April is Folk Season. By which I mean it is the month in which the annual BBC2 Folk Awards take place, MOFOs if you will, music of folk origin!
On Wednesday, the great and the good of the folk world will gather at the Royal Albert Hall for “a bit of a do” as we say here in these parts.
There have been nominations, there will be awards and no doubt there will be speeches – many parents, partners and hangers on will be thanked.
Although award ceremonies are not my thing, the great thing about the MOFOs is that those attending can be found playing in clubs, pubs and small venues all over the country. If you like the music you hear you can buy a CD from the artist themselves after the show, chat with them and thank them in person for sharing their music with you.
Last year The Young ‘Uns were declared Best Folk Group of the Year and will be back to defend their title, if those are the right words, for they have been nominated again. The night before they will play at Snape Maltings.
Last night The Sam Kelly Trio played Folk at the Froize number seven, they too will be at the Albert Hall with a keen interest in the outcome of the Horizon Award. That particular award was won by Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar in 2014 – oh, yes didn’t they play Folk at the Froize number six? Nominated as Musician of the year is Dan Walsh… yep, he played Folk at the Froize in January.
We are the winners. Good music can be found without paying out hundreds of pounds for a ticket to an arena show. Venues all over our region every weekend play host to top quality artists and if you think folk music is all about old people in hand knitted jumpers with one finger in an ear and a tales of war and wenches… think again:
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