St Albans Folk Music organises pub music sessions, a monthly
concert series, ‘Folk at the Maltings’, and an annual 'New roots' competition
for young musicians. It is a part of the 'Folk at the Festival' Committee which
organises the St Albans Folk Festival.
Folk at the Maltings
The series of online concerts has now
finished for the time being and Folk at the Maltings is back with live concerts
on November 12 and December
3 at 8pm.
Friday
November 12 Granny’s Attic plus Ellie McCann
Dynamic award-winning trio, Granny’s
Attic is made up of Cohen
Braithwaite-Kilcoyne (melodeon, anglo concertina and vocals), George Sansome
(guitar and vocals) and Lewis Wood (fiddle and vocals). This concert is part of
a tour to launch the trio’s latest album, The Brickfields, with accompanying
digital tune book. Come prepared for an evening of great tunes, great energy and
great arrangements.
The concert will open with a set from
singer and multi-instrumentalist, Ellie
McCann, a local performer with a widening
reputation.
Friday
December 3 The Wilderness Yet plus Missing
Richard
Folk at the Maltings welcomes The Wilderness Yet which combines the acclaimed talents of folksinger
Rosie Hodgson, traditional fiddler Rowan Piggott, and guitarist-flautist
Philippe Barnes. Together, they weave an eclectic tapestry of traditional and
original songs and tunes.
Supporting The Wilderness Yet will be
New Roots 2019 finalists Missing
Richard, a duo made made up of accordionist Tom
Evans and fiddler Harriet Barton.
Tickets, price £15, £12 for students
and under 25s should be available from the web site of Ovo Theatre which runs
the Maltings. It has a new ticketing system which unfortunately is not yet
working yet. Meanwhile, you should be able to book using the instructions here.
The Maltings Theatre is on the second
floor of the Maltings Shopping Centre in Victoria Street St Albans AL1 3HL and
can be approached by stairs, lifts or from Level 2 of the car park.
Should circumstances change, the live
concerts will be replaced by online concerts.
St
Albans Folk Festival June 24-26, 2022
We hope to hold a full festival,
including a Day of Dance in June 2022. If you would like to help with the
organisation, email info@stalbansfolkatthfestival.org.uk
St Michael’s Street Folk evening
From 1988 to 2019, we held a popular event St
Michael's Street folk evening on the first Wednesday evening
in July, with dancing in the street and music everywhere. This could not happen
in 2020 or 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. We hope to see you in St
Michael’s Street on Wednesday July 6 2022, viruses and football
permitting.
St Albans Folk Festival 2020
St Albans Folk Festival ran from September
25-27 and was mainly online. If you
missed the day of free music, you can still hear a great range of musicians and
singers in our online showcase performances on St Albans Folk Music’s YouTube channel
Further details including names of
performers are here.
New
Roots an event for young musicians who are under 25 and play or sing
folk, roots or traditional music.
New
Roots 2021/22 The closing date has been further postponed to January 31
2022 and the rescheduled final will be on Sunday March 27 2022 at
Trestle Arts Base, St Albans or if not possible, online. The judges will be
Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Ffion Mair, Valmai Goodyear and Andy Stafford. For
further details and information about how to enter, click
here.
New
Roots 2020 The final of New Roots 2020 was postponed to Sunday
November 1 2020 from 11am to 5pm and was online. The music can be
heard on New Roots YouTube channel.
For further details, click here.
New Roots 21st anniversary celebration, Sunday June
28 2020
The first New Roots took place in 2000 and a 21st
anniversary event was held on Sunday June 28 2020, with performances by some
of the amazing singers and musicians who have taken part over the years. This
was an online event, with videos newly recorded by over 30 past New Roots
finalists. If you missed it, you can still hear it on New Roots YouTube channel
by following this link.
Sessions Mainly traditional Irish,
English, Scottish and other traditional music. All welcome to listen or to
play. Mainly tunes, but singers welcome.
Weekly sessions at 8.30pm on Wednesdays are at the Robin Hood, 126 Victoria Street, St
Albans AL1 3TG. Sessions at the Robin Hood have returned to the pub and
have moved back into the front bar now that it is too cold in the ‘Tent’ in the
garden.
Monthly sessions were held at the Great Northern, London Road at 6.00pm on Sundays, usually on the
fourth Sunday of the month. These have been suspended until further notice. We
have approached the pub about resuming but have yet to hear any news.
Links to other
regular events in St Albans
Contact Alison
Macfarlane
Tel 01727 852111
Email: info@stalbansfolkmusic.org.uk