The olllam were formed in 2012 as a collaboration between legendary Belfast piper John McSherry (Lunasa, At First Light, Ulaid), fellow piper/whistler and Grammy-nominated producer Tyler Duncan (Carly Rae Jepsen, Theo Katzman, Scary Pockets), Michael Shimmin (May Erlewine, Joshua Davis, Millish), and Joe Dart (Vulfpeck). The resulting debut album, now considered a cult-classic (the winner of the 2012 Indie Acoustic Music Award for Best Instrumental Album), is lush with trance-like melodies, stunning instrumental virtuosity and a magical marriage of tradition and technology, finding the listener somewhere between Radiohead and Planxty with the ambient emotionalism of Nick Drake or Explosions in the Sky. Since their first album’s release, the band’s inventive musical compositions arrangements have been earning them sold out shows across Ireland, and were awarded RTE’s 2022 Folk Artist of The Year.

Two of folk music’s most celebrated bands are joining forces for the first time in what is set to be a sell-out UK tour. West country legends Show of Hands (Steve Knightley, Phil Beer) and Irish American roots quartet Track Dogs (Garrett Wall, Dave Mooney, Howard Brown & Robbie K. Jones) are fusing their unique harmonies for a one-off collaboration that will see them perform 17 must-see dates across England.

The superband will bring their incredible voices along with banjos, guitars, a trumpet and a mandolin for the unmissable spring tour. This is the first time the bands have toured together after Show of Hands’ lead singer songwriter discovered Track Dogs playing in Ibiza four years ago. They have since taken the UK festival scene by storm.

Steve Knightley says: “Phil [Beer] and I will start with a couple of songs – as I sing, Track Dogs will be translating in Spanish. It will be a unique fusion of harmonies, never heard before. Think sun-soaked Latin rhythms with a West Country heartbeat. An unforgettable evening of six guys sharing vocals, songs and stories and swapping melodies.

He adds: “Track Dogs are by far the best harmony group I’ve heard outside of America. Every single one of them is a lead singer. It’s going to be fantastic.”

Track Dogs consists of Garrett Wall, Dave Mooney, Howard Brown & Robbie K. Jones. The quartet bring heritage from Ireland, the UK and the USA to fuse folk, Latin, Americana and bluegrass for a unique and dynamic sound. The band reside in Madrid and they are about to release their anticipated new album, Where To Now.

The UK tour follows a preview show in Ibiza that occurred at the end of April. The tour will see the bands perform at the iconic Minack Theatre in Penzance, Cornwall, as well as venues in Leicester, Milton Keynes, Kent and Norwich.

Comprised of 2 Irishmen, 1 Englishman and 1 American the band came together in 2011 to make their unique brand of acoustic music; a veritable 4×4 of voices and instruments identified for their dynamic fusion of styles including folk, latin, Americana & even some bluegrass.

The four international “madrileños” (Garrett Wall, Dave Mooney, Howard Brown & Robbie K. Jones) whose artistic names derives from the dark subterranean world of New York’s subway system, present Fire On The Rails, a kicking album that grows on the work that has opened so many doors for the band.

Fire on the Rails is Track Dogs’ second LP recorded on the Studer A80 analog tape machine recovered from Abbey Road at Playground Studio in Madrid. Since Kansas City Out Groove (2018) and their compilation of ukulele-based recordings, Uke Songs By Track Dogs (2019), the band has deepened and elaborated its sound explored. Producer Germán Gutiérrez has managed to make Track Dogs pack even more punch and achieve grandeur in the sound that they’ve been cultivating over more than 100 songs in their recording career.

Track Dogs turned to Nashville talent to up the game on their new compositions. Eli Bishop (Grand Ole Opry, Wynton Marsalis) provides string arrangements for “Love And War”, “On The Last Night” and “Abi’s Lullaby”. In line with the Nashville connection, Americana star, Ashley Campbell, lends her pristine banjo picking to “Don’t Delay”. Track Dogs have extended the reach of their established sound to the realm of world music with “Love And War”. Apart from the strings of Eli Bishop and a cracking doumbek, the album’s lead track pulls together folk legends Phil Beer of Show of Hands, grammy-winning Lisa Gutkin of the Klezmatics and Fergal Scahill of We Banjo 3 to elevate the call for unity and tolerance that “Love And War” shouts for. Danny Erker (The Jones St. Boys) also adds some stellar mandolin to the track “Dragonfly’s Castle”

The trash-trad group NoGood Boyo is the only band you need to see if you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you locked Enter Shikari, The Prodigy and Meredydd Evans, in one room and told them to make some noise. NoGood Boyo is also the only band with an accordion to request extra security staff, and paramedics on standby after shattering dancefloors at their gig in Brittany the night before. Even without listening to a note, and whatever you think of traditional music, these facts make them like no other grassroots band coming out of Wales right now.

