Upcoming live music

Bristol singer Beth Rowley is known for her soulful voice influenced by her love of Blues and Gospel. Following the success of her UK top 10 album ‘Little Dreamer’ in 2008, for which she was nominated a Brit Award, she’s now back after working on new material – a trio of EPs, the first ‘Wretched Body’.

The reviews say it all:
"A spell-binding evening of intense country blues, passionately performed".
"These guys transport you to another time, another place - they sure know where their hearts lie"

These long standing co-vocalists with The Blues Band get a big buzz out of taking things down a level, simplifying the music a little, and plying their trade as a duo, thus imbuing their very own personal and individual approaches to a dynamic,  rootsy and exhilarating set of Country Blues. Venues large and small have been hushed and then enraptured by the sense of ‘old times’ in the Mississippi Delta.

Only two years after leaving the brilliant and loud Breabach, Patsy Reid has become the most in-demand traditional fiddle player in the UK. She hasn’t stopped working.

On any given day in the last couple of years you could’ve seen Patsy performing as part of The Cecil Sharp Project or Kathryn Tickell’s Northumbrian Voices, or at the London 2012 celebrations with Zakir Hussain’s Pulse of the World. She played with The Unusual Suspects and The True North Orchestra, accompanied Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman on tour, as well as forming a new string trio called VAMM. There were numerous Celtic Connections commissions and a residency in Kolkata, India. And in the studio Patsy is a one woman string quartet, contributing cello, viola and violin to albums by Duncan Chisholm, Bella Hardy, Treacherous Orchestra, Tim Edey and… There are almost certainly more we’ve missed out.

‘Stunning and delightfully unconventional; the best band of Cambridge Folk Festival.’ Guardian
‘Striking and refreshingly ambitious.’ Observer
‘Plaintive, inviting, disquieting, mysterious, harmonic, austere, beautiful, oblique and sing-a-long.’ MOJO


Since the 2012 release of their second album The Fragile (**** Guardian, Mojo, Songlines, Uncut), Yorkshire duo Belinda O’Hooley (Unthanks, Nic Jones Trio) and Heidi Tidow have become a must-see act for their ‘stunning and delightfully unconventional’ (Guardian), emotionally charged performances. This earned them a nomination for ‘Best Duo’ in the 2013 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, with The Guardian hailing them as ‘The Best Act of Cambridge Folk Festival’. As well as high praise for their beautiful, interweaving harmonies and sublime musicality, they are acknowledged as one of the strongest songwriting partnerships on the contemporary folk scene. New album The Hum, produced by Mercury-nominated Gerry Diver, reveals the pulsing undercurrent of optimism, grit and mettle in migrating people, the oppressed, and the disenfranchised.  Both lyrically and musically, Belinda and Heidi’s powerful, thought provoking and deeply moving performances are infused with an honesty and empathy that will disarm even the hardest of heart.

Tickets available from the BFF website

Bristol Folk Festival is one of the UK’s best known and loved May-Day-Weekend Festivals. Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th May 2014 will be moving to a new home at two of the best and most respected venues in Bristol: St George’s and Bristol Folk House – placed almost next door to each other.The Folk House Main Hall will play host to some of the biggest acts of the Folk Festival including Martha Tilston.

More information about the 2014 Bristol Folk Festival, including this years headliners, full line up, running times, workshops and much, much more will be available soon.

In the mean time, to read about past Bristol Folk Festivals and see examples of previous years line-ups please visit Bristol Folk  Festival 2011 and Bristol Folk Festival 2012 pages.

You can find out information on Where to Stay and How to get here along with lots more the BFF website, which will be updated regularly until the festival.

Featuring

Fairport Convention
Multi BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards winners SPIERS AND BODEN
Jim Moray
Martha Tilston
Sam Sweeney & Hannah James
Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker
The Hut People
Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin
Beth Porter
The Bookshop Band
Fabian Holland
Folk Law
The Willows
Paper Aeroplanes
Matthew & Me
The Black Feathers
Baxter Rhodes
Bad Cardigan
& Many More to be announced…