Saturday 19th April 2008

Rough & Rowdy Ways: The Bob Hall Show (UK)

Birdsedge Village Hall 7.30 (doors open 7.00)
Tickets £9.00 from 01484 606230

Soundclips: Alone With the Blues ; Blues on the Downbeat; Drifting Along With the Blues
Britain's finest blues and boogie pianist, Bob Hall’s distinctive piano style has influenced generations of piano players and left a lasting legacy. He came to fame in the r‘n’b explosion of the sixties, leading bands whose sidemen included members of The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac and Manfred Mann . Bob’s restless spirit then took him in new directions, writing and performing music from blues, boogie, gospel, folk and country sources. He is now recognised as a composer of distinction, with a catalogue of finely crafted songs. The Bob Hall Show is pure enjoyment, full of energy and enthusiasm. Much credit for this goes to Bob’s long-time partner, Hilary Blythe, whose crystal-clear harmony vocals and rock-steady bass playing underpin his performances. A diminutive dynamo!

Rough and Rowdy Ways tells the story of America on the move. Travelling musician learned their craft in Honkey-Tonks and bars; took their talents to the melting pots of Chicago and New York and forged the music we now know as gospel, blues and country. A hand-clapping, foot-tapping roller-coaster ride right there in the boxcar with the men and women who became legends.

Sunday 8th June 2008

Tanglefoot (Canada)
AT PENISTONE PARAMOUNT CINEMA

Tickets £12.00 from 01226 767532

Soundclips: One More Night, Boot Soup, Paddle Like Hell, For the Day and Radio Man
"Superior musicians who are able to play with utter abandon and still achieve an exceptionally high musical standard...a genuinely super band of vigorous, head-shaking, hair-tossing wildmen." - Stephen Pedersen Halifax Herald, Nova Scotia. A stunning five-piece, top-flight band from Ontario. Powerful vocals, dazzling instrumentals, stunning stage-presence. These five play their original Canadian Folk Music with great panache. Their stage show is exciting, uplifting, amusing. They are high-energy entertainers. Five great voices, solo and in harmony - each one capable of taking lead, though probably the most leads are shared between Steve's assured tones and Al - who a radio presenter once described as having a voice half-way between melted chocolate and sex. They are strong instrumentally as well, with Al Parrish on double bass, Steve Ritchie on rhythm guitar and occasional pennywhistle, Sanda Swannell on fiddle and viola, Bryan Weirmier on piano and occasional guitar and the amazing Terry Young on almost everything else: guitar, mandolin, banjo and pennywhistle (and he has a gorgeous tenor voice, too).

Saturday 28th June 2008

The Outside Track (Ireland/Scotland)

Young, lively traditional and contemporary band from Ireland/Scotland/Canada

Birdsedge Village Hall 7.30 (doors open 7.00)
Tickets £9.00 from 01484 606230

Soundclips: Poor Lonesome Hen; MacCallum's Reel; Cailin Rua; Kiss in the Morning "This eclectic combination buzz and fizz together, producing modern acoustic folk music of the very highest quality. The set-up of flute, fiddle and clarsaich brings to mind early Chieftains and the playing is of as high a quality." - Maverick Magazine, July 2007 The Outside Track are quickly earning themselves a reputation as one of the most exciting new bands on the scene. With a truly diverse international line-up, they combine music from all their different cultures to form a distinct and dynamic musical sound. Norah Rendell (Canada) plays flute and sings beautifully; Ailie Robertson (Scotland) plays clarsach (harp) and electroharp; Tricia Clark (England) plays fiddle and bouzouki and sings delightful harmonies; Fiona Black (Scotland) plays accordion and Alan Jordan, the only Irish member and the only man in the outfit plays guitar, sings harmonies and takes the lead on the occasional Irish language song. Their five talents combine in expressive, energetic arrangements that deliver traditional music with a modern twist.

Friday 11th July 2008

Festival Event in a Tent - Born To Run

Saturday 12th July 2008

Festival - James Keelaghan/Stanley Accrington/Zoe Mulford/Roger Davies

Sunday 13th Ju;ly 2008

Festival - Free Family Workshop with Cloudstreet
Afternoon Concert
Final of the Musical Youth Competition

Saturday 6th September 2008

Tania Opland & Mike Freeman (Alaska/UK)
- Concert and Fun-Percussion Workshop

Birdsedge Village Hall. Workshop 2.00 Concert 7.30 (doors open 30 mins in advance)
Tickets Workshop £10 Concert £7.00 - Ticket for both £15.00 from 01484 606230

Glorious singing, multitudinous instruments and eclectic songs "Tania and Mike... are definitely a partnership made in heaven. They are quite simply one of the most original and interesting musical combinations you're ever likely to see! Between them they weave a fascinating musical tapestry." - Chester Folk Festival.
Hamered dulcimer, guitar, violin, cittern, Native American flute, hand percussion... with songs in many languages and rhythmic roots from Siberia to Morocco. This Anglo-Alaskan duo have been on the road together since May '95 in a unique collaboration which combines their distinctly separate musical backgrounds, bringing their exuberant music and wild tales to audiences around the world.

Saturday 11th October 2008

Dan McKinnon (Canada) - Concert and Songwriting Workshop

Chocolate-voiced singer-songwriter with intelligent story songs presents an afternoon songwriting workshop and an evening concert

Birdsedge Village Hall. Workshop 2.00 Concert 7.30 (doors open 30 mins in advance)
Tickets Workshop £10 Concert £7.00 - Ticket for both £15.00 from 01484 606230

"Undoubtedly the hit of Cleckheaton Festival this year... Read the full Living Tradition review from Dan's 2006 UK tour. Dan hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the Canadian Maritimes, an area rich in the musical and cultural traditions of the North Atlantic. His warm baritone voice, superb guitar arrangements and original compositions have won him widespread praise. Dan's thoughtful compositions and smooth melodies cover the entire folk spectrum, with themes traditional, historical, contemporary and universal. A gentle unassuming man - one of nature's gentlemen, in fact - who travels around the UK by train and bus when he's over here with a backpack and a guitar. Dan has tremendous stage charisma and engages an audience - both hearts and minds.

