Tag Archives: folk

Helen North, Traditional and old fashioned songs, dances and tunes in mid-Kent

Tunes session 4th March, tunes workshops 6th and 20th, barndance 24th, Helen North at the Brenchley session 25th

Helen North

Helen North, who is singing for us at Brenchley on Sunday March 24th

  • Big thanks to Peter Collins for a lovely session at Brenchley last week!
  • There’s a tunes session at the Gun, Horsmonden on Sunday the 4th from 8pm (it’s the first Sunday)
  • The next two tunes workshop are at the Gun, Horsmonden on the 6th and 20th March from 8pm! As we’re now working up to the workshop barndance on the 24th March, we’ll be practising the tunes we’ll need on the night. These will be Smith’s a Gallant Fireman, Off to California, Fred Pigeon’s No 2, Dashing White Sergeant, From Night ’til Morn, Quickstep in the Battle of Prague, The Marmalade Polka, Oh Dem Golden Slippers, Major Mackie’s, The Hullichan Jig, Squirrel in a Tree, Rig a Jig Jig, Shave the Donkey, The Dark Island. See the tunes workshop page for the music etc.
  • Kent’s own Helen North is our visiting friend for the regular mixed songs and tunes session at at the Castle Inn, Brenchley on the 25th March from 8pm. She has a really good voice and a distinctive repertoire including her own excellent songs, so it will be a treat to have her along… Folks are welcome to come and just listen, of course, but if you’ve got a song, a tune, a poem or anything else you might call trad, old-fashioned or entertaining please bring them along.
Annie Dearman and Steve Harrison, Artists at Frittenden

Annie Dearman and Steve Harrison sing and play at the Frittenden Festival

img_0869trimedannie img_0810trimedsteve

Annie Dearman and Steve Harrison

We’re delighted to be able to present Annie Dearman and Steve Harrison at this year’s Frittenden Old Fashioned Night Out. We don’t see them very often in this corner of the country, but they’re a high class act, and Annie’s terrific voice and considered way of working with a song are sure to impress anyone who sees them perform.

Singer Annie and Steve (melodeon, mouthorgan, anglo-concertina) perform traditional songs in a robust and firmly-rooted English style. They take their songs from traditional singers, the folk song collectors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, manuscript books of past performers of traditional music, printed ballad sheets, and songs and tunes they happen to hear and like.

Annie is our Essex representative. She sang with several Essex-based a cappella groups in the 1970s and 1980s, and after moving to Yorkshire in 1990 she was a founder member of the voice workshop Making Waves, before teaming up in a duo with Vic Gammon in 1993. She wrote, directed and sang in the show The Weavers’ March (starring Pete Coe, Chris Coe and Vic), which was commissioned by the 1998 Ilkley Literature Festival.

Away from music, she is a freelance designer and maker of theatre costumes, backdrops and banners, and has recently completed several seasons’ work for the well known Mikron Theatre Company. Annie also designed and made the costumes for the Long Company mummers, who appear on the cover of Pete’s CD also titled Long Company.

Steve has lived in Yorkshire all his life. He played mouth organ, pipe and tabor, bagpipes, whistle and saxophone for the ceilidh bands Official Brawl and The Herb Boys, and has been musician for several morris and sword dance teams. He is a member of the Long Company mummers and currently leads the traditional English dance band The Black Box Band with Chris Coe, Alice Jones and Sue Coe. Away from music, he is a social scientist at the University of Manchester.

Annie & Steve are residents at the Ryburn 3-Step Folk Club in Ripponden, and with Vic, are Dearman, Gammon & Harrison, whose highly recommended CD Black Crow/White Crow was released not to long ago by the English Folk Dance & Song Society (EFDSS CD11).

Artists at Frittenden, Kerry Fletcher

Kerry Fletcher

kerry-billy-and-tim

Romany step dancer Billy West stepping with Kerry Fletcher,
accompanied by Tim Brooks (picture courtesy of Essex Folk News)

Kent’s Kerry Fletcher is a traditional dancer of many styles, from waltzing to clogging, but at Frittenden she will be focusing on Southern English-style stepping. She’ll be teaching step dancing at the Memorial Hall during the afternoon on the Saturday (open to adult and children with parents), and performing at the lunch-time sessions at the Bell & Jorrocks and in the afternoon concert.

 

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