Author: Joyce Hodge

Eddie Walker is the special guest on Wednesday 11th December at Irvine Folk Club – and that will be the final Club night for 2013 already! He is a firm favourite with Irvine audiences and a popular choice to close the Club’s year.
Middlesborough man Eddie Walker is well-known to Irvine audiences and his skill as a musician and evident enjoyment in what he does has made him a frequent visitor here. Eddie has a fiendishly dexterous style of guitar playing and his repertoire reflects a lifelong exposure to and love for a number of musical influences including bluegrass, old time, rags, blues and country.
Red Shoes and Blues featuring harmonica wizard Fraser Speirs is Eddie’s most recent CD and it has been very well received. He and Fraser perform as a duo on occasion and will continue to do so despite 2013 being Eddie’s last year as a full-time touring solo act. Eddie has been a professional folk singer for more than 40 years and understandably feels the pull of retirement increasingly attractive. Life on the road takes its toll. However, if any of Eddie’s musical pals ask him to play on occasion, he would most likely answer in the affirmative!
At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year Eddie played a one-night-only gig with Welshman John James -another amazing guitar-picker. Eddie and John used to go under the name of Carolina Shout and played often at the Irvine Club but went their separate ways some 18 years ago. So, either as a soloist or as part of various duos, Eddie Walker has not been a stranger to Irvine Folk Club or Marymass Folk Festival.
So, for exposure to Eddie’s loud shirts and his sheer enjoyment of music, make sure that you are in the Irvine Folk Club audience on Wednesday 11th December – it looks like it will be the last time Eddie Walker plays solo at the Irvine Club. The Club meets in Vineburgh Community Centre in Quarry Road and it’s BYOB.

Jez Lowe is one of the busiest and most popular and respected performers on the international folk scene and happily he is back at Irvine Club on Wednesday 27th November when he plays at the club as part of his current UK mini-tour.

Born and raised in the coalmining community of Easington in County Durham, Jez has been playing since the early 70’s. His vitality and simplicity of style accompanied by a driving guitar and engaging humour are just some of the reasons for the enduring popularity of Jez Lowe. He also plays mandocello and a prize if you have ever seen him not wear a stripey t-shirt on stage!

He is a prolific songwriter -Richard Thomson thinks Jez is the best contemporary English songwriter. A number of his songs address the economic distress suffered by the North Country as a result of the decline of the coal industry and the ensuing social repercussions. His songs can be heard in all corners of the world and artists of the calibre of Fairport Convention, Cherish the Ladies, The Dubliners and The Tannahills have all recorded Jez’s material.

Jez has played in Irvine on a number of occasions sometimes solo and sometimes with his backing band The Bad Pennies. For anyone who has not heard him, go along to the Irvine Club on the 27th November. With Jez Lowe topping the bill, you will not be disappointed.

Irvine Folk Club meets in Vineburgh Community Centre in Quarry Road at 8pm and it’s BYOB.

Finally, Celtic Connections will soon be upon us. The Winter extravaganza has 300 events, starts on 16th January and goes right through until 2nd February. All information is available on the web or from the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

The guests at Irvine Folk Club on Wednesday 13^th November are Mairearad Green and Anna Massie and the amazing thing is that they are able to fit in Club bookings at all in their hectic schedule! So hats off to all concerned for securing this booking of two multi- talented and much acclaimed musicians.

The visit to Irvine is part of Mairearad and Anna’s Doubling Tour Part 11 which takes in venues from Belfast to Gateshead to Dartford and a lot of places in between.  Doubling is the name of their recently released second album. The two girls started playing together some ten years ago and it has often been said that on stage they have an almost telepathic communication.

Mairearad from Achiltibuie has been described as ‘one of Scotland’s foremost musical exports’. A deft accordion player she is in much demand as a performer and a composer. Having started writing original music at an early age, Mairearad’s talent was formally recognised when she was made the PRS Composer of the Year in the 2009 MG Alba Scots Music Award.

As well as being part of a duo with Anna, Mairearad also plays with Box Club, The Unusual Suspects, The Buie Ceilidh Band, The Poozies and in December has a number of gigs with Mike Vass.

Fortrose born Anna Massie is an excellent guitarist who also excels on fiddle, mandolin and banjo.  Such are her musical talents that Anna is also a member of Blazin’ Fiddles and The Unusual Suspects – the Celtic Big Band. Anna has twice played at the Celtic Colours festival in Cape Breton and it will come as little surprise that she is a former winner of BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year.

Mairearad and Anna are a captivating duo with a warm and friendly stage presence. KT Tunstall was so impressed by their Celtic Connections performance in 2012 that she immediately joined their growing fan base. Not a bad endorsement!

Judge for yourself when Mairearad and Anna play at Irvine Folk Club on Wednesday 13^th November at Vineburgh Community Centre. The Club starts at 8pm and it’s BYOB.

