News / Folk festival reveals visiting line-up
SHETLAND roots music fans can start limbering up for their favourite weekend of the year with the latest line up for the 33rd islands folk festival announced on Tuesday night.
The Shetland Folk Festival used the launch of their new website to tell the world of the 13 artistes coming overseas to add sparkle to the “four day spree of brilliant folk music, sessions and sleep deprivation” from 2 to 5 May.
North America dominates with three Canadian acts and two from the USA, a further three crossing the Irish Sea and the rest hailing from Scotland and England, including a London-based Cuban outfit.
Canadian fiddle and step dance powerhouse April Verch returns to the festival after nine years with her old time music from Ottowa and the Appalachians.
Nova Scotia provides singer songwriting banjo player Old Man Luedecke who brings the era of folk troubadours Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to life.
The Canadian ‘maritime province’ also delivers fiery Cape Breton fiddle act Coìg to our shores, mixing the modern with the traditional.
North Carolina singer songwriter Woody Pines and his four piece band blend rural and urban stringband, country blues, ragtime and jug band music.
Perhaps the hottest act from across the Atlantic will be four times Grammy nominated young Cajun maestro Cedric Watson who has brought a new zest to the sound of New Orleans.
Ireland’s fiddle and concertina player Niamh Ní Charra has spent eight years as a soloist with the stage show Riverdance before embarking with her own band.
From Northern Ireland’s County Down, well-established singer songwriter Kieran Goss returns to Shetland a mere 23 years after his last festival performance.
The Rambling Boys of Pleasure consist of well-known Irish musicians Bernard O’Neill, Gino Lupari, Alan Burke, David Munnelly and Sean Regan whose shared love of music takes them in unexpected directions.
The Long Notes met in London six years ago, since when they have been melding Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian, Galician, Quebecois and old-time tunes with their own compositions to the delight of festival goers across the land, and now Shetland.
Another debut act, Skerryvore hail from the tiny Scottish isle of Tiree but have already performed in over 20 countries worldwide and released four albums since 2005.
Hot six piece Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra are another hard working tour band mixing western swing, gypsy jazz, hokum blues, ragtime, cajun, and roots-of-country.
Also from the UK comes Leon Hunt n-tet who pays homage to US bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs on his latest recorded outing.
Finally Son Yambu from London bring the red hot rhythms of Cuban son, the precursor of modern salsa, whose lead singer Yuri Moreno has been compared to a young Celia Cruz.
Most of the visiting acts will be in the isles for all five days of the festival, leading up to the festival foy on Sunday where they play three 15 minute slots in three different venues.
Advance festival membership goes on sale rom 1 to 28 February and for the first time will be available online through the new website, designed by local firm NB Communication.
Tickets will not be available via the new site until next year, though there is information about all the visiting acts.
Be ready. They sell fast.
Meanwhile the festival society promise more details about local acts, including Hom Bru and Fullsceilidh Spelemannslag, and special events…soon.
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