The Folk on Foot Festival of LOVE!

14:00​ Nancy Kerr and James Fagan

14:05​ Heidi Talbot

14:20​ Seth Lakeman

14:35​ Lady Nade

14:50​ Kris Drever

15:05​ O’Hooley and Tidow

15:20​ Chris Wood

15:35​ Nancy Kerr and James Fagan

15:40​ Bella Hardy

15:55​ Sam Lee

16:10​ Rachel Newton

16:30​ Eliza Carthy

16:45​ Beth Porter and the Bookshop Band

17:00​ Gwilym Bowen Rhys

17:15​ Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver

17:30​ Martin Simpson

17:45​ Kerry Andrew/You Are Wolf

18:00​ Seckou Keita

18:15​ Peggy Seeger

18:30​ Kitty Macfarlane

18:45​ The Breath

19:00​ Steve Knightley

19:15​ Karine Polwart

19:35​ Jon Boden

19:50​ Nancy Kerr and James Fagan

Donate to support the artists and the charity Help Musicians at https://www.folkonfoot.com/festival

💿 Buy CDs at our virtual merch tent at https://www.folkonfoot.com/festival

⌚ Running order (all times GMT and approximate)

BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winners Announced 

Brìghde Chaimbeul, winner of the Horizon award (Photo: Andy Catlin)

Seckou Keita, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Ríoghnach Connolly and Ye Vagabonds among winners.

The winners of the 20th BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards were announced last night at an event at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

The Trials of Cato won Best Album for Hide and Hair and Ye Vagabonds won Best Traditional Track for ‘The Foggy Dew’. Karine Polwart and Steven Polwart won Best Original Track for ‘I Burn But I Am Not Consumed’ from the album Laws of Motion.

Senegalese kora player and drummer Seckou Keita won Musician of the Year and Scottish piper Brìghde Chaimbeul won the Horizons Best Emerging Act award. Keita also won Best Duo with Welsh harper Catrin Finch.

Maddie Morris was presented with the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, which is an educational talent contest open to musicians from the UK aged 16 to 21.

Ríoghnach Connolly from Armagh won Folk Singer of the Year and Dervish and English folk and blues singer and guitarist Wizz Jones were given Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Leonard Cohen was inducted into Radio 2 Folk Awards Hall of Fame, joining artists such as Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Woody Guthrie, Ewan MacColl and Cecil Sharp.

For the full list of winners and nominees, see below. The RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards take place next Thursday 24 October in Dublin.

 

Source: BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winners Announced | The Journal of Music: News, Reviews & Opinion | Music Jobs & Opportunities

Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita review – life-affirming musical union

Classically trained Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, the Senegalese exponent of the west African harp kora, first collaborated in 2013 on their widely acclaimed album Clychau Dibon. Its long-awaited follow-up, Soar, was released last month. This concert was an emotional demonstration of how two virtuoso musicians triumphantly bring different cultures together.It began with a delightful and appropriate concept. Wales used to have a large osprey population, but by the 17th century the birds had been persecuted to extinction. The ospreys have recently returned, migrating from west Africa, and Clarach celebrates the first Welsh-born osprey for hundreds of years. The track began with floating harp work punctuated by kora basslines, then developed into a soaring, gently rousing improvisation celebrating freedom of movement.

 

The duo swapped improvised melody lines and rhythmic backing almost intuitively, in a set that showcased their new album. Bach to Baïsso started with a western classical theme – from Bach’s Goldberg Variations – played on kora before easing into an elegant but lively ancient Senegambian tune, with Seckou providing laid-back vocals. Elsewhere, on 1677, they moved from a bluesy, atmospheric lament about slavery to a playful rhythmic workout, while on the charming Listen to the Grass Grow they were joined by Welsh singer Gwyneth Glyn, who had opened the show.

Finch is undergoing cancer treatment, and asked for donations for an NHS centre in Cardiff “that has saved many lives and is currently saving mine”. Then she launched into Hinna-Djulo, matching Seckou’s now swinging, jazzy kora improvisation with delight. It was a classy, joyful and life-affirming set.

 

Source: Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita review – life-affirming musical union | Music | The Guardian

Review: Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita “Soar”

Even before the first notes of harp and kora play out from this excellent second disc by Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese Kora player Seckou Keita, there is a lovely piece of romance surrounding it that mirrors the two musics that this duo have put together so very successfully. The main star of Soar is the Osprey, a raptor that has begun breeding again in Wales after a four hundred year absence when it was effectively persecuted to extinction in the country as vermin. The bond between Wales and West Africa has been re-established for the bird, with the first to remake the several thousand mile round journey being christened ‘Clarach’, which also provides the title of the opening track.

As was clear from the duo’s debut Clychau Dibon from 2013, the music produced from this pairing seems to be more a re-establishing of sound and musical cultures, rather than an introduction, which of course ties in well with the story of our eponymous bird, flying the flag for the species in Wales. ‘Clarach’ begins spacious, with a long bass note and phonetics playing alongside the picked kora, before the harp line begins to set a pace and rhythm that grows in strength and urgency as the track develops. At six minutes, there is time to allow the music to unfold here and switch from a minor to major key, which adds to the drama of the bird’s journey, so skilfully illustrated through the duo’s playing. Just before we are two thirds through, there is a subtle shift where the energy calms and Keita’s kora line jumps away from the harp, as if being carried off on a breeze, before rejoining for a rousing end. It’s examples like this running through the whole set that displays the trust the pair have in each other’s ability and the relationship they have built through collaborating this past six years. Continue reading