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Confirming its place on the UK festival calendar, the 2nd Bristol Folk Festival will be buzzing at Colston Hall over the early May Bank Holiday (May 5-7)-a guaranteed “rain free” event.
Says patron Seth Lakeman:
“After last year’s hugely successful return to the UK’s live music calendar, I am delighted to be patron once again for Bristol Folk Festival 2012. With an eclectic line-up of multi-award winning, and up-and-coming folk and acoustic acts there is something for everyone.”
Three of the hottest award-nominated young acoustic roots acts
in England have been added to the already vibrant
line-up – Derbyshire singer songwriter Lucy
Ward, the hugely popular alt-country band ahab and singer, guitarist and actor Blair Dunlop of the new Albion Band – the long-lived, legendary
band founded by his father Ashley Hutchings.
Lucy is a double nominee at next month’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards (Horizon Award Best Newcomer and Best Traditional Track for her Maids When You’re Young). Her set is an eclectic mix of modern and trad
folk interpretations and her own songs and last year her debut album Adelphi Has to Fly drew praise from many
corners.
ahab have been described as “the most exciting harmony-infused Americana/pop outfit to emerge on the scene
since Mumford & Sons”. Featuring Callum Adamson on 12-string guitar and vocals, Luke Price on mandolin and vocals, Dave Burn on guitar and vocals, Steve Llewellyn on bass and vocals, and Grahame Rolfe on percussion.
The third “new kid on the block” is Blair Dunlop whose new EP Bags
Outside The Door has certainly made an impression. Nineteen year-old Blair is nominated
for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award to
be announced in Manchester next month.
FESTIVAL COUP FOR BRISTOL – AWESOME “AFRO
CELTS” ANNOUNCED AS BANK HOLIDAY
Bristol Folk Festival has scored a coup,
securing the supergroup Afro Celt Sound
System as its May Bank Holiday
Monday headliner in what is likely to be the band’s only UK summer festival
appearance this year.
Towering
and tribal, Simon Emmerson’s stellar, twice-Grammy nominated Afro
Celt Sound
System fuses traditional Celtic tunes with driving African rhythms
and hypnotic,
cutting edge dance grooves. One of the most inspirational and innovative
collectives ever, eight of the best musicians on the planet promise to bring
the 2nd Bristol Folk Festival at Colston Hall to an unforgettable close on Monday, May 7.
Recently returned to
the scene after a five year break the 2012 line up at Bristol will be Simon
Emmerson (guitars, cittern)James McNally (whistles, keyboards, bodhran); N'faly
Kouyate (kora,
vocals); James "Jimmy" Mahon
(uilleann pipes, flute); Johnny
Kalsi (dhol,
tablas, percussion); Ian Markin (electronic and acoustic drums); Babara Bangoura (djembe, talking drum)and Demba
Barry (Senegalese
dancing).
With a brilliant career-spanning
double CD Capture out now, the Afro
Celts are due to release a new album in the autumn. See recent performances www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6PSlTVRgqg
and www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn_R5LBh68&feature=related
SHOW OF HANDS
2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk
Awards double winners, Show of Hands will also be headlining in a year
that will see Steve Knightley and Phil Beer celebrating 20 years of their
incredible partnership that has put them right at the top of British folk.
Together with regular
double bass player Miranda Sykes, singer
songwriter Knightley and multi-instrumental wizard Beer will mark their milestone
year with a fourth return to the Royal Albert Hall next Easter before heading
to Bristol to headline the festival on Saturday,
May 5.
Two of folk’s finest female performers will bring a burst
of Celtic class.
Both multiple award
winners, Ireland’s Cara Dillon and
Scotland’s Karine Polwart are among
the most esteemed artists on the acoustic scene.
Honey-voiced Dillon. who will headline the festival on Sunday, May 6th - is also patron of Bristol Folk Festival’s sister event, the
inaugural Frome Folk
Festival, which takes place in her Somerset home town.
SCOTTISH STAR RUA AND “MONKEYS”
New kids on the block: 2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominees join the party!
Bristol Folk Festival 2011 - The Festival for Indoor Folk. In association with Bristol Music Trust.
