KentFolk News January 2008

The Hook and Hatchet at Hucking, ME17 1QT, are starting to have about once per month Celtic/Rock evenings on Wednesdays, and Cajun/Zydeco evenings on Thursdays, please do support them, a great pub, well worth a visit, and great dance music.
And I hear that The Fling (Kevin Smith) had them well packed, and RedEye (Trevor Stephenson and Chris Taylor) certainly had all the Cajun and Appalachian dancers (including Viv and myself) up on the dance-floor.
Gig-report : www.kentfolk.com/gig_reports/2008/2008-01-24_RedEye_Hook&Hatchet-at-Hucking

And the Wrotham Arms, Broadstairs, CT10 1QQ, long time supporters of Broastairs Folk Week. Jenny Ryan, the new landlady, writes with their new quality music gig list, with music on most Fridays and Saturdays. Do turn-up, a great venue for music.

See the Venues section of KentFolk Mews, below, for more updates. Certainly looking forward to these evenings myself.

Oh and do remember to support the Bottleneck Blues Club - it has closed once due to lack of support and the re-constituted events are on a knife-edge.

And Dougie Hudson is starting up regular Monday music in the Barnaby Rudge : Monday 28th January - The Hot Rats Duo; Monday 4th February - The Dealers; Monday 11th February - Camine; Monday 18th February - Open Harp Surgery; Monday 25th February - Tim Edey. So an excellent line-up there, do support it.

However, something that I have believed for some time, is that Canterbury itself needs a venue suitable for music with dancing - there is the Festival Club during Canterbury Festival, which can come up with a tiny dance floor area, but for much of the rest of the year it seems that a small village such as Lower Hardres is much better equipped than is a major city such as Canterbury.

This year they will be over on Sunday 18th May :
Shelagh Bradley is organising the following :

English Music Session- Mike Ruth Paul Me (Watershed Band)
Irish Music Session- Paul Judy Me Ian-Gnome Andy Manion
Singing Katie (+ some gospel songs they might know) + Roly or Richard Matthewman

We'd all be round the table where we usually are so the evening (times approximate) might go like this:

8pm ..30 mins English tunes ....30 mins Irish tunes ....20 mins Songs
And so on with space for floor spots...
we might even ask if they will dance a barn dance with us

Does this sound like a good programme ?

Selling individual MP3 tracks, and complete Digital Albums, over the web :
For some time KentFolk has been using PayPal to sell local musician's CDs. A new technology that I have wanted for some time, is now in place: - KentFolk can now sell individual MP3 tracks, either directly from the KentFolk web pages, with payment by CC or PayPal, or via the highly respected eFolkMusic www.eFolkMusic.org, in the States.

If you are a musician, group or band that would like to sell your tracks over the web, and of course this is particularly good for both CDs that have all sold out, as well as new tracks that are not yet on a CD, then please email me : Beau@KentFolk.com

I am limited in my time available to "turn the handle" on these, and it is very time-consuming, but will do what I can. As a preliminary offering, the 2003 Deal LifeBoat House shanty recording were the first available on the web - both in the form of a few individual tracks, and the complete recording - all net profit to the NLRI, after the CC/PayPal deductions.

MP3 music currently available on KentFolk, at www.kentfolk.com/#Mp3music :

• "The LifeBoat Men come ...."
  13 sea shanties recorded by KentFolk during the 2003 Deal Maritime Festival, at a live concert by Shanty Crew, Bosun's Call and the Deal Hoodeners, in the LifeBoat House, Deal on the 7th of September, 2003. - all net money to the RNLI!

• "The LifeBoat Men come ...."
  13 sea shanties recorded by KentFolk during the 2003 Deal Maritime Festival, at a live concert by Shanty Crew, Bosun's Call and the Deal Hoodeners, in the LifeBoat House, Deal on the 7th of September, 2003. - all net money to the RNLI!
• "Reasons to Rhyme"
  Two tracks from members of the Deal Folk Club : CD: "Reasons to Rhyme" - "He Rode the Waves" and "Mother Nature", with Sue Watson singing and Stuart Maclean on the guitar.
• "The Rattlaz : Songs of Peace & Protest"
  England is still experiencing hard times and the crow is still well and truly fixed to the cradle. Deportees are still with us in the form of migrant workers ... The voice in all these songs is the voice of compassion and understanding, the voice of hope and determination. We ignore this voice at our peril.
  Originally produced as a Concert for the Folkestone Literary Festival, 2006. Chris Tophill : Accordion / Piano / Mandolin / Vocals. Kevin Richards : Djembe / Percussion / Guitar / Vocals. Jack Pound : 6 & 12 String Guitars / Banjo / Harmoonica / Vocals.
• "Relig Oran : Tracks From The Dark Side"
  These three lads - all deeply experienced in Traditional Celtic and European music - are creating a genre of their own - I am using the term "Euro-Celt" to describe the music they are writing and playing. It looks back to our roots when the Celts were pan-Europe, and makes a strong statement for the present when the Tribes of Europe are re-finding what they have in common.
  Gordon Jackson - Andy Renshaw - Martin Sutcliffe
• "Martin Long : The Climbing Boy"
  "Martin Young : Botany Bay"
  Martin is a lad who has been around on the Faversham Folk scene for longer than I have known it, variously as Martin Long, and Martin Young.
  Martin is I feel very much in the old troubadour mold, in that the music can not let him rest, it very much defines who he is.
  The songs he sings, sometimes intensely personal, sometimes with local Kentish references, are mostly self-penned, usually both the tunes and the lyrics.
  The Climbing Boy: Title Track: Often small boys were taken in by Chimney sweeps and in return for a home were forced to climb chimneys and scour them out as they ascended. Rochester has an annual Sweeps Festival.
  Botany Bay: Title Track: is a double reference - to both the Botany Bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - it was the site of a landing by James Cook - and also to the Botany Bay near Broadstairs in Kent - see cover photograph.
• "Happy Trails : White Sands"
  Choice Americana in harmony from a group of musicians who have been giving Kent top quality music for many years - Blues, Cajun, Appalachian, Country and now Americana from the South.
  13 songs where this Kentish band - Happy Trails - take an honest and affectionate view into what they have seen and heard on some of their many visits to the Southern States.

The KentFolk page on eFolkMusic is at : www.efolkmusic.org/ArtMusic/ViewArtist.aspx?a=0&AID=1570
Then go to the MP3 and Digital Album links.

Multi-level directories of News :
Do keep sending me news and items for both the calendar and this news section -
Please see the info at the bottom of the news pages for guidance as to good formats to send me news items for these pages, and for event listings for the calendars.
cheers, Beau.