P.S.  A post script from Pete Heywood who saw Mairearad and Anna at Stonehaven Folk Festival this summer.  He described their performance as ‘simply stunning’.  “They had everything, great musicianship, great tunes, a fabulous rapport with the audience.  These days we tend to use superlatives too easily – but all I could think was ‘that was stunning’.”

A new band with three very experienced musicians will top the bill at Irvine Folk Club on Wednesday 30^th October. Drever, McGuire & Young is the band.

Ivan Drever, Frank McGuire and Rich Young are the musicians who met at a Folk Club in early 2012 where they first played together ….and a new band was created.

Irvine audiences are well acquainted with Ivan Drever and Frank McGuire, both having played at the Club and at Marymass Folk Festival over the years.  Rich Young will be a new face.  English born Rich lives in Scotland and has a very varied musical background. On guitar and keyboards, he has played, performed and recorded with the likes of Eurythmics Dave Stewart and Dire Straits’ David Knopfler. He also writes music for radio and TV shows and produces and records music.

Orkney isles man Ivan Drever fronted the acclaimed folk rock band Wolfstone and then went on to a variety of musical collaborations from all of which he has 28 albums to his name! Can he really be old enough to have done all that !

Percussionist and Whistle player ‘of note’ Frankie McGuire is just at home whether playing at a small session in a Bar or at a Concert in a large hall.  Most usually heard in Irvine as leading Lyra Celtica, Frank like Ivan and Rich brings a wealth of musical experience to the band.

Drever, McGuire & Young play vintage folk plus blues and soul. The band has just released their debut album and it promises to be another good night on Wednesday 30^th October at Irvine Folk Club.  The Club meets in Vineburgh Community Centre in Quarry Road and starts at 8pm.  It’s also BYOB.

For more details see: www.drevermcguireyoung.com

Other News

Elsewhere, the Celtic Connections programme for 2014 was launched last week.  There will be 2,100 artists – yes that’s two thousand one hundred – appearing in 20 venues at 300 events from 16^th January to 2^nd February.

For more details on Celtic Connections see: www. celticconnections.com

 

 

 

For technical reasons you can’t access the Irvine Folk Club website at the moment via the www.irvinefolkclub.co.uk address. The website is still up and running though and accessible through a second address. You will find the site if you Google Irvine Folk Club or you can access it directly here. www.irvinefolkclub.trad.org.uk

We are currently doing some training on updating the website, so over the next couple of weeks you might a few more emails than normal. We apologise in advance for any errors. Man didn’t get to the moon without the odd snag, hopefully Joyce and Anne’s journey into cyberspace will be a smooth one!

Encourage your friends to join the club email mailing list.  Everyone who is subscribed to the Club Website will be getting this email automatically.  If you have any friends who you think would like to know what is happening at the club, the best way to keep in touch is to ‘subscribe’ to our news via the website.  All you need to do is to enter an email address on the website.  And it’s FREE!

The guests on Wednesday 30^th October at Irvine Folk Club are Drever, McGuire and Young.  We will be adding more information over the coming days. Meantime tell your friends.  Find out more at  www.drevermcguireyoung.com

 

Barbara Dymock is back at Irvine Folk Club and this time with Christopher Marra, brother of the late Michael.  They top the bill on Wednesday 16^th October at the Irvine Club which meets in Vineburgh Community Centre.

Barbara Dymock was a member of the celebrated Ceolbeg in the ‘70’s and  now, after a 20 plus year break to concentrate on her career and raise three sons, is described as a tradition bearer.  Methil born Barbara learned Scottish and Irish traditional songs from her grandparents. As a student at Dundee, she took part in the University Folk Club and began taking a serious interest in music. A founder member of Coelbeg, Barbara was also part of other musical collaborations including Rathlin and Palaver. Along with Christine Kydd, she formed a duo called Sinsheen. That duo remains in place to this day.

Barbara took a break from music when the long hours of a Junior Doctor ‘put a dampner on social activities’. Now she’s back – happy to hang round sessions and festivals and has released an album, Hilbert’s Hotel. Produced by the late Michael Marra, it includes the first CD recording of his song Maggie Sha’. The album has been well received with reviews rejoicing in Barbara’s return to the folk scene.

Barbara loves being part of the constant evolution of tradition.  It’s that enjoyment which has sustained her 35 year interest in music. At Irvine Folk Club, Barbara will be joined by Christopher Marra. With a musical career spanning four decades, Dundonian Chris is a much respected guitarist and has played in many bands. As well as the new musical collaboration with Barbara, his other current band is The Hazey Janes.

Barbara and Christopher have a considerable musical pedigree. Make sure you are in the audience to hear them on 16^th October at Irvine Folk Club.

The Club starts at 8pm and it’s BYOB.

