KentFolk News May 2008

I have now uploaded a Sweeps photo-report - Go see :

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Sweeps Festival, Rochester, 2008.

Groanbox Boys, Sweeps Festival, Rochester, 2008.

The Government is in the process of introducing the 'Violent Crimes Reduction Bill' whereby the sale and use of items such as swords will be prohibited unless for historical re-enactment or sporting activities.
(This actually mainly applies to curved swords - but why should dancers stop using them ?)
Currently, the government does not recognize dance as either a historical re-enactment or a sporting activity and therefore dancers are not included within the exemption for the purchase & use of swords with regards to the Violent Crimes Reduction Bill (VCR Bill).
Traditional folklore dances in England since as far back as 1700s have been known to use props such as sticks and swords as part of their dances. These dances are forms of art that are of great historical & cultural relevance. Banning the purchase of and, more importantly, the use of these swords may cause such dancing to die out.
It is crucial that sword dances are preserved & allowed to continue.
There is a petition which is up on the home office website.

Please show your support and sign the petition to get dance included so that we can continue to preserve and perform the beautiful art of sword dance.
Whether you are a dancer or not, your support is needed, and fast the closing date is 25th June 2008
More signatures are desperately needed; here is the link:

petitions.pm.gov.uk/dancers/

We the undersigned propose that dance be included as historical re-enactment or sporting activity within the exemption for the purchase & use of swords. HEALTH/FITNESS/SPORT: Dance promotes a healthy lifestyle & is often taught as a form of aerobic sport exercise. Other classes focus on technique & performance, at a professional level a good knowledge of fitness & physiology is required. Belly dancers & many other types of traditional folklore dancers learn to use various props, such as sticks & swords which requires a great deal of skill, takes years to perfect & requires absolute stability of the head & neck, & flexibility & power. Thus, Types of dance that use swords as props, are 'an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess' which is the definition of sport, therefore, should be included within the Sporting Activity exemption. HISTORICAL PRESERVATION: Swords have been used in many traditional folklore dances in England since as far back as 1700s. These dances are forms of art that are of great historical & cultural relevance, Banning the use of these swords will inevitably cause them to die out. It is crucial that they are preserved & allowed to continue.

Please sign-up - Beau

• Sunday 11th May - Cajun Barn, Rainham Oast Community Centre, ME8 7SG - The Flatville Aces - Doors 6.30pm - £9.50/£8 - (020) 8850 2893
• Thursday 15th May - Brook Theatre, Chatham Map - Gumbo Jumbo Cajun Evening - 8pm - £8/£7 - 01634 338338
• Sunday 25th May - Littlebourne Thatched Barn, CT3 1TU - Dindon Sauvage, with Yves Langlois paying a rare visit back to Kent. - Doors 1pm for 2pm - £8 - 01227 721 736, www.KentFolk.com/KF_gigs , www.KentFolk.com/tickets
• Sunday 31st May - St Peters Church House, Cromwell Road, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 1NA -ZigaZag - Doors 7.30pm for 8pm - £7 - 01227-274340

Note: the Littlebourne Dance is now at 2pm, as in the evening, less than 10 miles down the road in Sandwich, are Truckstop Honeymoon (New Orleans, pre-Hurricane Katrina) and the remarkable local group The Dealers, and also Delta Tom and Nigel Feist - see www.UrbanFolkOrganization.com for tickets - not to be missed.

STOP PRESS: Sunday 25th May : Buy a combined all day event ticket for £12.50
www.KentFolk.com/tickets

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Littlebourne Barn, 2008.

Yves Langlois on fiddle, and Chris Taylor on guitar, bouzouki, harmonica and accordion.
- Some of the best Cajun music going.
Another excellent Cajun dance in the Littlebourne Thatched Barn.
Also a quite reasonable quality recording, joining the list of music in the queue for editing ....

And then there was the evening concert in St. Mary's, Sandwich - this was kicked-off by Delta Tom - keep listening to him - he set himself the task of playing the blues and how he does ....
As for the Dealers, just go see the photo-report - they have upped the ante ....
And it was a surprise to even me, how many firm friends Truckstop Honeymoon have in Kent - so please keep coming back.
Go see :

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St. Mary's Church, Sandwich, 2008.

The Dealers on stage in St. Mary's, Sandwich.
- A very remarkable concert.

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Folk in the Barn, 2008.

Debs built this excellent trio for a one-off gig - thanks !.

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Simple Simons, 2008.

The Annual Traditional Music Session in Simple Simons for Hope College.

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Deal Friday Folk Club, 2008.

Jim Leverton & Geoffrey Richardson were at Deal Friday Folk Club on the 23rd of May, 2008, and I was fortunate to have a few words with Geoff - see

Two Kentish Master Musicians go on the road again.

TAPS (Traditional Arts Projects) - www.tradarts.org - have had their funding withdrawn as part of the recent reduction in funding to the arts and sciences, and have now gone into receivership.

SEFAN (South East Folk Arts Network) - www.sefan.org.uk/ - have also lost their funding, and are being run at a reduced level on a voluntary basis.

Bottleneck Blues - www.bottleneckblues.co.uk/ - are getting good support at the moment, but please do not let it drop off ...
Wrotham Arms - www.myspace.com/wrothamarms , Hook & Hatchet, - www.hookandhatchet.co.uk/ and Barnaby Rudge - have all been steaming on the days that I have been there, but that is what the publicans and players need to afford to put the music on for you -

e-FolkMusic - www.efolkmusic.org/ - They have done high-quality folk, in the form of paid MP3 music downloads, for a number of years (KentFok now has tracks there, see below), to the benefit of both performers and listeners - Chris Frank, who runs it, has just been driven to write a desperate plea (see the definition of a "Hail-Mary" pass) :
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child... ...and sometimes I feel like I'm standing out in the BLAZING SUN in a HOT DOG SUIT waving my arms, yelling "HEY- HELP SAVE FOLK MUSIC and I know how good the music is and how nobody's buying music anymore , music is everywhere, can't get away from it, what the heck are we going to do???..."

- support them all is my advice, or the music scene will soon not be as we know it now .... keep the support up and things may get even better .... you will find more information in the monthly news items under "Organisations" (or "Venues" for the pubs).

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 ?

However there will be pub gigs :

Monkey Puzzle :

• Laura Targett : - fiddle, whistle.
• Lucy Randall : - bouzouki, whistle, bodhran, cajon.
• Pete Gazey : - a guitarist of great delicacy and subtlety.

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.