Folk Alliance

Enchanting Acoustic Chamber-Folk by Irish Songwriter Anna Mieke

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Irish multi-instrumentalist Anna Mieke’s songs conjure expansive places and moving through those places- touching on death, dreaming, memory, and family. She and her band play in-studio.

The Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Mieke spent much of her youth traveling the world – from Spain to Bangladesh, Bulgaria to New Zealand.  Her songs can conjure an expansive sense of place, and of moving through those places – touching on change, age, death, dreaming, memory, family, and perhaps an alternate reality on her latest album Theatre.

Anna Mieke’s enveloping acoustic chamber-folk can start with her borrowed 1936 Epiphone guitar, and may also involve improvisation with her core band. She’s also a bouzouki player, pianist, and a cellist who played with HEX, a Cork-based experimental outfit, and was a vocalist with the singing group, Rufous Nightjar. She’s collaborated with Irish artists Crash Ensemble, Adrian Crowley, and Linda Buckley and with New York-based artists Charlotte Greve, Grey McMurray, and Anna Roberts Gevalt; in March, Mieke will play shows with Iron & Wine.

Anna Mieke and her band stopped by on their current tour to play these recent songs, in-studio.Set list: “Seraphim”, “Twin”, “Coralline”

Watch “Twin”:

Watch “Coralline”:

Source: Enchanting Acoustic Chamber-Folk by Irish Songwriter Anna Mieke | Soundcheck | New Sounds

Richard Thompson speaks at Folk Alliance 

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Richard Thompson at 2018 Folk Alliance

Richard Thompson and John Oates separately discussed what’s kept their careers sustainable.

Thompson said his guitar-playing technique also evolved with the times. By using alternate tunings and bending the strings and the neck, he used the electric six-stringed instrument to create a sound “closer to the human voice” or to a bagpipe, especially when interpreting or extending Scottish folk traditions on songs like “A Sailor’s Life, “Matty Groves” and “Meet on the Ledge.”

Regarding his practice in recent decades of alternating solo acoustic performances and recordings with those of an electric band, Thompson said he likes the intimate solo concert because it’s “sort of like being in church. It’s heart to heart.”

 

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