Every October Huw Stephens puts on a wondrous, glorious, often slightly damp and cold festival in the bars, music halls and converted churches of Cardiff town, and this year FFS’s own Helen True spent three music-rich days in the Welsh capital. Read about her experiences here.
Brian’s Mixtape #12: Swning About
We’re glad to report that Brian’s gone some way towards pulling himself together – Dolly Parton’s bound to bolster the most despondent of fowl. He was feeling so good, in fact, that he agreed to accompany HelenFFS to Swn Festival in Cardiff for a weekend of jolly japes and musical epiphanies, and he barely thought about that b***h. Or so he says.
Alessi’s gone Christmas Crackers!
Do you know what’s lovely? Christmas. And another thing? Alessi’s Ark. What if these two things were combined, for one night only, with a sprinkling of Treetop Flyers and a bowl full of Jake Bellows on the side? You’d cry for joy? Well then, dear reader, prepare to weep, for that is what you can have on 10th December.
Cherbourg’s Andrew Davie to play solo show
Cherbourg’s Andrew Davie is to play a solo show in Hoxton on 16th November in the first of four days of gigs curated by Levi’s One to Watch. Hoxton Bar and Kitchen will be taken over from Monday 16th Novemeber to Thursday 19th, when a parallel gig will take place at Cargo.
Wears the Trousers presents tribute to folk legend Odetta
Our friends over at Wears The Trousers have put together a rather lovely compilation in tribute to the great singer and songwriter Odetta, featuring performances from Marissa Nadler, Kelli Ali and Ane Brun.
EP: Alela Diane and Alina Hardin — Alela & Alina
When this collaboration between Alela Diane and her touring companion Alina Hardin opens with ‘Amidst the Movement’, one of Diane’s trademark gutsy folk songs that defies you not to join in with its sing-along chorus, it’s easy to think this EP is merely a supplement to her well-received album To Be Still. It soon becomes clear, however, that this offering is much more than that – it is a master-class in the sublimely simple beauty of classic folk music, delivered by two equally impressive songbirds.