WHITEFERN MOUNTAIN STRING BAND   Whitefern Mountain String Band is a tight, dynamic band playing a mix of Bluegrass, Country and Irish music. The band offers strong harmonies backed by a powerful rhythm provided by the guitar, and bass of Adam Booth and Mark Griffiths. Pete Jones’s banjo and Kevin Jones’s mandolin give extra drive to the band’s sound. John Carpenter and Liam Kealy’s fiddle and harmonica breaks add further emphasis to the urgency of the bands energy. The band often brings in extra musical support from the teenage prodigies of Sam Powell and more recently Aneurin Evans. The band originally came together following a Sore Fingers Bluegrass Weekend and the Gower Bluegrass Festival.

ROCKY ROAD play a mix of Traditional & Original Celtic Folk, (Strong Irish Content, Planxty, Christie Moore etc) plus some Old Timey etc thrown in. Line up - John Honour, Guitar, Vocals, whistles etc, Larry Richmond - Fiddle & Mandolin, Fiona Richards-Buckle - Flutes, Whistle & Vocals, Wes Reynolds - Bass & Guitar etc.

BILL CADDICK Bill Caddick started singing in the early 60s. He regularly organised and appeared in festivals and folk clubs until 1973 when he joined the innovative puppet and street theatre group Magic Lantern. He left in 1975 to concentrate on solo performing and writing - releasing two albums "Rough Music" and "Sunny Memories". The latter, a reflection on Edwardian Life was re-written as a show and premiered at the Roundhouse in London followed by an extensive tour. In 1977 he joined the Albion band in the National Theatre productions of 'Larkrise' and 'The Passion'. A further solo album 'Reasons...' was released in 1979. He then formed an occasional trio with Peter Bond and Tim Laycock, collaborating on the show and album 'A Duck on his Head' about circus life, as well writing songs for local radio and Granada TV - for whom he also wrote and performed music for a film on the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Bill was a founder member of the legendary folk-rock band 'The Home Service', whose first album has been re-released on CD along with a CD of live material. He continued to work at the National Theatre, writing and appearing in : 'Don Quixote' 'A Country Calendar' 'The Passion' 'The Nativity' 'Doomsday' 'The Mysteries' - the award winning trilogy performed at the National, West End, TV and throughout Europe. Bill left The Home Service in 1985 and released a new solo album ' The Wild West Show' After a brief spell living in London, where he recorded a limited edition cassette 'Urban Legend' with fiddler Neti Vaandrager and bassist Bernard O'Neill, Bill moved back to the Midlands and now lives in Jackfield, Shropshire, with his wife Katherine, an Illustrator, and their son Tam.  In 1996 he released a new CD ' Winter with Flowers', backed by a number of local musicians, including members of ceilidh band All Blacked Up which he has since joined. He continues to work as a solo performer and with the local band the Jackfield Riverbillies and the new Anne Lennox Martin Band. Bill released a retrospective double album 'Unicorns' in 2002 see review page for more details. In between times he was Musical Director of a new production of “Larkrise” by the Shropshire Theatre Guild at Shrewsbury Castle. He is currently working on a play “The Peat Bog Soldiers” and has started work on a new CD “The Cloud Factory”. His songs have been recorded by the likes of June Tabor, Chris Foster, Alex Campbell, The Yetties, Christy Moore, Peter Rowan, John Kirkpatrick, Artisan, Coope, Boyes and Simpson and many others throughout the world.  http://www.billcaddick.com/#

BLYDE LASSES  Blyde Lasses (Glad Girls) are a dynamic young female duo who showcase traditional Shetland songs and tunes on fiddle and concertina. Their performances are as rich in stories as they are in music. Ethnomusicologist Frances Wilkins has a wealth of archive material at her fingertips, and Claire White grew up in Shetland learning tales behind the tunes she was taught by Dr Tom Anderson. Highlight performances by the duo include a three week tour in 2011 of the UAE and New Zealand, a 2010 Ireland tour, performances at the 2010 Orkney Folk Festival, and a trip to the 2008 North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in St John's, Newfoundland.

Blyde Lasses offer not only highly polished and absorbing performances for listening and dancing, but also workshops and talks on Shetland and Scottish musical traditions. Workshops include Shetland fiddle, English concertina, group playing, and ceilidh dancing.

