Issue 18 4/2001
FolkWorld's Reader Top 10
- some surprises
FolkWorld. In the last issue, FolkWorld published the editors' CD Top 10, at
the same time asking its readers to vote their favourite three CDs of the year
2000. To the surprise of FolkWorld, the best three CDs in the Readers' Top 10
are the same three voted by the editors as the best three:
Mercedes Peon, Jaune Toujours and Spaccanapoli. Those three seem
to be undoubtedly the best three Europena Folk CDs of 2000!
To find out about the full Readers' Top 10 click here!
Thanks to the big number of readers who joined the vote!
Festival time
Europe. 2001 seems to become another exciting festival summer in Europe. FolkWorld
has picked out a number of highlights in a special European
Festival feature. Additionally, you will find a bunch more festival recommendations
just here, in the news section!
Sad News
Scotland. The following news item is a complete mail from Robin Morton:
It is with great sadness that we are writing this email for the great loss
of Davy Steele. This is what we have to say at this difficult time for
Davy's family and for Battlefield Band.
DAVY STEELE - 10th December 1948 - 11th April 2001
It is with the deepest sorrow that Battlefield Band and all of the management team at Temple Records and Folklore Productions in the USA regret the passing of Davy Steele. Davy was for all too short a time part of the Band, but the music he made with us, and the great body of music he made before joining the Band, as well as the many friends and admirers he made on the road, is a testament to how much he could have contributed to not only our music, but to Scottish music in general. All our thoughts are with Patsy, Jamie and his wider family.
This past year has been a time of growing sadness among all Davy's friends and family. The Band would like to thank all the people who have shared their feelings with us and we will now have to come to terms with the loss in our own individual ways. As a Band we have always felt a responsibility to respect the privacy of Davy and his family, but we do know that the "Davy Talk" page on the Internet (http://www.mcclellanweb.com/davytalk/) hosted by Scott & Debbie McClellan has been a source of great comfort to them all.
Please give them your support at this time of loss, and for anyone who
would like to express their sorrow in a more tangible form, Patsy has told
us she would be happy if you directed donations to:
Marie Curie Cancer Care, 29 Albany Street, Edinburgh EH1 3QH, Scotland
An organisation who do much to help families at these difficult times.
We could go on and on listing Davy's achievements, but perhaps the chorus of one of Davy's own songs, and we know one of his favourites, "The Last Trip Home" says enough.
Alan Reid; John McCusker; Mike Katz; Karine Polwart; Rob van Sante & Robin Morton
We will remember Davy Steele as a fine man, good friend and excellent musician and singer!
Christian & Michael Moll, editors of FolkWorld.
Highland Music Homeless
Scotland. Recently featured in FolkWorld,
now dead and gone. Is it bad news for FolkWorld reporting? Beware of our correspondents,
folks! "Due to the permanent crippling debt which has hung around this project
since its inception, Balnain House closed
its doors on the 31st December 2000. The Cultural Centre, the Information Centre,
the Education Centre and the Performance Centre are lost. Our only hope is for
some private benefactor to financially support the traditional music project.
Is there anyone out there who can help! The directors and staff here would be
eternally grateful and you would know that your money had gone to sustain and
protect this centre which celebrates the dynamic and rich culture of the Highlands
of Scotland." Now, the demise of the "Home of Highland Music" is not "the
biggest Highland disaster since Culloden",
but a sad loss anyway. The ArtWork magazine
comments: "Physically it's a rather attractive cuboid Georgian building
sat right in the centre of Inverness [...] Internally it's about as suitable
for its designated role as a centre for Highland Music as a sponge is for playing
table tennis (viz: you can do it, but only if you try really hard.) The building
is a bourach of tiny rooms set around a central stair case. It has no double
glazing, which make it a nightmare to heat, no disabled access, which makes
it a nightmare to sell to funders, and no proper auditorium which makes it inappropriate
for its supposed primary purpose to be a display case for Highland music. There
is a shop, which makes money, and a pokey little cafeteria which goes like a
train and is constantly filled with folk musicians [...] Every year around 10.000
tourists visit what is one of the only wet weather attractions in Inverness.
Each week over 200 young musicians attend 15 different classes in everything
from clarsach to Gaelic singing. There are seven full time staff and eight part
timers. Over 50 concerts a year, countless jamming sessions and acres of good
crack. Dozens of kids have gone on from these classes and concerts to colleges
of music throughout the land in short this whole wonderful shambles has revolutionised
Highland Music, and is to be closed, largely because of a budget shortfall last
year of a miserable £45k [...] Last week Caroline Hewitt its charismatic Director
defined the reality of arts funding in Scotland when she told me: 'If the Arts
Council only gave us what they give the opera for sequins we would be fine.'"