Dressed in attire resembling a steampunking Welsh Nana, and with their music mixing traditional Welsh language songs with the sounds of 90s rave and nu-metal, NoGood Boyo are already on their way to taking over the music industry in Wales, and they are ready to party like it’s 1699.

NoGood Boyo take their genre-bending ‘trash-trad’ label from the purists out to stop them, and the traditional music they proudly and brashly mashed up, and brought in to the 21st Century. Their uniform consists of a boiler suit, sunglasses, and a traditional Welsh hat – seen only on biscuit tins and tacky merch at Barry Island until now.

The perfect balance of paying tribute to their welsh heritage with with all out recklessness.
Go loud or go home.

Uniquely captivating band Lady Maisery return with their first studio album in six years. The combined vocal and multi-instrumental talents of Hazel Askew, Hannah James and Rowan Rheingans (individually three of the most accomplished and adventurous artists in modern folk) transmute to form a unified voice, carrying stories of sisterhood, human struggle, the joy of living and the vitality of music.

Their new album, Tender – released to critical acclaim in November 2022 – comprises original songs written by Lady Maisery, as well as contemplative and personal interpretations of work by Björk, Tracy Chapman and the late Lal Waterson. An arresting record that explores the power in vulnerability and the strength in kindness, these are songs which acknowledge our collective wounds while striving forward with a visceral hope for the future.

Frequent festival headliners, Lady Maisery have for over a decade enraptured audiences throughout the UK and Europe. Their return to the live stage has been eagerly awaited.

“Exquisite, thrilling”
The Guardian

“Ambitious and beautiful”
Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

“Lady Maisery are women with ideas, purpose and urgency…. powerful, enthralling work”
Songlines * * * * *

In one phrase? Folk-fused baroque ‘n’ roll for the modern world.​

Born and bred in (well, he’s not sure where) Joshua learned at an early age that ‘home’ could be found in music, rather than a place. An upbringing on the move led to a cross-pollination of styles, stories and influences which Joshua distils into his own contemporary sound. As a self-professed album artwork addict, Joshua’s work delivers a dose of escapism and entertainment in equal measure, from the artwork through to the last note.

Having cut his teeth playing folk festivals throughout the UK and releasing his critically-acclaimed arrangements of traditional songs, Joshua now returns to his original songwriting roots.

With music ranging from stomping, acoustic sing-alongs, Bowie-esque music hall epics, and alt-pop singles – whilst keeping a sharp focus on the traditional themes – Joshua is fast carving out his own unique corner of the genre.

​Following a summer of festival appearances, including Cambridge Folk Festival, Manchester Folk Festival and Sidmouth Folk Festival, Joshua and his 5-piece band toured the major cities of the UK, delighting audiences in Glasgow, York, London, Milton Keynes, Bristol and Brighton amongst others.

With further major festival appearances in the pipeline, Joshua’s rapidly growing fanbase waits in anticipation of his upcoming album of original material, Glass Knight, and accompanying tour in 2023.

Ckick here to listen to his new single today “Looking Glass” which is the first single from the upcoming album, “Glass Knight”.

Ian Prowse formed Pele in 1989 along with Dally (drums), Robbo (Hammond), Nico (violin) and Jim McCallister (bass). Signed by Michael Levy, Baron Levy in March 1991 to M&G Records/Polydor, the band went on to release two studio albums (Fireworks & The Sport Of Kings), one live album and six singles. Pele’s singles never reached the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart, with it being often remarked that Pele sold more of their famous primary colour T-shirts than they did records. However they scored a number one single in South Africa with “Megalomania”, and had other hits in Holland, Portugal and Belgium. After nine tours of the UK, including those with Del Amitri and The Pogues, they split in 1996 due to problems with the record company whose efforts to make Prowse record as a solo artist were resisted by the singer. Prowse celebrated the 25th anniversary of first album Fireworks with a UK tour in the early 2017 with a 25th anniversary of The Sport of Kings tour announced for 2018.

