the duo ‘Jaywalkers’ who recently made it to the final of the BBC Young Folk Award. ‘Jaywalkers’ consists of me and my good friend Michael Giverin who plays mandolin, guitar and sings occasional backing vocal and the two of us playing together traces back about 5 years when we were both being tutored, on our individual instruments, by a Mr Stuart Williams in the area of Helsby, Cheshire. It wasn’t until a year or so later, subsequent to increasing involvement in the Helsby Bluegrass scene, that we grew more familiar with each other’s playing and began performing together on a more regular basis; most commonly as part of scratch bands constructed for local gigs.
Word from the Navigator Mine..
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:27:45
02.04 am … BUSY DAY! Been enjoying reading Rufus Causley’s insightful Radio 2 Website blog for Mike Harding.. seems he’s being well looked after on the Under One Sky tour.. some sad news from that tour.. Graham Coxon won’t be able to appear at The Sage or Alnwick dates due to family reasons.. quick thinking John McCusker got on the blower to his mate Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub though and he’s stepped in to fill Grahams position.. which should be top. As a young lad I once dj’d at a TFC show.. on their 2nd album, Bandwagonesque tour when it came to Derby.. for some strange reason I never saw them again until last year when they were playing Glasgow and it was non stop hits and John was guesting.. must have been donkeys years ago, both times they were totally amazing.. look out for their new album next year.
Monday, and back to the coal face...
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:26:50
The mine donkey is unpacked, back down the shaft for me and on with the work..
FolkArts England and AFO Conference - Day 4
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:25:05
1am and there are sessions starting to break out in the bar and Karen Tweed is playing on the sofa opposite us.. you’ ll not hear me complaining (I’ve been listening a lot of her music recently whilst putting together the Chris Wood anthology.. especially her 'The land was white with snow' from May Monday cd ) I half think of going over to ask permission to use that piece that Chris wrote for her album.. then realise it’s late on Saturday night, work is over and I instil a personal ban on talking about anything work related from this point on..
FolkArts England and AFO Conference - Day 3
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:20:43
5.45 am Hannah (that’s Mrs Rose -navigator - reveal) is up and off to work but I’m not long into bed and there’s a distinctly vague memory of her instructions about what I needed to do for the kids before they go to their various clubs and friends houses this morning.. fast forward almost three hours and Oh Lord…
FolkArts England and AFO Conference - Day 2
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:13:52
Steve Heap , Joe Heap and Alan Bearman (who have been doing a lot of the running of this conference) welcome us again, it’s day two and I’ve warmed to the idea of speaking a little more , but not enough to take the lead on the second session, thankfully seasoned pro Steve K from our distro Proper is there and he finds it easy to talk facts and case studies.. there’s some debate about releasing music or not in the busy Autumn period and my view contradicts his likely saner approach to this business.. I’m more for mixing it with major labels and trying to get coverage at a time when people are in the shops more and he’s of a mind to try and fit smaller albums into quieter periods..
FolkArts England and Association of Festival Organisers Conference - Day 1, part 2
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:13:08
Just in day one (and before my thing) they covered organising festivals, music education, promotion, marketing and funding.. and getting signed to a label or distributor.. a man from a folk label who’ve released 500 albums and been in business for 30 years is speaking and I’m wondering to myself a) just how different must it be for him operating in today’s faster moving scene and b) he must really love what he does to do be doing it after all this time.. hats off to him..
FolkArts England and Association of Festival Organisers Conference - Day 1
Posted By: Tom Rose 03/01/2009 07:12:02
It’s a rollover! Wednesday night is becoming Thursday morning and I’ve packed up the Navigator donkey with hundreds of CD’s, posters and flyers and printed information about our artists and tours and ready to leave the coalface for a few days.. It’s early in the morning now and there’s only 5 hours left til I’m meant to be up and dropping the nippers off at school and away.. time for sleep….. But there’s been some interesting instant message / emailing of music with Dave Derby (Gramercy Arms) and Kendall Meade (Mascott) both artists who are based in New York and still awake their side of the sea.
A New Year!
Posted By: Rachel Taylor-Beales 02/01/2009 16:33:41
A New Year - The Sufjan Stevens Christmas box set is out and I'm playing a soundtrack of merry melancholy and mellifluous mayhem (that man is so good, damn him) and I always find myself thinking about highs and lows both personally and in the wider world - kind of summing up the year in my head. Though my summing up is a poor reflection of reality, I’m sure! It’s been a rollercoaster of a year really - Finally launching the Red Tree album back in May was a brilliant time. A great launch party night, some fantastic reviews, and the opportunity to work and perform with some very talented musicians in the gigs that followed - that really is the fun side of the job!! And more recently BBC Radio Two playing of Red Tree on Whispering Bob’s (he probably hates that name) Saturday program is definitely a high!