SEVEN ITEMS OF FOLK MUSIC NEWS FROM SUSSEX

1] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK
Station Street, Lewes
Enquiries:- (01273) 478124 or 881316
Email tinvic@globalnet.co.uk.
Every Thursday 8.pm PROMPT START

We have been forced to make a change to this Thursday's evening guests at the Royal Oak; sadly Elizabeth Stewart is indisposed and will not be able to travel down from Aberdeenshire. Her chest infection, for which she has been on a series of antibiotics, has now developed into water in the lungs and the doctor (and herself) definitely says she will not be able to come down.
She was going to be performing in the company of ALISON MacMORLAND. Now, Alison will be performing with her usual musical partner, the fine Scots singer GEORDIE McINTYRE. So now the evening is billed in the following way:-
Apl 3rd * £5.00 * ALISON MacMORLAND & GEORDIE McINTYRE Two of Scotland's finest interpreters of traditional songs and ballads who are also fine instrumentalists and songwriters

This is followed by our long anticipated "NINE WEEK AMERICAN SEASON"
From April 10th until June 6th we are delighted to be able to bring you nine top American attractions offering a wide range of traditions:-
Apl 10th * £.5.00 * BRYAN BOWERS
From Virginia, Bryan is a master of the auto-harp and a highly regarded singer, His last visit here, six years ago, was a huge success
Apl 17th * £5.00 * SARA GREY & KIERON MEANS
With her huge repertoire of songs, distinctive singing and crisp banjo playing, Sara has been hugely popular in the UK and the USA since the 1960s. Her career has taken new impetus in her partnership with her very talented son
Apl 24th * 5.00 * ROSIE DAVIS, JOE LOCKER and BOB WINQUIST
Three very experienced and talented performers come together to perform Old Timey and Bluegrass music on banjo, fiddle and autoharp. Then there is Rosie's dancing…..
May 1st * £5.00 * CLAUDIA GOULD & BEN PALEY
Another mother and son combination. Amongst other accomplishments, Claudia is a great interpreter of the traditional song of the Appalachians. Ben is a very talented and hugely popular fiddler.
May 8th * £5.00 * BAYOU SECO
From Silver City, New Mexico, Ken and Jeannie are acknowledged experts on a range of the traditions of the south and they perform them with enthusiasm and great style
May 15th *£5.00 * DANA & SUSAN ROBINSON
From Asheville, North Carolina, they purvey a selection of songs and tunes on guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. "...rural America explored with elegant simplicity."
May 22nd * £5.00 * JEFF WARNER
From New Hampshire, Jeff is one of North America's outstanding singing folklorists. His repertoire is full of songs with interesting lyrics and lovely melodies
May 29th * £5.00 * BEVERLY SMITH & CARL JONES
Doyens of the American traditional music scene, they have a gentle but utterly convincing manner with their singing and instrumental playing on mandolin, fiddle, banjo and guitar
June 5th * £5.00 * JUDY COOK
Born in Virginia, Judy has a wide experience and is respected on both sides of the Atlantic as a singer and propagator of the old songs.
Then our programme continues with
June 12th TIM VAN EYKEN
June 19th BLUE BLOKES 3 (Ben Mandelson, Lu Edmonds, Ian Anderson)
July 3rd PETE COOPER & RICHARD BOLTON
July 10th JIM CAUSLEY
Sept 18th DAVE SEALEY
Oct 9th BRUCE MOLSKY
Oct 16th PETE COE
Oct 30th RON TAYLOR & JEFF GILLETT
Nov 6th JEZ LOWE
Nov 20th MARTIN CARTHY***
Jan 8th SULTANS OF SQUEEZE (John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson)
*** Please note that the date of Martin's visit has now been rearranged.