Saturday 1st November 2008

Finest Kind (Canada) - Concert & Harmony Singing Workshop

Birdsedge Village Hall. Workshop 2.00 Concert 7.30 (doors open 30 mins in advance)
- Afternoon Workshop - £15 and Evening Concert - £9.00 (Ticket to both events £22.00)

Thrills and Chills...Finest Kind's vocal arrangements are a creative tour de force. Tradition-based yet curiously modern, the trio's harmonies are an enchanting feast of opulent chords and ever changing textures. The trio's amazing vocal blend has been called "molecular bonding" by one reviewer: "Any closer," he says, "and they wouldn't be allowed to do it in public." Audiences invariably mention "goosebumps." Each member of Finest Kind brings to the group a lifetime’s learning and experience in many worlds of music. Each is at home on stage, the recording studio, and the folksong archive. They not only sing beautifully; they can tell you things you never knew—or knew you wanted to know—about the songs. They have instructed at heritage music programmes in both Canada and the U.S. Posen has studied the singing traditions of Ottawa Valley loggers and Newfoundland fishermen, taught Sacred Harp, sung an astonishing number of styles.

Saturday 22nd November 2008

Cara Luft with Hugh McMillan (Canada)

Birdsedge Village Hall. Workshop 2.00 Concert 7.30 (doors open 30 mins in advance)
- Afternoon Workshop - £15 and Evening Concert - £9.00 (Ticket to both events £22.00)

"Yes, Calgary's Luft is a Wailin' Jennys founder but so much more too. Think Julie Miller meets Gillian Welch on a lot of this, with an occasional bit of Linda Thompson tossed in. This could be very big." - John P. McLaughlin, The Light Fantastic
Cara Luft is a dynamic performer with deep roots in both folk and rock 'n roll, who got her start at age four playing autoharp and dulcimer in her family's band. Raised by folk-musician parents in the heart of the extensive and passionate traditional music community in Calgary, she was steeped as a youth in a setting of spiritual music, house concerts, folk clubs and festivals. A whole new world opened up when her parents gave her an acoustic guitar and she discovered Led Zeppelin.

Saturday 24th January 2009

Pete Coe

Birdsedge Village Hall 7.30 (doors open 7.00)
Tickets £7.00 from 01484 606230

"A One-Man Folk Industry!" was how Jim Lloyd described Pete Coe on Folk on 2. With a vast repertoire of traditional & original songs, dance tunes & dances playing bouzouki, melodeon, dulcimer, banjo & step percussion, he's been a professional musician since 1971. Pete looks to the tradition, but doesn't shrink from adapting and reinventing in order to move forward. He is essentially a storyteller, equally at home with lengthy traditional ballads as with pithy self-penned songs.He has recorded ten albums, broadcasts regularly on local and BBC radio and has appeared in several television programmes. Journalist Colin Irwin wrote in Mojo Magazine, "He explores the heartland of the English folk song revival with an ease and honesty that invests traditional songs with a simplistic beauty"

Saturday 28th February 2009

Phil Beer

The incompararable Phil Beer, probably best known as half of the duo Show of Hands, but on his own a dazzling multi instrumentalist and riveting performer.

Beer first began to play fiddle, guitar, and mandolin whilst still at school. He played his first gig when he was fourteen in a band called Retrospect with Richard Entwistle, and by the time he was sixteen he was performing regularly. Beer worked with Paul Downes as a duo and also in the Arizona Smoke Revue. He was a key member of Johnny Coppin's band, Decameron. He toured with Mike Oldfield in 1979 and when he's not out on the road with the phenomenally successful Show of Hands he continues to do session work, most notably on the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels album.

Saturday 28th March 2009

Artist to be Confirmed

Saturday 25th April 2009

Vin Garbutt

Birdsedge Village Hall - 7.30 (doors open 7.00)
Tickets £10.00 from 01484 606230

One of the best loved characters on the folk scene, Vin Garbutt's performance at our festival in 2006 had the audience laughing so hard I thought we might need a medic standing by. Funny, impassioned, melodic and unique. Vin is a performer NOT to be missed. If you've seen him before you'll know. If you haven't take my word for it and book early.

THANKS TO

Arts Council England - Yorkshire

We would like to acknowlege financial assistance from the Yorkshire Musicians in Residence scheme of Arts Council England for underwriting concerts in current and previous seasons by Artists including: The Bob Hall Show; Simon Mayor and Hilary James; Maire ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman; Artisan; Maggie Boyle Steve Tilston & Chris Parkinson, Pete Coe and the Brian Bedford Band.

Is Birdsedge on your map?

Birdsedge is on the A629 between Huddersfield and Penistone, just half a mile south of the crossroads with the A635.(Look to the bottom left hand side of this map.) The Village Hall is on the main road in the middle of the village, right on the roadside, near the school and the mill. The car park is tiny, but we have permission to use the school yard for parking for events outside of school time.. You can also park off the main road, up the lane by the school. The turning is within 100 yards of the hall. If you are travelling to the south, turn first right after the hall. If travelling to the north, turn left before the hall.

Please note that if you park on the main road, outside the row of cottages, or on the hard standing opposite, you will upset the residents--and we would like to keep them as our friends. Also the main road is a 40 limit and it is illegal to park without lights after dark.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.