The nights really are drawing in now and with the bonfire and fireworks season out of the way (“thank goodness” says our cat!) we will soon be going into the festive season and forthcoming gigs are starting to reflect that.
More of that later but there are an action-packed few days coming up in local clubs with a packed session to start on Friday November 24 at ROYSTON LIVE featuring Wickenwood, + Bob Hines + Thursday’s Band + The Big Buch Band. The Ben Smith and Jimmy Brewer Acoustic Band provided a wonderful evening’s entertainment at Royston Live’s previous concert and tickets for Friday’s show are only £7 in advance online. On the same night, but far enough away not to cause a clash, Watford Folk Club are hosting the Gerry Colvin Band £12.50. Gerry played for Royston MusicFest as part of the trio Nestlerode, Colvin & Ralls, but of course is much better known for his band Colvinquarmby and his ‘Terry and Gerry’ successes. On Saturday November 25 St Andrew’s Church, Hertford host the well-known Scottish contemporary folk musician Kris Drever who is also a member of Lau. On Sunday November 26 Hitchin Folk Club play host to those brilliant Teesside exiles ‘Megson’ whilst on the same evening, and signalling the start of the festive season, The Stables, Milton Keynes features Eliza Carthy & Jon Boden’s Wassail.
You can find details of all the above events and links to venues in the Unicorn Diary in the Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website for all the links to the above event details and lots more in the region.
Since the last blog I have been to Basingstoke, not memorable in itself you might think, and you would be right, but I was there on Sunday just gone to see Show of Hands in concert. However, Basingstoke does have the wonderful Anvil Arts, the largest performing arts organisation in Hampshire, and their main venue (one of three), The Anvil, has around a 1,000 seater auditorium (my estimate) which provided the largest audience for the SoH Roots2 tour so far – according to Steve Knightley!
I will be putting the review of that concert on the main Unicorn Folk website in the next couple of days but in the meantime there is a review of SoH’s latest album Roots2 under CD Reviews on that same website. I have also been playing tracks from Roots2 on ‘Filby’s Folk’ which are available on podcast (scroll down to Shows 26 & 27). Better still, listen to ‘Filby’s Folk’ on Royston Radio in it’s regular Sunday night slot at 7pm – listen HERE.
There are more new CD Reviews on the website from Clive Carroll (The Abbot – the music of John Renbourn); Honey and The Bear (Away Beyond The Fret) and Jack Rutter (This Is Something Constant).
Finally, virtuoso dulcimer player Dan Evans has created a blog post to encourage participation from the dulcimer community (and beyond) word-wide in the celebrations for Amazing Grace’s 250th anniversary https://www.english-dulcimer.com/250-years-of-amazing-grace/ Do have a look at this interesting article which includes some detailed information on playing the hymn on a dulcimer as well as a little history about the composer John Newton and some photographs of Olney where he preached as a clergyman and where Dan has lived for the past 28 years.
Unicorn Folk News 