Coming from a musical family, Frankie Gavin has played fiddle and flute since his teenage years. At the age of seventeen, he won All-Ireland competitions for fiddle and flute. Originally influenced by the great Irish and American-Irish fiddle players such as James Morrison, he later found himself playing with stars: The Rolling Stones, Stephane Grappelli, James Galway and Yehudi Menuhin, and for celebrity audiences including four American presidents, J. F. K on his 1962 visit to Ireland, then Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama.

Perhaps most importantly, the name Frankie Gavin is synonymous with De Dannan, the globally renowned band he founded with Alec Finn in the mid-1970s. Since then, there have been a numerous personnel changes. For this year’s Wickham Festival, we welcome a brand-new De Dannan line-up which comprises Frankie Gavin on fiddle and flute, Catherine Mc Hugh on piano, Ian Kinsella on guitar, Diarmuid Ó Meachair on melodeon and Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz on vocals and cello.

How do you measure a person’s life? There are a lot of metrics; success, awards, wealth, to name a few. But there are other ways to leave a legacy. It isn’t always having the right answer for every occasion. What if we evaluated our lives not by the answers we give but by our questions? The deep things we ask ourselves if we are brave enough to try. Eric Bibb puts those queries to music, singing, “Am I the change I long to see?”

It is easy to point to Eric’s accomplishments. A five-decade career recording with folk and blues royalty. Two Grammy nominations and multiple Blues Foundation awards. A following that not only crosses borders, it crosses continents. But what Eric Bibb is after is much, much larger than that.

To meet Eric is to be struck by both his humility and his warmth. There is no pretense in him. He is remarkably centered, his convictions based in the values of the civil rights movement of the sixties. Eric’s music works in service of that dream, holding out a hope for a new world. He challenges us to do better, to reach higher, and strive harder. Like Mavis and Pops Staples, he wants to take us there.

Eric carries this mantle honestly. His father, the late Leon Bibb, was an activist, actor, and folk singer who marched at Selma with Dr. Martin Luther King. Eric’s youth was spent immersed in the Village folk scene. Names like Dylan, Baez, and Seeger were visitors to his home. He was deeply influenced by Odetta, Richie Havens, and Taj Mahal. And he has synthesized all of that into his very own style.

Eric is an artist who preserves the best traditions of pre-war blues, even while he expands his own oeuvre. Marketing tags him as a bluesman, but troubadour is the word that best describes him. He slides neatly between genres as he builds bridges with musicians. His collaborations with Staffan Astner, Glen Scott, Michael Jerome Browne, JJ Milteau, Danny Thompson, and Habib Koite have produced music that is both ecstatic and exquisite.

Fortunately for us, Eric shows no signs of slowing down. He has, of late, been touring a stage show he developed entitled Tales from a Blues Brother. The program intersperses photographs and film clips with gripping oral history and rapturous song, tracing Eric’s personal journey through the heady days of the sixties folk music and civil rights movements. In one moment he manages to entertain, educate, and motivate us. Eric provides a grounding in the truth which we desperately need in these days of rancor. A vision we need in a world of divisive rhetoric and veiled allusions to “the other.”

Of course, there is more to him than even those laudable ideals. Proud father of six, and husband to Ulrika Bibb (a fine singer in her own right), Eric brings a humanity and sense of humor to his work. Listen to the playful “She Got Mine” or the simple joy of “The Happiest Man in the World” or the sublime pleasure of his articulate finger-picking on any number of songs. There are treasures here for everyone.

“When I think about my musical journey so far, I’m mostly grateful and amazed at where and who I am today. I also realize how many musical dreams of mine have come true. Listening to my earliest recordings I’m immediately aware of how my voice and guitar playing have evolved. I keep getting closer to the goal, even though the goalposts seem to continually move,” Eric remarked recently.

Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp of ‘King Crimson’ fame will be bringing “Toyah & Robert’s (Late) Sunday Lunch” to Wickham. This is a welcome return for Toyah who appeared with The SAS Band in 2021. It’s a debut at Wickham for Robert Fripp. We can’t wait!

For 42 years Toyah has taken to the stage like no other. She has won numerous awards and nominations from singing to writing to acting. In 2001 Toyah was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Central England in Birmingham.

