Some of our 2012 Festival guests.
Although it is early days, the indications are that we will
again feature a strong international component particularly
of traditional origins, with, as is our policy, a spread of
genre covering Celtic, world, roots, folk and acoustic. |
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KRYSTLE WARREN
After years busking and hustling in Kansas City, New York and
Paris, Missouri-born singer-songwriter Krystle Warren is suddenly
attracting attention both from the industry, her peers and an
ever growing fan base. There's no doubt Krystle is that rarest
of all, an original and however media try to put her in a compartment
she quietly kicks down the door down and slips into the next.
Her recent Australian appearances last November in 'Way to Blue:
the songs of Nick Drake' blew everybody away with her intensity,
her amazing vocal range and her consummate singing skills. She
was undoubtedly the hit of the show.
> Find out more: Website
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BEN SOLLEE
Ben Sollee is one of the most interesting and unusual artists
to emerge in recent years from the US. He is a genre-bending
cellist and vocalist known for his percussive playing style,
genre hopping songwriting, wide appeal, and political activism.
His music incorporates banjo, guitar, percussion and unusual
cello techniques to create a unique mix of folk, bluegrass,
R & B and jazz.
> Find out more: Website
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BEOGA
Irish five-piece traditional band based in County Antrim, features
the twin dueling accordions of Seán Óg Graham
and Damian McKee, four-time All-Ireland bodhrán champion
Eamon Murray and pianist Liam Bradley along with the vocals
of one of Ireland's premier young singers, Niamh Dunne. With
their signature mix of Irish traditional music with nuances
of bluesy riffs, Astor Piazzola-style jazz, and a raunchy New
Orleans jamboree vibe, they are a band that like to have fun.
> Find out more: Website
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PIERRE BENSUSAN
Pierre Bensusan has long been acknowledged as one of the finest
acoustic guitarists on the planet, a fearless improviser who
constantly explores the depth of his own voice in a way that
transcends his instrument. There is a sense of something both
playful and serious in his work, an unparalleled sense of freedom
in his compositions and improvisations, which continue to defy
classification - crossing world, classical, jazz, traditional
folk and more.
> Find out more: Website
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SHOOGLENIFTY
When Shooglenifty hit the Scottish folk scene with their first
album Venus in Tweeds, they literally tore the place apart.
'Shoogles' cranked it up in a major way; the resulting sound
marries original traditionally based tunes - primarily Scottish
in style, but featuring a wealth of other world-music flavours
- with rhythmic energy, inventiveness and sophistication. Their
music is adventurous, inventive, tight and fast
> Find out more: Website
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PETER ROWAN BLUEGRASS BAND
The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band consists of outstanding musicians
with over 100 years of combined recording and performance experience.
Joining guitarist Peter Rowan are Michael Witcher, dobro; Keith
Little, banjo; and Paul Knight, bass. The ensemble has graced
the stages of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Grey Fox, Merlefest,
Rothbury Australia’s National Folk Festival, and numerous
other festivals domestically and abroad, entertaining audiences
with original and traditional songs executed in vibrant harmony.
> Find out more: Website
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ABIGAIL WASHBURN
If American old-time music is about taking earlier, simpler
ways of life and music-making as one's model, Abigail Washburn
has proven herself to be a bracing revelation to that tradition.
She-a singing, songwriting, Illinois-born, Nashville-based clawhammer
banjo player-is every bit as interested in the present and the
future as she is in the past, and every bit as attuned to the
global as she is to the local. She pairs venerable folk elements
with far-flung sounds, and the results feel both strangely familiar
and unlike anything anybody's ever heard before. To put it another
way, she changes what seems possible.
> Find out more: Website
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APRIL VERCH BAND
April Verch, doesn’t just perform music, she exudes it.
The internationally renowned Canadian fiddler, singer, songwriter
and stepdancer has a passion for performing and her goal is
to touch the lives of those who are listening at any given moment.
Verch was born to traditional music, in Canada’s hard-working,
hard-dancing Ottawa Valley. Ottawa Valley music is a foot-stomping,
open-minded fusion of Irish, Scottish, French, German, and Polish
influences, sprinkled with tangy spices of American country
music. The twang of the banjo and the driving Franco-Celtic
pulse of the fiddle are as ingrained in April as snowbound winters
and Saturday dances.
> Find out more: Website
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BATTLEFIELD BAND
Under their banner Forward with Scotland’s Past, Battlefield
Band have been performing on the international scene for four
decades, inspired by their rich heritage of Celtic music and
fired by the strength of the modern Scottish cultural scene.
The band, who pioneered the integration of bagpipes with fiddle,
keyboards, guitar and voice, mix the old songs and tunes with
new self-penned material, playing them on a unique fusion of
ancient and modern instruments: bagpipes, fiddles, guitars,
cittern, bass, keyboards, whistles, and bouzouki.
> Find out more: Website
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CHRIS WHILE and JULIE MATTHEWS
Winners in the Best Duo category at the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk
Awards and nine times nominated since 2001 in the Best Duo,
Best Song & Best Live Act categories. Thoughout their career
they have toured solidly as a duo in the UK, Europe, Africa,
North America and Australia where they have achieved great success
and are held in the highest esteem, filling concert halls and
headlining festival stages. Chris While & Julie Matthews
are both individual writers of some note but it's when they
combine their writing talents that the unique nature of their
partnership flourishes. They are world renowned for their affinity
on stage and for the energy and enthusiasm of their live perfomances.
> Find out more: Website
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