In the meantime a group of local enthusiasts have set up Trust
Music to "explore ways of maintaining and enhancing the vital live music
and educational elements under threat." The king is dead, long live the
king!
The Drums are Calling
Ireland. Let's start with a joke: "Fellow walks into a pub in Belfast with
a plastic bag under his arms. The bartender asks 'What's that?' 'Six pounds
of semtex', he answers. 'Thanks be to Jaysus; I thought it was a bodhran!'"
Or: "There was the fiddle player who, while visiting the local pub, was
asked for a dollar to help pay for the funeral of a local bodhran player. 'Here's
two dollars;' he says 'bury another.'" Yes, bodhran drummers are certainly
the most hated species amongst traditional musicians (guitar players come next
I suppose). But help is on the way. "Craiceann"
is the first summer school exclusively for bodhrans, to be happen 2-6 July on
Inis Oirr in the Aran Islands. Classes are held by world leading players Tommy
Hayes, Mel Mercier,
Ringo McDonagh,
Jim Higgins,
Frank Torpey, Helen
Mc Loughlin, and Robbie
Walsh. There also will be recitals, lectures and, of course, sessions. Advice
is given: "Lock up your goats!" And let it be history: "When someone
tells a guitarist joke, people laugh. When someone tells a bodhranist joke,
people nod in solemn agreement."
Gaelfest 2001
Germany. From 11 -13 may in Frankfurt takes place the second edition of Gaelfest
- the biggest Irish music summer school weekend in Germany; organized by Deutsch-Irische
Gesellschaft Rhein-Main (DIGRM) / Rhine-Main German-Irish Association. There
is a concert, a ceili and many workshops: set & step dance, music (fiddle, flute,
tinwhistle, guitar, bodhran), singing and Irish-Gaelic language. http://www.digrm.de
They Love Music Mightly
Northern Ireland. A joint initiative between the Ulster
Folk and Transport Museum, Co. Down, and the Irish
Traditional Music Archive, Dublin, presents contemporary recordings of Irish
traditional music. The exhibition "They Love Music Mightly" features specially
commissioned audio recordings and photographs of thirteen of the leading exponents
of Irish traditional music and song. The performers featured are Ronan
Browne (uilleann pipes), John Carty (banjo), Paul Dooley (harp), Patricia
Flynn (singer), Gary Hastings (flute), Mary McNamara (concertina), Treasa Ni
Laifeartaigh (singer), Breandan
O Beaglaoich (accordion), Eamonn O Broithe (singer), Micheal
O Suilleabhain (piano), Paul
O'Shaughnessy (fiddle), Sean
Potts (whistle), and Rosie Stewart (singer). The travelling exhibition will
be hosted in the first instance in the Ulster
Folk and Transport Museum until November 2001.
HARLEKIN RECORDS - Your source for FOLK MUSIC (North America, Ireland, Great
Britain), COUNTRY, BLUEGRASS and related music. Always more than 10.000 different
compact discs, LP-records and video tapes in stock!
Harlekin Records and
its full catalogue can be visited in the Internet!
Contact address: E-mail: Harlekin-Records@t-online.de;
Jürgen Feuß, Postfach 110142-FW, 28081 Bremen / GERMANY. Phone: +49
421 7 49 10, FAX: +49 421 70 0051
FolkWoods Festival in Eindhoven
The Netherlands. Last summer took place the first edition of a brilliant new
festival in Eindoven - excellent setting, great music and lots of atmosphere.
The second edition takes place 10-11-12 august 2001 - come and join one of the
finest parties this summer! Booked bands include:Ireland: Lunasa, Ronnie Drew
& Mike Hanrahan; England: Head Mix Collective, the Netherlands: Bots, Within
Temptation, Gerard van Maasakkers, Celtic Wizard Dance Trance; Belgium Kadril,
Fluxus, Jan de Wilde, Germany: The Transsylvanians (photo), Helmut Eisel & JEM; USA:
Lenahan, Mike West & Myshkin; Finland: Gjallarhorn; Denmark: Fenja Menja; Russia:
Troitsa; France: Claude Bourbon. Sounds very interesting! More information:
http://www.folkwoods.com
International Children
Folk Arts Festival
Ukraine. The former republic of the USSR Ukraine has been an independent state
for nearly 10 years now, and since 5 years it is hosting the International Children's
Folk Arts Festival called "Zoloty Leleka" (The Golden Crane). The festival is
a non-profit cultural organisation aiming to encourage and preserve the national
and international traditions in folk arts among children. Every May the Festival
is held in Nikolayev (Southern Ukraine). Nikolayev Folk Arts School, one of
the few of this kind, became one of the founders and organisers of this Festival.