In 2018 Paul McCartney awarded Toyah a LIPA Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Companionship for Outstanding Achievement in music, drama, performance and media.

Toyah was awarded a star on the Kings Heath Walk of Fame and a star on Birmingham’s Broad Street Walk of Stars recognising her achievements. She has been an inspiration and role model for generations through her iconic hit singles, film and theatre roles and steadfast commitment to always being individual and creative.

From punk princess to cult stage actress, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer and an inextinguishable flame. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s beloved household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved stage/screen actress and music composer. Toyah has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-five albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in over twenty feature films and presented hundreds of television programmes.

Robert Fripp is a British musician, songwriter, record producer, and author, best known as the guitarist, founder and longest-lasting member of the progressive rock band King Crimson. He has worked extensively as a session musician and collaborator, notably with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Midge Ure, Talking Heads, and David Sylvian. He also composed the startup sound of Windows Vista operating system, in collaboration with Tucker Martine and Steve Ball. His discography includes contributions to over 700 official releases.

His compositions often feature unusual asymmetric rhythms, influenced by classical and folk traditions. His innovations include a tape delay system known as Frippertronics and new standard tuning.

For the last quarter-century, singer Mary Black has been a dominant presence in Irish music, both at home and abroad. She has shared stages, tv shows and recording studios with some of the most revered performers of her time. She has also played a frontline role in bringing Irish music, past and present, to an increasingly appreciative and ever-growing global audience. The San Francisco Chronicle has described her as “One of the best interpretative singers around”.

At a time when less adventurous performers preferred to stick exclusively to the well-worn ballads from Ireland’s rich music heritage and the more obvious hits from contemporary writers, Mary explored the best work available from new composers and mined the rich seams they offered. That commitment to fresh material, combined with her unique interpretations of the songs she chooses, saw her release numerous albums that achieved platinum sales status and spawned countless hits. Indeed, one of Mary’s albums – No Frontiers – spent more than a year in the Irish Top 30!

The British magazine What Hi-Fi? considers Mary Black’s voice to be so pure that they have repeatedly used it for comparing the sound quality of different high fidelity systems. In an industry noted for its fickleness and its almost insatiable need for fresh novelties, Mary Black’s enduring successes have proven that her depth of talent and her love of singing transcend the generations, as well as national and musical boundaries too. She is indeed a real Irish treasure and her talent a gift from this small Ireland to a grateful world.

RECOGNITIONS
1983 – Irish Independent Arts Award
1986 – National Entertainment Awards / Best Female Artist
1987 – I.R.M.A. – Best Female Artist (Irish Recorded Music Awards)
1988 – I.R.M.A. – Best Female Artist
1992 – I.R.M.A. – Best Female Artist
1993 – Hot Press Awards – Best Irish Solo Artist
1993 – National Entertainment Personality of the Year
1994 – I.R.M.A. – Best Female Artist
1994 – I.R.M.A. – Best Irish Album / The Holy Ground
1994 – Belfast Telegraph E.M.A. – Best Irish Solo Artist
1996 – I.R.M.A. – Best Female Artist.
2000 – Irish Music Magazine – Best Female Folk Artist
2001 – Irish Music Magazine – Best Female Folk Artist
2003 – Irish Music Magazine – Best Contemp. Female Artist
2005 – Irish Music Magazine – Best Female Folk Artist
2006 – The Irish Post — Lifetime Achievement Award

For a full biography on Mary Black, read her autobiography Down the Crooked Road.  An extensive discography of Mary’s work can be found in the Discography section of her website.

St. Vincent College Music Dept. from Gosport will be performing at Wickham Festival 2023 at midday on Saturday to showcase their musical talents.

“Born into a repressed, catholic, conservative, small-town, agrarian, angst-ridden & showband infested society, The Saw Doctors are trying to preserve the positive elements of our Irish background and marry them to the sounds which have culturally invaded our milieu through TV, radio, social media, 45’s, fast food restaurants, 24-hour petrol stations & electric blankets”.

Leo Moran, The Saw Doctors

The Saw Doctors were discovered by Mike Scott of The Waterboys on a stormy Tuesday night in Galway city in the 1980’s, plying their trade with more gumption than virtuosity in the back room of The Quays Bar. Scott offered The Saw Doctors the support slot on The Waterboy’s Irish Tour to launch the ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ album in 1988 and before the tour was completed, Mike asked The Saw Doctors to support The Waterboys on their six-week tour of Great Britain in Spring 1989.