Claire White is a Shetlander, born and bred. She learned the fiddle with Dr Tom Anderson from the age of seven and played as a member of Shetland's Young Heritage in Europe, New Zealand, the USA and Canada. She is now based in Aberdeen and plays regularly in popular ceilidh bands Danse McCabre and Jing Bang. An experienced tutor, she has taught at summer schools and festivals in the UK, USA, and Canada, and In her day job, she brings all sorts of stories to the airwaves as a BBC Producer. Frances Wilkins first took up the English concertina in sessions in Shetland, and toured extensively in the British Isles, Europe, and Scandinavia with traditional band Solan, before moving to London to study music at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She has performed a wide variety of musical styles with bands, including London-based Klezmer group She'koyokh and Aberdeen roots-infused group The Pictones. However, she is most content when playing Shetland music. As an ethnomusicologist, she travels widely collecting traditional tunes, lecturing, and regularly delves into the archives to find fresh material for Blyde Lasses to perform. http://www.myspace.com/blydelasses

EWAN McLENNAN Winner of several awards including the 2011 BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award Ewan McLennan is an emerging folk artist that has been making headlines. His music combines traditional folk, with an inevitable focus on the music of Scotland, as well as his own self-penned songs that are receiving critical acclaim in their own right. BBC Radio 2's Mike Harding has said of Ewan, ‘he sings beautifully, with great sincerity and great empathy, he's terrific!’. His guitar playing, described as 'stunning' , is influenced by the rigour and technique from his years of studying classical guitar, while retaining a unique and compelling sound in which his immersion in folk music is evident.
His debut album, Rags & Robes, has been receiving glowing reviews and has won numerous accolades in radio and print media, described as 'a collection of truly captivating songs'
A personal Account
At home I grew up hearing lots of music, of all types. My family sang as a matter of course – it was part of what you did, how you told a story. Many of the folk and pop songs they sang, and the albums they played which caught my attention were about social and political issues, whether everyday struggle or broader moments – though there were also plenty tragic ballads and love songs too! I suppose, looking back, I grew up being exposed to a wide range of music and musical influences. Perhaps as a result of growing up in Edinburgh, the influences of Scottish culture and Scottish traditional repertoire became deeply ingrained in my playing and my musical taste, and are certainly evident in my music today. I was always drawn to Celtic music (for want of a better term), whether Scottish or Irish, and there was a kind of lilt and maybe melancholy in the melodies that really held me. I began listening more and more to what I guess could be described broadly as folk music – particularly American songs first of all, and most of all Bob Dylan. As well as being blown away by the strength and sensitivity of the music, I felt the power of the lyric too – a great many of those songs are as relevant and meaningful today as they were when they were written. Great songs can’t be dated. This led me on to a broader exploration of English-language folksong and I gained a fascination for how radical political and social themes were and can be expressed through song. But most of all, being immersed in song in this way just made me want to sing. Alongside this, I began to move away from the classical and jazz piano I had always played and I took up the classical guitar and formally studied it for some years. This training has quite strongly shaped my guitar playing, and I think the general rigour has also stuck with me and firmly influences my approach to music. I began to become more and more involved with traditional music, with performing and singing, and more absorbed in particularly Scottish song. I took up formal study that connected my three big passions – music, history, and social change – which in turn greatly inspired the music I was writing, interpreting, performing. I felt it was an incredible privilege for me to have the time to spend digging deep into the vast repertoire of industrial folksong and being able to write in depth about the role of folksong in the American and British labour and working-class movements. After some years of performing more and more, and with kind encouragement, I began to take my music further afield to venues up and down the country. About this time, I signed with Fellside Records and recorded my debut album – Rags & Robes – released in the summer of 2010. From here I have continued to have the privilege of writing, interpreting, recording, and performing music across the length of the British Isles and beyond. http://www.ewanmclennan.co.uk/ 

TRIO THRELFALL - JANE & AMANDA THRELFALL  working with musician ROGER EDWARDS, are universally acknowledged as natural ambassadors for English traditional song. Their approach is endearingly self-effacing and commentators highlight the sisters' consummate ability to reinterpret songs from the English lexicon with freshness and vitality. As testament to the effectiveness of their interaction with audiences they have been described thus: 'While many of their firmly traditional English songs tell sad and melancholy stories, they are such warm and engaging performers that the overall sensation is simply uplifting'. Their easy and relaxed style belies the enormous respect they share for the traditional material which makes up their repertoire and it's only through the level and quality of their performance that it suddenly becomes wonderfully apparent. http://www.triothrelfall.net/TrioHome.html


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