Hi and welcome to this week’s Dreamers Newsletter.
It was a quieter night at Dreamers on Sunday in more ways than one after the packed house and lusty chorus singing with Tom Lewis the previous week. An opportunity for regulars to show what they can do and, often, to gain confidence in front of a smaller audience to go on to greater things (as we have seen). This coming Bank Holiday Sunday and the following week (4th June) will be Singers Nights again leading up to the visit of Na Mara on 11th June.
But if you are also looking for a range of different performers, this Saturday, 27th May, sees the next session of the Cornish Zoom Folk Club and we are hoping the usual wide range of performers, some from nearby and some from much further afield. It’s one of the delights of these sessions that we never quite know who is going to arrive so each evening is that bit different. And, as usual, we have several new faces who have asked for the link. As usual that will go out to the mailing list separately on Friday – if you don’t get it and would like to give it a try, just let me know.
I’m now getting very regular mailings from the various Festivals – Sidmouth is from 4th to 11th August and you can see all the details and buy tickets at Homepage – The Sidmouth Folk Festival. Similarly the Cornwall Festival at Wadebridge runs over the August Bank Holiday weekend from 24th to 28th August – Cornwall Folk Festival – Brings Folk’s Best To Cornwall; Showcases Cornwall to the World!
There’s a fundraiser for the Cornwall Festival next Saturday June 3rd in Wadebridge Town Hall with Cataclews, a local ceilidh band based near Padstow. The previous fundraiser in February ended up supporting the DEC Turkey/Syria Earthquake Appeal, and raised £1,250. This time the Cornwall Folk Festival itself is the beneficiary – it’s only £10 each, tickets available online from
Summer Fun(draiser) Ceilidh with Cataclews – Cornwall Folk Festival
I’ve also been contacted by Endellienta Arts with more info about their summer programme. This includes the bluegrass group Flats and Sharps on 17th June and a folk double bill of the Gigspanner Trio with on 6th July. There’s more in the programme including a summer family show, Skillywidden, a celebration of Cornish wildlife and faery myths – details at What’s On – Endelienta Arts
A reminder that Live to Your Living Room features The Young ‘Uns on Tuesday 30th May at 7.30 – tickets from Events | Live Music Online Gig | Live to your Living Room
John has emailed from a ferry to Orkney going the long way round because their booked ferry ran aground. It’s going up and down a bit and the captain had just announced it may get a bit rough going round Hoy! Anyway, he thought this link and thought it may be of interest to some. RTE in Ireland have released a huge archive of acetate recordings, all sorts of stuff but including some real gems of folk recordings.All at https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/acetate-disc-collection/
News of a podcast and audiobook which might interest some. This is the Heal & Harrow Podcast, Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl in conversation with writer Màiri Kidd, discussing the women behind the stories that inspired their acclaimed album and show ’Heal & Harrow’. In each episode, extracts from the stories are read by 10 brilliant Scottish voices. Scottish Witch Trials / Folklore & Mythology / Women’s History / Modern Day Parallels. Heal & Harrow seeks to pay tribute to the thousands of people accused, tried and executed during the Scottish Witch Trials. More info from HOME | Heal & Harrow (healandharrow.com)
Enough for now, many thanks to all contributors – I know some folk are away but hope to see plenty of you at the Club on Sunday.
All the best
Nigel