Mike Scott produced The Saw Doctors first single, ‘N17’, which was written by the band’s singer Davy Carton and guitarist Leo Moran. ’N17’ got a few plays on Irish radio and a second single was scheduled to be released to fulfil the band’s two-record deal with Solid Records in Dublin.

With Philip Tennant, whom they had met through Mike Scott, now on the producer’s perch, The Saw Doctors went to the haunted Loco Studios in Wales and put down three tracks – ‘It Won’t Be Tonight’, ‘I Useta Lover’ and ’Sing A Powerful Song’.

After much debate, it was eventually decided that ‘I Useta Lover’ would be the second release from The Saw Doctors. The Galway band plugged away at gigs around Ireland and scored an early afternoon slot at the coming-of-age Irish festival of its time, Féile, in Thurles, in August 1990. The Welsh ghost must have brought them luck for that Sunday evening, they learnt that ‘I Useta Lover’ had somehow entered the Irish single charts at No. 27, from where it slowly climbed, taking seven weeks to reach Number One and remaining on top for the following nine weeks, going on to become the biggest selling Irish single, outselling U2 and Sinéad O’Connor. The Saw Doctors were now known the length and breadth of Ireland and beyond.

Things got fast for The Saw Doctors. A Channel 4, film documentary, ‘Sing A Powerful Song’, was shot in Manchester and at a homecoming concert in the Football Stadium in Tuam and it aired in Britain and Ireland. The Saw Doctors made their first trip to The United States in 1991, a journey they have made almost a hundred times since.

Through the 1990’s, The Saw Doctors chalked up well-received appearances at numerous prestigious festivals including Witness, Oxegen and Slane Castle in Ireland; Glastonbury, T in the Park, the London Fleadh in Britain as well as at its Fleadh cousins across the Atlantic in New York and San Francisco, and garnered a reputation for being a powerful and exciting live band, playing gigs in Ireland, Britain and the USA, with the odd trip to Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Holland, France and Belgium.

A handful of singles went Top 20 in the British Charts through the nineties & The Saw Doctors appeared on BBC’s ‘Top of the Pops’ three times with ‘Small Bit Of Love’, ‘To Win Just Once’ and ‘World Of Good’. The Saw Doctors third album ’Same Oul’ Town’ reached No. 6 in the UK Album Charts in 1996.

The end of 2011 brought another surprise hit for The Saw Doctors – having included a verse and chorus of ‘Downtown’ in the show-closing ‘Hay Wrap’, the band noticed that ‘Downtown’ captured the imagination of the audience, making it a potential contender for the Christmas single. On a long-shot, producer Phillip Tennant got in touch with Petula Clark’s manager and a recording session was arranged in London where the old 60’s classic was re-vamped and recorded – ‘The Saw Doctors featuring Petula Clark’! The lively duet made it to number 2 in the Irish singles Christmas chart.

Loved & revered by their loyal fans, many of whom have been recruited by already fan friends, The Saw Doctors continue with a resilience and an effervescent energy, looking forward to playing Summer Festivals in the UK in 2023.

“ If The Saw Doctors could bottle the sort of bonhomie that can make an entire concert hall feel better, they would have the medicine show to end them all”
Paul Sexton, The Times

The Trouble Notes’ music is an eclectic fusion of genre across the entirety of the musical spectrum, creating a sound that is truly unique to its own.
Rob Underwood, BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Sitting somewhere between world folk, modern classical, and tribal dance music, The Trouble Notes have traveled their way across continents in search of musical influences. Travel across oceans and time with the soulful melodies of Bennet’s violin and Carola’s voice as your body pulses with the explosive energy from Florian’s guitar. Worldly percussion rhythms transport the audience across genre with a uplifting spirit for which The Trouble Notes have become world renown.

Their new show “More Violins, Less Violence” is packed with songs from their 2nd Studio album “Liberty Awaits”. Their repertoire brings the traditions of Europe and the Americas together and carries a message of Unity in Diversity. The includes songs like “Grand Masquerade” and “Never Dream Alone” that have featured in Videos amassing millions of views worldwide.

Art and Music must be a force for healing in this world. Help us support children effected by Violence. 5 Pounds of every More Violins, Less Violence Shirt will be donated to SOS Children’s Villages.