BB's Back from the USA

From BB's (Catherine Bowness) MySpace site:

"Back Home Again.
Hey Good Friends!
Well, the summer of America is now over and the summer here is just beginning! The last four months have been an awesome experience thanks to the good Boulder folks and Hoffenpeople for welcoming me in to the family. The flight was long and miserable like most flights are but thankfully I got all of everything back into the country even though I was overweight. It's great to see my Mum and Dad again and hear the kiwi accent. The weather here is pretty miserable - rain and wind - but I'm actually enjoying it after the long hot summer days in Boulder. So now I'm going to settle into some study before exams in November and then it's off to play with Twisted Oak throughout New Zealand for December and January.
Cya Ya'll Soon, BB"

BB is performing with Twisted Oak at the Whare Flat Folk Festival this new year.

From Wellington

From Barnsey:

"Dear all nz-folk,

"Firstly some breaking news - Tim van Eyken has had some great news in that he has been offered a part in the National Theatre Christmas production. It's a direction he has been wanting to go in for some time, however as it means solid work from August through February he won't now be able to attend our festival this year. So we're following up a couple of options and will let you all know what eventuates.

Tim is re-arranging his flights to come out next year instead, and hopes to be able to be in the country rather longer. Secondly, get booking for the festival to take advantage of the earlybird discount and especially if you want bunks. Go to the website http://wellingtonfolkfestival.org.nz/ and go to the Registration page. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of you there...

Cheers, David
http://wellingtonfolkfestival.org.nz/
http://morrisdancing.org.nz/

Whare Flat Folk Festival

Several great artists have been confirmed already for this year's festival (December 30th 2007 - January 3rd 2008) including the amazing and prolific Irish singer/songwriter Kieran Halpin, Scandanavian trio Habbadám (featuring the wonderfully charismatic Hannah Wiskari, the guest saxophonist of two years ago) and the highly acclaimed Sam Burke and the Wifeys from Melbourne.

More information on the Whare Flat Folk Festival website.

Canterbury Festival

Review by Bernadette:

My review of the Easter folk festival held at Waipara will concentrate on the aspects of the festival that I didn’t expect. Guests like Chris While and Enda Kenny are known quantities so it is pointless for me to spend time discussing their performances.

The first pleasant surprise at the festival this year was the weather. The forecast horrendous and after freezing last year, I went with every snuggly garment I have, along with extra quilts and a wheatbag (they do have a microwave available for campers) for night time. However, only Saturday was wet and the rest of the time the sun shone and I don’t think overnight temperatures got anywhere near zero!

Several guests stood out for me. Lindsay Martin’s violin playing and accompaniment is always a pleasure to hear but this year he shone on the mandolin. He is not only a skillful player but he seems to know just how to fill in the spaces without taking over the performance. For those of you who have never been to the Canterbury Fest, they have created a clever idea of having a ‘blind date’ concert where anyone who is attending the festival who wishes to perform, puts their name into a box, including all the guests, and the names are drawn out to go into groups. These people then get together and create a number to perform in a special concert on the last day of the festival. It is always great fun and sometimes some amazing acts appear. This year, Lindsay obviously decided to be the ‘blind date’ and he dressed up beautifully with a blond wig, tasteful makeup and a ‘stunning’ outfit. He looked amazing and you could see that he was playing some rousing mandolin breaks but it was a real shame that something was wrong within the sound system and he could not be heard more than one row away from the stage. The other act in this concert that I loved was Enda’s group who did a great précis of The Sound of Music.

Another guest that I particularly enjoyed was Lindon Puffin. From beginning to end of his concert he hardly stopped talking and he was very funny. His rendition of ‘Baker Street’ on the kazoo was inspirational. Add to silliness, a great voice, plenty of stage experience and tons of ‘street cred’ and you get some idea of what he was like. Often people who are not from the folk world feel out of place and have no idea of how to act at festivals but he came along to sessions and joined in where he thought he could without taking over or opting out.

I didn’t get the see Adrian the Clown do his clown act but as a compere he was an inspired choice. He is obviously a ‘street performer’ with lots of clever tricks to get people involved and they worked amazingly with a concert audience – some good ideas for the rest of us to steal.

The President’s choice this year was also a departure from the norm and Russell asked ‘Dunedin’ to be the guest. So a jam session was arranged on stage. Even though I was in this myself I will say that I enjoyed it immensely. Some of the numbers I have heard people do in the past worked incredibly well with the wall of sound behind them – and everyone was obviously having fun!

