Email: Bram

Hello Folks, 

I trust you all had an enjoyable Christmas and I wish you and your families a very happy and peaceful 2010.  Winter is by choice, my quiet time of the year, when I can take some time out and catch up on those essential tasks like writing this website news letter.  

2009 Highlights

Throughout  2009 the music front was a very busy and exciting time, the year starting off with some lovely dates in January and February, at Folk Clubs and other acoustic music venues country wide. 

USA

March saw me fly out for another splendid trip to Florida, for 6 concerts at a variety of music venues, all different in their own way and a pleasure to perform at.  Again I was looked after and ‘spoiled rotten’ by my Florida Agent Dudley Burchill and her husband Jack and their wonderful family and friends.

Mariposa Folk Festival Canada

In July I returned for a second time to the Mariposa Folk Festival in the delightful town of Orillia, Ontario where I had the privilege of appearing alongside ‘The Proclaimers’ (of Walk 500 miles fame) and Buffy Sainte- Marie, performing to upwards of 15,000 people, just fantastic!  Mariposa is an amazing Folk Festival, run by a wonderful team of people who certainly know how to look after the festival goers and artists alike.

Festival & Folk Club Dates

On my return from Canada, the year continued to be busy, with yet another good helping of Folk club and Festival dates on the UK scene and included a host of re-bookings at venues some of which I hadn’t performed at for several years.  It doesn’t half maintain my faith in human nature, to find that there are venue organisers out there who are still prepared to have me back time and time again.  “God bless ‘em!” 

Festival appearances were very well received, at Chippenham, Boars Bridge (a delightful fund raiser festival in a beautiful Hampshire rural setting) and The White Horse Folk Festival at Grove in Oxfordshire.  The autumn saw me gravitating again, back up to Scotland and the North East where the Folk Scene is absolutely thriving to perform at the Sedgefield Folk Festival as a duo with my great friend Roly Hindmarch, alongside ‘The Strawbs’.  

with Rick Christian at Stortfolk in June

Spain

I rounded the year off in grand style with a 3 day notice trip to Spain to perform at The English Folk Club at The Rocajuna Den in Puntaprima, Costa Blanca to stand in for Cathryn Craig and Brian Willoughby who sadly had to pull out due to family illness.  The concert was in safe hands playing to a capacity crowd of enthusiastic expats and I wish Cathryn and Brian well for the future.  The English Folk Club is a great place to perform at, expertly run by expats Ian & Carol Smith who make everyone feel welcome and I look forward to returning to perform there again in August 2010.

Again, my main 'bread & butter' performances in Folk clubs and other venues continued from strength to strength.  The number of new clubs and venues making contact with me for the first time was very encouraging, with particularly memorable visits to Arundel Folk Club in Sussex and The Hungry Horse Folk Club on the Wirral.

FELLSIDE RECORDINGS

A huge milestone has been achieved with now over 25 years as a Fellside Recording Artist, a privilege I have valued and enjoyed enormously since I first joined Paul and Linda Adams at Fellside in 1983.  I am forever indebted to them for their continued support, and friendship over the years.  ‘Song Singer’ FECD206 (released in the summer of 2007) has been well received by the British Folk Music press and encouraging CD Sales have continued.  If you would like to add ‘Song Singer’ to your CD collection you may place an order for that and all other recordings via the Recordings page

We are currently planning to start recording another Album at the back end of this year which hopefully could be released during the first half of 2011.

Live Music Project for Schools

I still found time to continue some work in schools which fitted in nicely with my travels.  I firmly believe that young people can be inspired by live music performance.  The Live Music Project allows teachers to cover sections of the curriculum through the use of music and song.

The Duo & The Band

2009 saw me performing often as a ‘Duo’ with my good mate Roly Hindmarch, where we enjoyed performing at many venues in the North East.  Working with Roly has been an absolute joy, and I am looking forward to continue working with him in the future.  The new line up as the Band which goes without saying is equally as enjoyable, sees Roly and I joined by multi-instrumentalist Dave Russell also of Full House and Family Mahone fame, when we will work together as a trio as venues and our own commitments permit.  

Web Site

The Web Site is a crucial tool to ensure that the sites ‘visitors’ are well informed, regarding my live performances, tours both at home and abroad and the facility to read about and, we hope purchase CD’s on line.  Jim Merchant my great friend and thoroughly loyal Website Manager continues to do an excellent job of regularly improving and maintaining the site, with CD sound bites, consistently keeping the ‘Live Dates’ page up to date and all the other valuable information which keeps the site both interesting and informative.

Please do feel free to let us know your views and impressions of the site.  Jim and I are more than happy to hear from you especially if you think we can make the site more 'user friendly'.  

For now, keep enjoying your music and I hope to see as many of you as possible at the 2010 dates, which can be found on the ‘Live' page. 

With every good wish to you all,

Email: Bram