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Welcome to issue 116 April/May 2023 issue of Around Kent Folk

The good news in this issue includes the re-opening of Deal Folk Club on a new night in a new venue. They will now meet on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of every month from 7.15 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. at St. Andrews Church Hall, West Street, Deal CT14 6DZ. There will be a mix of guests and singers nights and admission will be £3.00 for singers nights and £7.00/£8.00 on guest nights. Tea and coffee will be available or you can take your own drinks. See the advert in this issue for more details.

We are now at the start of the festival season and it is good to see so many festivals announcing full programmes of events and guests. This year’s local festivals will include Rochester Sweeps, Hastings Jack in the Green, Chickenstock, Pigs Ear Folk and Ale, Broadstairs Folk Week, Southdown Music Festival and Tenterden Folk Festival. Other festivals popular with our readers include Chippenham, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, New Forest, Sidmouth, Warwick, Whitby, and many others. I shall certainly be going to several of them and hope to meet some of you there.

I recently attended the Association of Festival Organisers online conference. Topics discussed included:

• The health and welfare of the festival team, artists and ticketholders, etc.

• Should artists help to market events through their websites and social media

• The proposed “Martyn’s Law” and how it will impact all festivals and events

• Greener environmentally friendly festivals

• A whistlestop tour to Arts Council England Project Grants

• Gender balanced festival and event programming

• Bringing in guest artists from overseas and what paperwork is needed for them work legally in England

• Working to improve access for disabled people to festivals and venues

Some of these issues could be controversial and other could impact on festival budgets so it was very good to hear the views of people who are very knowledgeable in their fields. The AFO are now planning their first face to face conference since Covid for November 2023. If you are involved in festival organisation you should plan to be there.

Alan Castle (Editor)

PS: You can make a donation to Tenterden Folk Festival or this magazine via our websites or by post (see payment details on last page). Thank you.

www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk www.aroundkentfolk.org.uk

Find us online at www.aroundkentfolk.org.uk and on Twitter as @AroundKentFolk, where you can always find a link to the latest and past issues of AKF.

Please pass this link on to your mailing lists and place it on your social media so that as many as possible of our regular readers can find AKF online until we are able to get back to a full print run and physical distribution of the printed magazine.

Stay well and take care in these difficult times

News from the North West Passage

As one Rising Sun morphed into the Kemsing Folk & Blues Club the former Good Intent Club’s new home is at The Rising Sun, Delce Street, Rochester ( 1st and 3rd Tuesdays ) keeping folk music alive in Medway alongside Rainham’s More or Less Club.

Dartford’s earlier start and finish time seems to be working well and a varied line up of guests is holding audience numbers up.

A recent visit by Martyn Joseph to Bessels Green Baptist Chapel provided a rare opportunity to see him in a smaller venue and he did not disappoint.

The perceptible blending of folk music and other genres at open mic nights continues at a number of venues such as Eltham’s Bob Hope Theatre and the many afternoon and evening events organised by Paul Green around Orpington. Orpington Folk Club at Farnborough Social Club continues to meet weekly with at least one guest per month and we are lucky to have Keith Stockman promoting larger concerts under the St Edith Folk banner - all worthy of our active support.

Joe Whittaker

Deal Folk Club

1st and 3rd Thursdays 7.15pm-10pm St Andrews Church Hall, West Street, CT14 6DZ

April 6th – Singers Night

April 20th – Bob Kenward

May 4th – Singers Night

May 18th – Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer

June 1st – Singers Night

Admission: £8 Guest Nights, £3 Singers Nights Tea & coffee available or bring your own drink www.dealfolkclub.org.uk Information 01-304-360877

CD Reviews

The Magpies - Undertow 11 Tracks

An arresting rhythmic start announces a delicious collection of songs and tunes in guitar/fiddle/ banjo/ dobro conjunction. It’s not long before the triple harmonies kick in with the news that Now Is Not Then. Kate Griffin, Bella Gaffney and Holly Brandon play and sing admirably in Americana style. I admire their neatly placed instrumentals Solstice and Colin’s/The Mariner/ Tiredness Kills which capture the sweep of wide open skies. If you enjoy The Staves you will relish also Magpies’ emphasis on their original lyrics, and their handling of Hares On The Mountain. They tackle I Never Will Marry convincingly, with the twang of oldtimey youth. All of their own songs are well worth the listening. There’s a hint of Yorkshire grit in the storytelling. There’s no lyric sheet but you don’t need one. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These), covered in their own style, concludes in fine fashion. A lovely sound, well worked out and persuasive.

Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh - Fortune By Design 10 Tracks

Oh yes... spot-on clawhammer and finger licks with dandy guitar, that sense of space all around the picking from this quickfire duo. The Trad Boneparte Crossing The Rhine/ Lockdown Hoedown combines like brandy and a shot of silver. There’s social angst (Just Listen) to tug the heart and the wry Well Well Well. Credits shared for Stays

The Same and a silky smooth Sin To Tell A Lie. Their live bounce on stage is captured, a coupla hi-class musicians having fun and letting us in on the gig. Buddy riffs. Catch them in concert if you can, too.

Bob Kenward

Megson - What Are We Trying to Say? EDJ033

Megson are Debbie Hanna on vocals and accordion and Stu Hanna on vocals, banjo, mandolin, mandola, fiddle and guitars. On this album they are joined by John Parker on double base. Eight of the 10 tracks on the album were written by Debbie and Stu. The other two are Canny Old Blind Willie, which was taken from The Newcastle Song Book from 1842, and The Barber’s News which was written by John Shield (1768 to 1848) and set to music by Debbie and Stu. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Megson in concert a couple of times and this album is a good representation of what they do live and makes me want to see them again.

Alan Castle (Editor)