So, as a festival organizer myself, I have to say that my hat is off to Russell and his team for thinking ‘outside the loop’ with their guests. It was fun festival and I would recommend it to anyone.

Bernadette

Canterbury Folk Festival, Easter 2007

From the nz-folk list:

A quick report back on a very mellow and lovely Canterbury festival. Thanks to the organisers. It gets better every year! Or is that just me who gets to know more people every year and so enjoys it more? Quite a mixed bag of musicians this year, from an English trad feller through thirties swing to some younger local (and loud!) artists, all tastes catered for. Enda Kenny and his great band were my highlight - I just love the way Enda uses words and the naughty way he delivers them, and Lindsay is a GREAT backing fiddle player. Mike Mikaelides Moroney was an added bonus in the band at the final concert. James Wilkinson was in fine form, I've never seen him play with such fluidy and verve.

My partner Fran got some nice pics of him (and lots of other stuff), shortly to be up on the site music.nelson.geek.nz .

Chris While with the voice of gold added her own magic to the mix. There were also a raft of wonderful workshops, topped by the magnificent tunes workshop :) And the usual Easter delicacies like the blind date concert, fairy "bondage" grotto for the kids and the much-patronised coffee bar. I sampled a variety of late night sessions from serious diddly through to lovely English trad harmony, mmmmm.

The spoons were a great idea for meeting people, what a nice pickup line "may I spoon with you?" Thank goodness nobody thought of playing the damn things. And after four years of going to these festivals, I've finally learned how to stay awake until the wee small hours and then still be able to function the next day! My body must have acclimatised to the folky
atmosphere.

See y'all there again next year.

Jenni K

Ceol Aneas - June 2007

http://www.ceolaneas.org/ Nelson, New Zealand - 1st to 4th of June
Held each year in Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand, the workshops are modelled on the Irish Summer Schools held in Miltown Malbay, Tubbercurry and Drumshambo. The workshops offer a series of master class and performance opportunities to attendees to enhance their own music practice as well as the cultural and artistic landscape of New Zealand with its strong Irish links.

Welcome to Ceol Aneas 2007

This year we have the legendary Kevin Burke of "Bothy band", "Patrick Street" and "Nightnoise" fame, Jon Sanders also from Ireland and Fred and Claire from Australian group Tulca Mor, plus a host of well known New Zealand tutors.

We invite you to 'Ceol Aneas' (music of the south) a weekend of Irish Traditional Music Workshops being held in Nelson, New Zealand between 1st and 4th June 2007.

We are delighted to offer a spectacular line up of special guests for the weekend, which will be the eighth weekend of music organised by the Celtic Flute School of New Zealand.

Our intention with these workshops is to provide tuition in traditional Irish music in an informal environment and to give participants an experience similar to that found at summer schools in Ireland.


Registrations

Early Bird: $130 (until 30th of April)
Regular: $150

Register online or print the online form and register via the post.

Featuring
Kevin Burke - Fiddle
Fred Graham - Fiddle
Jon Sanders - Guitar
Claire Fitzpatrick - Free Reed
Brendyn Montgomery - Flute
Alex Davidson - Flute
Pat Higgins - Whistle
Kath McDonald - Set Dancing

www.ceolaneas.org

New Festival in the South

BARDS, BALLADS 'n' BULLDUST FESTIVAL
Naseby High Country Festival.
EASTER WEEKEND
6th , 7th, & 8th April

A weekend celebration of high country life via music, poetry, song, dance, busking, arts & crafts, sheep shearing, dog trialing & much more.
Friday 6th:April - Kay G B playing at the Ancient Briton Hotel

Sat 7th - morning: High Country & Musterers breakfast at the Ancient Briton Hotel.with speeches, song and poetry.
Live mini concert performances throughout the day.
Sat night: - Barn Dance at Town Hall with Phil Garland & Bush Telegraph plus guest performers.

Sunday 8th - live mini concert performances throughout the day.
Open Poetry night at Ancient Briton Hotel. All welcome.

Guest artists & poets:
Bush Telegraph band
Phil Garland
Dusty Spittle
Martin Curtis (Cardrona)
Michael Brown (Wellington)
Robert Scott (Dunedin)
Ross (Blue Jeans) McMillan - Naseby
Des Styles - Naseby
Brian Turner - Oturehua
Jim Morris – Ahuriri

Bring the whole family and discover Naseby and all its secrets.

Naseby is the original capital of the High Country and promotes itself as "2000 feet above worry level!" See you there!

Roch Sullivan
Box 688 37, Newton
mob (021) 972303
ph (09) 3744211
fax (09) 3744214
email: roch@thoroughbred.co.nz