For more details see: www.barbaradymock.com

 

 

Don’t be fooled – there’s four of them and three of them are women.  But what’s in a name!  The Bevvy Sisters are a new band for Irvine Folk Club and they make their debut appearance at the Club on Wednesday 18^th September.

The Bevvy Sisters emerged some years ago as an off-shoot from the Edinburgh based Loveboat Big Band. Since then they have played Festivals and Clubs up and down the UK including appearances at Celtic Connections and the Transatlantic Sessions.

Heather Macleod, Kaela Rowan and Lindsay Black are three of the Sisters – the name of the male is a mystery yet to be revealed but chances are that he is the accompanist on guitar or maybe string bass.  Information on The Bevvy Sisters is hard to come by. What is known is that the three seasoned voices of Heather, Kaela and Lindsay form glorious harmonies to sing a repertoire that includes vintage, contemporary and original songs featuring  Jazz standards, Americana, Gospel and Folk. And their stage performance is nothing if not lively.

The Bevvy Sisters have a huge and growing fan base, including Eddie Reader. Indeed, she likes them so much she wants to be an understudy! , At Irvine Folk Club prepare for heartbreak and hilarity, sweetness and sass from the much acclaimed Bevvy Sisters. ‘From  lovelorn to lighthearted, and from murderously melancholic to cowgirl romantic’ was how one reviewer described the content of a Bevvy Sisters gig.

Therefore, to hear this bundle of energy and vocal magic, be in the Irvine Folk Club audience on Wednesday 18^th September for 8pm in Vineburgh Community Centre to hear The Bevvy Sisters.  And appropriately it’s BYOB at Irvine Folk Club!

An Australian fiddle player and a Wigtownshire piano player are the guests at Irvine Folk Club on Wednesday 7^th August. Their names respectively are Malcolm Bushby & Rosie Lindsay and they come highly recommended.

Tasmanian Malcolm has a strong Scottish heritage and grew up listening to the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland. So immersed in music was he that at age thirteen he toured Scotland with a Tasmanian Celtic band called Tantallon – after the East Lothian castle. Young Malcolm was impressing audiences and that led him to appearances at numerous festivals in Australia and frequently was a support act to touring folk artists in Tasmania.

After moving to Newcastle upon Tyne, Malcolm joined the North East young folk ensemble Folkestra under the direction of Kathryn Tickell. With them he played at various UK venues .He has studied with fiddlers of the calibre of Aidan O’Rourke and Stewart Hardy and by all accounts, Malcolm is considered to be one of the finest young fiddle players on the Scottish scene. No mean feat! As if that wasn’t enough, he also plays bouzouki.

At Irvine, Malcolm will be joined by Rosie Lindsay.   Wigtownshire Rosie is a Folk & Trad Music graduate of Newcastle University and has recorded a solo album which featured Malcolm.  Like Malcolm she really enjoys playing the traditional music of the UK and in particular from her home area of Dumfries & Galloway.

Malcolm Bushby & Rosie Lindsay are the final guests before the 46^th Marymass Folk Festival.  Reasons aplenty therefore to get along to Irvine Folk Club in Vineburgh Community Centre on Wednesday 7^th August  to hear Malcolm & Rosie and limber up for Marymass.  The Club starts at 8pm and it’s BYOB.

Marymass Folk Festival

As mentioned, Marymass Folk Festival is but a blink away! The festival dates are Wednesday 21^st – Sunday 25^th August.  Programmes giving all info are out, but if you can’t find one phone Joyce on 01294 551047

In a change to the scheduled programme, the special guests at Irvine Folk Club on Wednesday 24^th July will be Mhairi Baird, Laura Jane Wilkie & Suzane Houston.  This female trio are part of the ever burgeoning ‘conveyor belt’ of young skilled musicians that Scotland is producing.  Two of them sing and between them they play Flute, Whistles, Fiddle and Piano.  Their repertoire is drawn from a variety of sources and influences but mainly Scottish and Irish traditional material.

Mhairi has played at Irvine before as a soloist while Laura Jane and Suzane will be making their debut appearance in Irvine.  They go under their own names which might make them sound like a team of Lawyers but no need to doubt their sound musical credentials.

And then it will be only one more Club Night until The 46^th Marymass Folk Festival! The Festival starts on 21st August and the closing notes will be on the 25^th August. As you can expect at Marymass, it’s a strong line-up of artists. In addition to the concerts and sessions there is a Youth Fiddle Workshop this year led by Emma Durkan. For 12 – 18 year olds on Saturday 17th & Sunday 18^th August it’s aimed at Intermediate and above levels. At only £6 each day it’s a steal.

For more info on the Fiddle Workshop and to reserve a place phone Joyce on 01294 551047. It’s the same number for all Marymass Folk Festival  enquiries and tickets.