Choir of Outsiders return to our bar stage.
Choir of Outsiders is a North West based music promoter specialising in contemporary and experimental folk. Come join the chorus.
Woody Green (full band show)
What began as an intimate solo project has taken flight as a unique and captivating 5-piece band. Woody Green’s poetic charm is a quiet and powerful force, pastoral folk with a light seasoning of late 60s New York. A blend of Nick Drake, Cohen and Reed.
Distinctly nostalgic, yet simultaneously Woody’s music and lyrics navigate a very contemporary space. Live, dynamic highs and lows bring about a connection with the ‘other’, something outside the mundane. Green leads us through dreams, reality and the earth.
Tom Blackwell
Now based on Teesside, Tom Blackwell emerged from the Manchester folk club circuit, where he discovered the country, blues and gospel music that would become the foundations of his work.
Between 2010-2011 a succession of homemade recorded demo collections garnered somewhat of a cult following. In 2012, Liverpool’s Viper label released a compilation of these tracks. The record received support from BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music.
After a tumultuous start to 2014, Blackwell found himself embarking on a 3 month pilgrimage of America. Armed only with a guitar and the clothes on his back, he travelled thousands of miles over rail and bus, before a chance meeting in Nashville with sound engineer Matt Wyman led to the recording of Tyrone The Gun. The album found critical acclaim and was named as one of Country Music People magazine’s albums of the year in 2015.
A disastrous attempt at recording a follow up to Tyrone in 2016, found Blackwell battling with depression and struggling to adjust to married life after years of living itinerantly. He decided to undertake an ambitious archive project to document his early material in the barest of forms. The ‘Memphis Volumes’ were just that, hushed vocal and guitar takes captured in various Merseyside dwellings onto an old Tascam cassette recorder.
A prolific writer with a visceral and dynamic performance style, Blackwell has been performing across the UK and beyond for the last 15 years, honing his craft both on and off stage. A new album ‘Regency Cafe’ is due to be released later this year.
Wychbury
Wychbury are a contemporary folk duo, made of guitarist Che Bradley and vocalist Rhiannon Kenny – McGrath. Despite being in their early twenties, they have been playing together for over a decade and their deep musical connection is palpable on stage. Their intimate performances are a blend of traditional folk songs and their own original material, inspired by the themes of nature, folklore and industry . The delicate storytelling of Rhiannon’s vocals and the clarity and inventiveness of Che’s guitar playing have made them favourites on the emerging Leeds folk scene.
During the summer of 2022 the duo performed at Glastonbury Music Festival, Gate to Southwell Festival, The Green Gathering, Hartlepool Folk Festival and Moseley Folk and Arts Festival. The pair have also received endorsements from the BBC Radio Folk show, The Durbervilles where they performed an exclusive live session.
“Rhiannon’s endless creativity as a songwriter feeds into the way she interprets traditional material, and Che’s incredible intuition as an accompanist and arranger gives it the space to bring the songs to life. Their brains just seem to naturally work on a level of curiosity and invention that most of us only aspire to.” – Jim Moray (TradFolk).
Artists on stage: 3.00pmCurfew: 6.00pm
Stage: The Bar