Our websites are at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic and
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes

Those of you with listings/ gig guides etc. are asked kindly to include
these dates amongst them.
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2] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK ON "MYSPACE"
An additional website for the Royal Oak has been developed to give the
venture a MYSPACE profile. This should enable us to profile sample tracks of
coming guests as well as photos and biographies. It is at
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes
Currently on our MYSPACE we have the following tracks by coming guests:-
Alison McMorland - "MacCrimmon's Lament" - (April 3rd)
Geordie McIntyre – "My Last Fareweel Tae Stirling (April 3rd)
Bryan Bowers - "The Rights of Man" - (April 10th)
Sara Grey & Kieron Means - "Lazy John" - (April 17th)
Claudia Gould & Ben Paley - "St James Infirmary" - (May 1st)
Bayou Seco – "Peanut Shoes" – (May 8th)

There is also a photo montage video of some of the best nights at the Royal Oak between 2002 and 2006 and video clips of some of our coming guests:-
BRYAN BOWERS - April 10th
DANA & SUSAN ROBINSON - May 15th
TIM VAN EYKEN - June 12th
BEN MANDELSON of BLUE BLOKES - 3 June 19th
(OK so this is actually Ben with the 3 Mustaphas 3, but as this is one of the funniest music videos on the internet, it is worth a mention anyway.)
JIM CAUSLEY - July 10th
BRUCE MOLSKY - October 9th
PETE COE - October 16th
MARTIN CARTHY - November 20th
JEZ LOWE - November 6th