One of the main aims of the Festival is to set up the basis for free personal
contacts between children from all over the world. The Festival has the following
nominations: painting, drawing, decorative folk arts, amateur theatre, choreography
and folk music. The age criteria for the competitors are: 6-10,10-14,14-18.
The festival is still looking for further sponsors to keep the festival going;
at the same time the organisers invite any children to take part in the festival.
Further infos from Kolesnick Oleg, Co-ordinator
of the Festival.
7. Internationales Folkfestival
Gutenbrun
Austria. The popular Austrian folk festival takes place from 13 to 15 July 2001,
with a great selection of music: Paul Kelly Band (IRE) Malinky (Scotland, photo) Dereelium
(Germany) Fred Morisson (Scotland) Patsy Watchorn and Maurice Lennon (IRE) Titla
(Italy) Ceide (IRE) Wrigley Sisters (Scotland).
More
infos on the website.
Photo: Malinky, photo by The Mollis
Bulgarian folk centre
Bulgaria. The Center for Traditional Bulgarian Arts and Crafts Vedafolk, set
up in conjunction with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, is happy
to provide any information regarding Bulgarian folklore and folk life. Vedafolk
organize summer (and winter) workshops in different spots of Bulgaria in a wide
variety of educational courses (from music and dance to theoretical folklore
and language courses). The general aim for these events is to become a place
where people of different cultures meet to share an experience of Bulgarian
folk culture. This year's summer workshop takes place in the 13th C village
of Arbanassi.
Infos at www.vedafolk.com.
Gipsies in Holland
Holland. Tilburg is not only host to one of the best winter folk festivals,
the Tilburg International Folk Festival, but also to one of the important Gipsy
Festivals of Europe. This year, it is the fifth edition of the International
Gipsy Festival Tilburg, taking place on the 4th of June in Concertzaal Tilburg
and Muzentuin Tilburg. With project Ida Kelarova, Romano Rat & Chaja (Czech),
Fanfare Kanturovi (Macedonia), Urs Karpatz (France), Pedro Joya (Portugal) and
more. Full programme at www.gipsyfestival.nl
Big double anniversary
and record company fusion in Scotland
Scotland. Two of the undoubtedly best folk music record companies of Scotland,
reputed for highest musical quality, celebrate this year their 15th birthday,
Culburnie Records and Greentrax Recordings. And after these 15 years, Culburnie
has decided to join the Greentrax realms. Alasdair Fraser, the world-renowned
Scottish fiddler and founder of Culburnie Records, has invited Greentrax Recordings
to take on all operations formerly undertaken by Culburnie UK (via the hands
of Iain Fraser).
Since the 1st of February, Greentrax takes care of the Culburnie catalogue worldwide,
with the exception of North America and Australasia. The label name Culburnie
Records remains, being now under the Greentrax Recordings Limited banner. Already
some months ago the links between the two record companies were strengthened
when Brenda McCulloch moved from Culburnie Records into the promotion section
of Greentrax.
If quality joins quality, the outcome can only be high quality. So all the best
to these two birthday kids!
Photo: Ian & Andrew Green, Brenda Mc Culloch of Greentrax Recordings, photo Peter Grant
50 years School of Scottish
Studies
Scotland. 2001 marks the 50th Anniversary of The School of Scottish Studies
and in association with the School, Greentrax will release a 'Scottish Tradition
Series' compilation album which will include tracks from the many 'Scottish
Tradition' albums re-released and released to date by Greentrax, plus tracks
from previous LPs, released in 1960 by the School but now deleted. The 17 tracks
will include such notables as the great Jeannie Robertson, Lizzie Higgins, Jimmy
McBeath, Hector MacAndrew, Joan MacKenzie and William Matheson, featuring Scots
and Gaelic song and music in many styles and includes an example of storytelling.
Scottish Folk Directory
becomes more international
Scotland. The Scottish Folk Directory, published by the Scottish Folk Arts Group
based in Edinburgh, has been published already for over 30 years, and on-line
for three years. Now it is moved towards becoming an even more comprehensive
ressource, featuring also international content. The objective is to provide
a contact and event information service for all who are involved in Scottish
folk music and folk arts within Scotland. So, if you are: 1. a performer living
in Scotland, 2. a performer who is based outside Scotland but who tours in Scotland
or, 3. an event taking place in Scotland or, 4. a business or service based
in Scotland or, 5. a business which is outside the country but does business
in Scotland, then you should be in the Directory. Look in to www.scottishfolkdirectory.com
and click on "Free entry".
