Open Water - Twickfolk

Joanne Doolan

Open Water
Joanne Doolan
Jeff Alexander
Richard Rozze
Dave Whitford

Floorspots
Paul Vile
Holly Rose Thomas
Michael de Podesta

Michael de Podesta

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

26th March 2023

Open Water are an acoustic trio based in the South East of England, their music is rooted in the British Folk Tradition with influences of Celtic and American Bluegrass.

Joanne Doolan’s unique vocals emanate from her Welsh musical roots. An award winning vocalist,  she started to perform as a jazz vocalist whilst training as an actress at the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.  Since then Jo has developed her vocal style to embrace folk and country styles.  Open Water features Joanne’s intriguing lyrical writing, much influenced by the Romantic poets, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Rumi and the lyrics of Joni Mitchell.

Dave Whitford

Guitars and other stringed instruments are played by Jeff Alexander and Richard Rozze. Also for this Twickfolk gig, the trio were joined by the doyen of jazz bass, Dave Whitford .

Jeff Alexander 

Jeff is an acoustic guitar specialist, particularly classical and flamenco styles. He has researched early music and plays the lute and related instruments, and has been heavily involved in folk and Latin styles. Jeff has recently been interested in developing his own guitar tunings to create haunting melodies and fascinating textures. An enthusiastic and much respected educator, Jeff has worked at Canterbury Christ Church University as guitar tutor and lecturer since 1979.

Richard Rozze

Richard’s influences stem from rock, blues and jazz traditions. He is a former Graduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied a Masters in Jazz. He currently teaches guitar and Jazz styles at Canterbury Christ Church University and has been involved in teaching on the Mehr Clef Jazz Summer Schools.

Paul Vile

Open Water were supported by floorspots from Paul Vile, Holly Rose Thomas and the Michael de Podesta.

Holly Rose Thomas

Writers Kingston Student Showcase 2023

Matt Sokulsky

SJ Fowler - Introduction
Poets
Rhian Parker
Richard Howson
Marcia Knight Latter
Saloni Lodha
Oscar Rodriguez
Jessica Pritchard
Isaac Blake
Safia Kamel
Stan Dimitrov
Matt Sokulsky
Cameron Wade

March 14th 2023
Waterstones Bookshop, Kingston-upon-Thames

Cameron Wade

A showcase event, bringing the energy and innovation of Writers Kingston to a late night opening of the Bentall Centre’s Waterstones bookshop. This evening presented current Kingston students and recent alumni, together, each offering short readings and performances of poetry, exploring the range and possibility of contemporary literature. 

Safia Kamel

There were be performances by Cameron Wade and Matt Sokulsky who launched their debut publications with Sampson Low, part of our longstanding student poetry pamphlet series.

Richard Howson

In Matthew Sokulsky’s brilliant debut publication, religion remains unsimple. Revealed in a suite of poems as strange, jarring and complex as its namesake. Questioning, while enveloping religious realities, this booklet of surreal admiration celebrates the essentially human, eccentric and faith-ish in poems from a new voice in Australian and British literature. Matthew Sokulsky is poet and writer, born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales in 1999. He currently lives in London, having studied at Kingston University and … he has been commissioned by The National Gallery and this is his debut publication.
www.sampsonlow.co/wck-pamphlets

Stan Dimitrov

Designed to evidence the remarkable contemporary and innovative poetry being written by current and recent Kingston University Creative Writing students, this series of beautifully designed pamphlets each features a suite of poems, most often on one theme or in one style, by a solo author. The series mark the first publications of many poets who are very likely to be significant presences on the UK scene and beyond in the coming years.

SJ Fowler

“Kingston University brings together students from all over the world, from as wide a range of backgrounds and cultures as can be found in the UK. It creates a community that cross pollinates influences and ideas, and this is inevitably reflected in the work the students create. The university does not get enough credit for this – it is, I have seen, a vibrant, harmonious environment where originality and difference can be transformed into exciting and innovative expression. The students are hungry for that which is innovative, that which allows them to express the true size and complexity of their experience and their community at the university. This series of poetry pamphlets reflects that. The work is utterly contemporary, it is exciting and energetic. It is, I hope, the best kind of representation of what Kingston University stands for – intelligent, unique and various in its character.”
Series editor, SJ Fowler
www.writerskingston.com

Rhian Parker

Saloni Lodha

Oscar Rodriguez

Jessica Pritchard

Isaac Blake

Marcia Knight Latter

Chris Ronald and Paul Hoad - Twickfolk

Chris Ronald

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

12th March 2023

Chris Ronald has earned a place as one of Canada’s finest singer-songwriters creating and performing Contemporary Folk music. Ronald’s stand-out signature sound is steeped in his British background, poetic lyrics, and a buttery fusion of Roots and Americana music.