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3] SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE - UPDATED
For all the listings of folk music, song club, dances, festivals in and
around Sussex, have a look at http://whatson.brighton.co.uk/folk
This site all always kept updated with the latest events and those currently
listed cover all the dates up until the end of April 2008.
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4] THE FOLK DIARY
Most of the listings on the Sussex Folk Guide website are taken from the paper magazine, THE FOLK DIARY. Issue no 230 covers the months of April & May and this is now available. They are packed with adverts for various folk festivals, folk music record companies, specialist shops, instrument makers and other services as well as details of all the folk song and dance events in our area. As well there are four pages of reviews of recent folk music books, CDs and DVDs. To obtain copies of this free magazine as it is published, please send SAE's to Vic Smith at the address below. (Make sure that the SAE stamp meets the new postal charges!)
It is also the address to send album review copies to. Potential advertisers are also asked to contact Vic for a statement of our advertising rates. The copy date for the June/July 2008 issue will be April 30th
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5] THE FOLK DIARY ON LINE
THE FOLK DIARY is available on-line. For some years now, all the
listings which THE FOLK DIARY gives has been given in date order on THE
SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE but now, the entire magazine is available on-line;
go to the website for the FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK, LEWES
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic and then click on the "Folk Diary"
symbol. You will need Adobe ACROBAT READER to read the pages and, frankly,
unless you are on broadband, the page will take too long to download. The
size of each page is given by each page link and the content of each page is
indicated. The following issue is now on-line and is listed here with the content of each page :-
ISSUE No. 230 APRIL - MAY 2008
Page 1 (1571kb) Robert Brown tour, Chanctonbury Ring Morris, Rude Mechanicals (Weds), Spinning Jenny Band
Page 2 (167kb) Firemans' Arms Uckfield (Tues), Brighton Singers Club (Weds & Suns), Lamb Eastbourne (Weds), Spyboy presentations
Page 3 (934kb) Lewes Arms Lewes (Sats), Royal Oak Lewes (Thurs) - Advertising rates and copy dates
Page 4 (934kb) Concertinas For Sale,Almond Greenway, Vince's Fiddles, Meltdown Ceilidhs, SEFAN, White Horse Bodle St. Green (Mons), Beacon Tunbridge Wells (Mons)
Page 5 (3806kb) Electric Voices Guildford area, Beverley Folk Festival
Page 6 (1307kb) Eclipse Hove (Fris), Hobgoblin Music, Komedia Brighton
Page 7 (998kb) Stokes Bay Festival
Page 8 (5494kb) CD Reviews, Tenterden Folk Festival
Page 9 (545kb) CD Reviews, Horsham Folk Club (Suns)
Page 10 (736kb) CD Reviews, Willows Arundel (Weds), Royal Oak Lewes American Season (Thurs)
Page 11 (84kb) Roots Around The World, Broadstairs Folk Week
Page 12 (379kb) Half Decent Songs, Cellarfolk Brighton (Tues), Radical Lewes Festival
Page 13 (1708kb) Croydon Folk Club (Mons), Barry Murphy banjoes, Lord Nelson Brighton (Mons), Six Bells Chiddingly (Tues), Acoustic Sussex
Page 14 (755kb) Sussex Folk Association, Ceilidh with The Drift, Elsie's (Sats) Fee Calls Ceilidhs, Pig's Ear Kentish Horse Folk & Ale, Amberley Folk Club (Tues)
Page 15 (809kb) Footlights West Chiltington (Sats), Mid-Sussex Folk Singers (Weds), Lewes Sacred Harp Singing Day, Littlehampton Folk & Roots Festival, Seaford Folk Club (Fris)
Page 16 (1945kb) Folk In The Orchards Haywards Heath
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6] INSTRUMENTAL & VOCAL WORKSHOPS IN LEWES
LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB WORKSHOPS 2008
The workshops last a full Saturday or Sunday and the tutor performs at the club in the evening.
19th April - Martin Carthy - Guitar & song (Sold Out)
7th June – Cloudstreet - Vocal harmony
5th. July - Will Duke - Scan Tester's tunes
19th July - Mick West - Scottish song
19th July - Frank McLaughlin - Scottish music for guitar
20th Sept - Mary Humphreys & Anahata - Fenland tunes (any instrument)
18th Oct - John Kirkpatrick - Modes (any instrument)
25th Oct - Coope Boyes & Simpson - Vocal harmony
25th Oct - Georgina Boyes - Seminar on Wassails, Carols & Winter Customs (pm)
22nd Nov - Roy Clinging & Neil Brookes - Cheshire tunes (any instrument)
6th Dec - Paul Hutchinson - Accordion
6th Dec - Paul Sartin - Fiddle
The website for more details is
http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/workshps.html or contact Valmai
Goodyear on (01273) 476757 or email ValmaiGoodyear@aol.com
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7] REGULAR SESSIONS IN THE LEWES/BRIGHTON AREA
Bryan Creer has taken on the task of detailing these, but has made changes to the way this is presented. Here is what he says:-
I have given free rein to my inner geek and written a new version of the Sessions page that works out the date of the next of each session (except for the weekly ones where it seemed a bit pointless). This was inspired by the uselessness of "Fortnightly counting from 3rd October 2006".
    I think it probably works almost all of the time (maybe). Would you like to change any references you make to it to http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/Sessions.php
Cheers
Bryan
Have a look and
if there are any you think that Bryan has missed - contact him on Bryancreer@aol.com
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...And if you are ever looking for a good barn dance band, look no further than THE SUSSEX PISTOLS - though you should get in quickly - available dates for 2008 are being snapped up quickly.

Contact Tina on 01273 478124 or email her at tinasmith226@yahoo.co.uk to book the band.
The band's website is at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/pistols.htm and, yes,
they also have a MYSPACE profile as well at http://www.myspace.com/thesussexpistols

VIC & TINA SMITH

Vic Smith
26 Ferrers Road
LEWES
East Sussex
BN7 1PZ
England

Tel & Fax:- 01273 478124
Email:-
tinvic@globalnet.co.uk
folk@brighton.co.uk

ROYAL OAK WEBSITE:-
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic

SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE:-
http://whatson.brighton.co.uk/folk

SUSSEX PISTOLS BARN DANCE BAND WEBSITE:-
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/pistols.htm

COMPOUND SOUNDS WEBSITE
http://www.compoundsounds.com