Blazin' in Beauly
Scotland. Up to now, Blazin Fiddles are known just as a special band project,
combining the best of Scotland's fiddlers. Now in autumn the first Blazin Fiddles
Music School will be happening, Blazin in Beauly. Located in the heart of the
Highlands - Beauly (15 miles west of Inverness), from Monday 15th to Friday19th
October 2001, it will be a week of classes, sessions, ceilidhs, dances and craic
held . It is a project that will be led by all the members of Blazin Fiddles
{Allan Henderson, Aidan O'Rourke, Bruce MacGregor, Catriona MacDonald, Duncan
Chisholm, Iain MacFarlane - all on fiddle, with Andy Thorburn (piano) and Marc
Clement (guitar)} plus a few very special guests. For the fiddlers there will
be classes held for all levels with extra sessions in the late afternoon on
harmonisation, composition, expression, accompanying song, and group work. There
will also be classes in guitar and piano throughout the week. In the evenings,
the historic town of Beauly will reverberate to the sounds of marches, jigs,
strathspeys and reels, as concerts, ceilidhs and sessions kick into action.
If you want some great music, meet fellow musicians and music lovers, and have
a laugh at the same time - then don't miss BLAZIN' IN BEAULY. See www.blazin-fiddles.co.uk
Photo: Aidan O'Rourke in session, photo by The Mollis
Irish and Swedish music
cafe
Sweden. A new folk music cafe has been started in Lund, Sweden. It's called
Spelhala and is at Lilla Tvargatan 2 in central Lund. Spelhala is usually open
(one of ) the first Fridays of each months, like the 6th of April & the 4th
of May. There is ecological food and drink to be had at low prices (well at
least for the Swedish level low!!), a large room for dancing, and two smaller
rooms for sessions, talking etc. The music so far has been Irish and Swedish,
with a small Irish session going in one of the rooms and dancing to Swedish
traditional music in the large room. Spelhala is open from 7.30 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The cafe is open for all kinds of traditional music, so bring your instruments
or just come to listen or dance.
Spring festival in Girvan
Scotland. The 27th girvan traditional folk festival takes place in Girvan, Ayrshire,
between 4-6 may 2001. If you are about to pass a spring break up in Scotland,
check out http://welcome.to/girvan
Two great world music festivals
back this year
Germany. Good news from Northrhine-Westphalia, as two high quality world music
festivals are this year back on, after having had a break.
Kemnade International is one of the definitely best world music festivals
in Germany, taking place at the romantic setting of the Wasserburg Kemnade in
the charming valley of the river Ruhr, in the southern parts of the city Bochum.
Between 22. and 24. June 2001, Kemnade International not only offers a high
quality selection of folk and world music bands and dance presentations from
all over the world, but also a unique international atmosphere. This is a festival
of both the high percentage of foreigners living in that region and German music
lovers; and besides good music, you will also get good international food and
wine. Highly recommended! Probably you will find more infos at the Bochum
website.
Maybe 20 kilometers south of Bochum, in Wuppertal, the Talklang Festival
is back as well. While Kemnade International offers a very relaxed atmosphere,
at Talklang the music is more in the focus of attention. Yet it offers many
great bands again; at the weekend between 17. and 19. August 2001. More infos
at www.talklang.de
Photo: Angelique Kidjo on Talklang 1997
Irish music courses near
Prague
Czech Republic. For the first time, Irish music workshops will be held near Prague, from 29.6-1.7.2001. There will be courses for fiddle (taught by Sabine Pichler), Flute/Whistle (Fiona Butler from Ireland), Guitar DADGAD/Bouzouki (Klaus Feketics). The whole workshop weekend will have a rather cheap all-inclusive price. It is organised by a fiddler from Prague, Jan Ráb, who can give more infos.
Snapshot - the Fun Photo Competition
Who is hiding behind the accordion?
Tell us the name, and WIN 3 CDS at once (of your choice out of a selection of six folk music (promotional) CDs)!!!!
Answers until 28/06/2001 to FolkWorld.
Click here to read the conditions of FolkWorld competitions.
In the German news you can find as additional news:
To the (older) FolkWorld News of Nr. 17
To the (newer) FolkWorld News of Nr. 19
To the content of FolkWorld online magazine Nr. 18
© The Mollis - Editors of FolkWorld; Published 4/2001All material published in FolkWorld is © The Author via FolkWorld. Storage for private use is allowed and welcome. Reviews and extracts of up to 200 words may be freely quoted and reproduced, if source and author are acknowledged. For any other reproduction please ask the Editors for permission.