Ronald first got hooked on song writing at age 15 when he put to music a poem he wrote in high school, but he only started to go public after he moved to Vancouver in his thirties and self-produced his first albums so he had CDs to sell at the intimate gigs he was playing in and around the city. One of these early works caught the attention of The Georgia Straight who praised Ronald’s song writing and “beautifully clear tenor voice” and wondered “where his obvious talent has been hiding for so long.” Encouraged, Ronald decided to go all in on his next project and hired ace producer and multi-instrumentalist John MacArthur Ellis to work on his first full-production studio album. The resulting Timeline (2014) album catapulted Ronald to a new level in his career with, among other accolades, a nomination for “Songwriter of the Year” at the 2014 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Shortly afterward, Ronald was signed to esteemed Canadian folk label Borealis Records to release Fragments (2017) followed by Light & Dark (2021). Both albums achieved top 10 on the FAI Folk Radio chart.

UK 2023 Light and Dark Tour
Tuesday, March 14 @ 8:00PM - St. Neots Folk Club - St. Neots, Cambs
Wednesday, March 15 @ 7:45PM - Red Lion Folk Club - Birmingham, West Mids
Thursday, March 16 @ 7:30PM - Loughton Folk Club - Loughton, Essex
Tuesday, March 21 @ 7:30PM - Montysmusic Acoustic Club - Hoby, Leics
Wednesday, March 22 @ 7:30PM - Redbourn Folk Club -  Redbourn, Herts
Thursday, March 23 @ 7:30PM - Topic Folk Club - Shipley, Yorks

Chris Ronald website

Paul Hoad

Paul Hoad is a singer songwriter who creates music drawn from influences such as Nick Drake, the 70’s, interpersonal psychology and folk music. Raised in the south of England, his formative years were influenced by the UK folk artists who frequented his parents’ folk club. It was here that he developed a deep appreciation for acoustic music, that still informs his sound today. He went on to hone his craft as a founder member of UK folk band Suntrap. With his warm, engaging stage presence and soulful high tenor voice, it’s easy to be drawn into the intimate world of his songs.

Kety Fusco - Royal Albert Hall

Kety Fusco

Kety Fusco

Elgar Room
Royal Albert Hall
03/03/2023

Kety Fusco Experimental Performance with two Harps, light and Visuals is the new live project by musician and composer Kety Fusco in collaboration with visual artists Gabriele Ottino and Sharon Ritossa. A visual and auditory journey aimed at taking the spectator into an impromptu musical dimension, far from the classical canons of the harp and rich in moving images that suggest contemporary themes. Exploiting the materials of which a classical harp is made (wood, metal and gut), Kety Fusco produces sounds and settings that suggest its deconstruction, just as the visual artists have produced images that enhance the raw material of the instrument.

Kety Fusco website

Over the years, Kety has done a lot of research to extend the technical-expressive possibilities of the harp (both classical and electric) mainly through the implementation of electronic technologies (but also with the use of physical and analogue materials - the 'prepared harp' in a contemporary sense). And all of the solutions she has gradually found have become an integral part of the music she has created, for record release, concert or soundtracks for film, dance, theatre and installation.

THE HARP is a contemporary exploration of the harp as an instrument, in all its forms, both sonorous and structural. Chapter I is the first part Kety presented on CD and Vinyl: it chronicles the sound of the harp from the contemporary tradition, to the digital evolution, to her main goal of giving the harp a voice through a melody that commands the composition, up to the total deconstruction of the harp with noise sounds and wild rhythms.

“The Harp, Chapter I is an experience. Imagine seeing the harp in reverse and that the opposite is the right direction of the instrument. Imagine, as a non-harpist, rubbing your finger on the harp strings and knowing that that sound has a real meaning. It is not the case. I would like The Harp to open the boundaries of the mind and open new creative solutions to harpists and non-harpists. I'm designing a new harp instrument, it will always be it, but contemporary and everyone will have the opportunity to approach it.” Kety Fusco.

Charlie Dore - Twickfolk

Charlie Dore

Charlie Dore with Julian Littman

Floor spots
Sue Graves and Mary Wilson (Suntrap duo)
Paul Vile
Michael de Podesta

Julian Littman

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

19th February 2023

Charlie Dore is best known as a respected songwriter, but has been performing in her own right since the 1970s. She made her first album in Nashville and London and released a single, Pilot of the Airwaves, which became a hit in the US.

Sue Graves

She became one of a handful of UK songwriters to have success across diverse genres with songs covered by George Harrison, Tina Turner, Lisa Stansfied, Ricky Ross, Sheena Easton (US No 4), Celine Dion, Black, UB40, Status Quo, Paul Carrack and a UK No 1, ‘Ain’t No Doubt’ for Jimmy Nail. Charlie’s songs have won two Ascap awards, an Ivor Novello nomination, both the Overall Grand and the Folk Prize from the International Acoustic Music Awards and in 2012 Best Album Lyrics from the Indy Acoustic Project for her album Cheapskate Lullabyes. Charlie’s recent awards include Female Vocalist Of The Year (FATEA, 2020) and Best Lyrics (US Indie Acoustic, 2021).

Paul Vile

For her 10th and most recent album Like Animals, she turns away from the expansive science and space metaphors of 2017’s Dark Matter to focus on the internal landscape of the human brain and just what makes us tick. Sewn-through with Dore’s trademark dark wit, lyricism, and distinctive melodic voice, Like Animals explores some of our most basic instincts and how we’re often hi-jacked by our emotional responses. Fear, anxiety and aggression figure but on the plus side, intense joy and love are in the mix as well. In 2021 Charlie also released her EP, The Man Who Built Christmas, on the basis that a good song isn’t just for Christmas.

Mary Wilson

Michael de Podesta

The Final Vinyl Thread - episode 100

This is our Final Vinyl Thread. It's been such a pleasure to spend time with you all over the past two years. This week for the first and last time, all four of us cram into one episode. Join us, Alban, Natalie, DJ EEEE and Sussex Jack, for 20 minutes of vinyl and shellac, we spin flea market finds and auction lots into a themed selection for you to enjoy. 

Listen to episode 100 of The Vinyl Thread here - https://www.mixcloud.com/AlbanLow/the-final-vinyl-countdown-ep100-the-final-vinyl-thread/

Originally broadcast on Radio Nope on the 5th February 2023. Listen to other shows on Radio Nope at www.radionope.com. Until the next time we meet. Goodbye.

Tracklist
Sparks – Beat The Clock (7”)
Virgin – VS270 (1979)
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - We Almost Lost Detroit (12”)
Arista – AB 4147 (2007)
The Cure – Close To Me (12”)
Fiction Records – FIXH 11 (1985)
The Free Design – You Be You And I'll Be Me (7”)
Project 3 Total Sound – Pr 45-1331 (1968)
The Cranberries - Ode To My Family (12”)
Island Records – 5391295 (2020)

Twickfolk - 40th Anniversary Bash

Pip Collings

Pip Collings
John Davies
Sue Graves
John Prosser
Paul Vile
Bernie Dembowski
Jennie Higgins

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

5th February 2023

Sue Graves

As TwickFolk entered a second week of 40th birthday celebrations, they brought together many of the characters who have helped nourish and sustain live music in Twickenham on Sunday nights over four decades.

John Davies

John Davies, singer-songwriter, guitarist, sax player, flautist and one-time TwickFolk MC and sound man, returned from Devon, and harmonised with former band-mate, Sue Graves. Sue, current TwickFolk stalwart and treasurer, is universally known across south-of-England folk clubs as the Surrey Songbird, and records and tours widely as a solo act and as part of the polyphonic Suntrap.

Paul Vile

John Prosser, singer-songwriter, guitarist, banjo and mandolin player and former TwickFolk treasurer, performed with TwickFolk's current sound man and longest-serving  committee member, Paul Vile.

John Prosser 

John Davies, John Prosser and Bernie Dembowski performed as the String Fellows.

Jennie Higgins

Jennie Higgins, who performed at TwickFolk last week to a packed audience, took a break from her educational role at the English Folk Dance and Song Society to entertain Twickenham folk lovers once more. This week she launched her new album Where Are All The Women?, you can buy a copy here https://jenniehiggins.bandcamp.com/album/where-are-all-the-women.

Bernie Dembowski