The Old Forge hosts (fairly) regular nights of excellent live music. The old forge lends itself to an intimate atmosphere creating wonderful acoustics. The evening events are a byob policy but tea/coffee, soft drinks and cake will be on sale too. Stanley Street food will also be on hand serving up a tasty dish prior to the event.
Sunday afternoon gigs are a tea/coffee, soft drinks and cake affair.
NEXT GIG, ITS A GOOD UN!
SMITH & BREWER – Saturday 1st June, 7pm £9
Since their first gig, Smith and Brewer have received plenty of positive feedback from fans and the media alike. Their 2018 appearances have been no exception with reviews of their performances focusing on their musicianship and relaxed onstage style and their live album has attracted similarly complementary comments.
Album – Smith and Brewer – Live 16/12/17
‘There’s a definite feel of Simon and Garfunkel about this duo: two beautifully blended voices, accompanied with acoustic guitars. Very easy to hear why they were such a hit with Joan Armatrading […]”Life’s Too Short” is a real foot-tapping bluegrass ear worm. Once you’ve heard it, it is difficult to get it out of your head […] Definitely a duo to watch out for – a modern day replacement for Simon and Garfunkel – what’s not to like?’
http://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/reviews/smith-and-brewer-live/
Fairport’s Cropredy Convention Reviews
‘Fairport are then swiftly followed by Smith & Brewer […] and their Americana-infused acoustic playing, combined with August sun and a few beers is the perfect way to get us into the festival vibe for this most friendly and laid-back of festivals.’
http://getreadytorock.me.uk/blog/2018/08/gig-review-cropredy-festival-9-11-august-2018/
‘The easy pace of the opening of the festival continued with Smith & Brewer. The young duo built a quick rapport with the crowd – their stage manner was excellent and their country tinged acoustic songs warmed the crowd up well for the rest of the day.’
HER CROOKED HEART– Thursday 4th July, 7pm £11
Oh you lucky people, ready the fireworks, its the fourth of july! Our favourite American performer Rachel ries is back. This time in the company of her talented friends.
With To Love To Leave To Live, Minneapolis-based Her Crooked Heart presents a debut record unique in form, made up of cyclical narratives and intertwining histories, each informing the next. The result is a transformative song cycle, led by a charismatic personality, wholly indifferent to expectations of genre and instrumentation. Rachel Ries, the writer, multi-instrumentalist and producer behind Her Crooked Heart, demonstrates immense vulnerability and multifaceted musical craftsmanship to deliver a personal and profound musical soliloquy on love, leaving and the life that follows after burning it all down.
To bring these songs and this record to the stage, Ries has enlisted a powerful group of women; women who can, in their way, take on the feminine, humanist mantle of Her Crooked Heart and make it their own: Siri Undlin (Humbird), Adelyn Strei (Adro), Hilary James (We are the Willows, Bathtub Cig). The quartet blends classical and electric guitar; piano and vintage synths; cello, woodwinds and drum triggers. This merging of acoustic and synthetic sounds is all in service of the voice: four part vocal harmonies that shift from ethereal to an elemental wail, always telling a story of transformation.
In 2013, after two and a half years of marriage, Ries found herself touring a record around the world, accompanied by a stack of divorce papers in a pocket of her suitcase. She had left her marriage and a good man in New York City and leapt into the untethered unknown. What transpired was in turns euphoria and despondence; old lessons learned in new ways. The songs on To Love To Leave To Live are a compassionate and at times wry catalogue of those tumultuous years, unflinchingly captured in the studio with co-producer Shane Leonard. Several collaborators, some of whom Ries met while touring with Anaïs Mitchell, helped create the vast and varied soundscape: Brian Joseph (Sufjan Stevens, Paul Simon), Rob Moose (yMusic, Alabama Shakes), Mike Lewis (Bon Iver), Alec Spiegelman (Cuddle Magic), Pat Keen, John DeHaven, Ben Lester and Rachel’s own siblings.
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Described by FATEA as ‘atmospheric heaven’ and by Bright Young Folk as ‘super talented’; Threaded will take you on a journey through a roller coaster of emotions and musical imagery, with copious amounts of reflection and participation, and you will be left ‘feeling fresh, elated and eager for more.’ (Folk Radio UK).
Alongside their usual Threaded music making, they have been working with Theatre company: Red Earth Theatre, on their current production ‘Soonchild’. They have composed the score, and will be performing in the show when it tours nationally in 2019. Red Earth Theatre create shows which are accessible to the d/Deaf community, so the research into how to make the music accessible is supported by Arts Council England.
‘They are to be greatly applauded for the entirely self-penned compositions that they have come up with, and for the most impressive breadth of style they demonstrate.’ (R2 Rock ‘n’ Reel)
‘With their own impressive talent to underpin their passion for musical exploration, [and] seemingly endless capacity to create music and song that appeals across multiple audiences’ (Folk Radio UK)
NELS ANDREWS & JESS MORGAN – Friday 27th Sept, 7pm £10.
with support from HUMBLEBEE (back by popular demand!)
Yet again we are very fortunate to have another first for the forge, not one but two highly talented people!
Nels Andrews is a literary songwriter, a journeyman in the craft of melody who is here to tell you a story. One of Nels’ heroes, Anais Mitchell says of his work, “Nels is a master carver, an artist patient and obsessed enough to turn a whale of an idea into something delicate and beautiful from any angle.” Nels is based in Santa Cruz, California.
Jess Morgan writes gutsy modern folk songs which tell stories and are full of sadness and bite. Trash Magazine called it “The sort of thing you put on your headphones when walking alone and wanting to feel like you’re in your own gritty British love story.” Jess lives in Norwich, UK.
Their co-headlined show promises to be a tour-de-force of narrative songwriting, from which the audience can take home a gig souvenir with a difference… Jess and Nels tour in 2019 with books as companion pieces to their music, with which they hope to satisfy the thirst of the collectors, the avid readers of record sleeves and lyric sheets, or anyone feeling lost in the digital age.
Nels brings out the first single of his new record Pigeon & the Crow with a unique companion piece which takes the form of a Graphic Novella. Nels’ supernatural ballad sprawls over the page with a series of colourful illustrations crafted by illustrator Mike Benzce. The printed novella is the result of this individual and imaginative collaboration.
Jess will be touring with a collection of small pieces of writing, sprung from the psyche of the touring artist and expanding on thoughts and feelings that come with late night drives and motorway services. 2019 marks ten years making music for Jess and she hopes that her chapbook will provide extended liner notes for anyone who wishes to read them.
Jess and Nels tour together in 2019, playing in intimate venues and bookshops, in the US in Spring and the UK in the Fall.
JOHN EMIL – Sunday 29th September, 2pm £9
Oh you lucky people, all the way from the U S of A!
John Emil Montagnino, an accomplished singer/songwriter, guitarist, and a master of slide guitar, has delivered show stopping performances at major music festivals like the Telluride Blues and Brews Fest, the Leek Blues & Americana Festival UK, the Florida Folk Festival, the Decatur Blues and Bluegrass Festival, the Bangor On Dee Blues Festival UK and Garden & Gun Festival support act for The Steep Canyon Rangers.
Equally adept with the acoustic Hawaiian lap steel guitar and Dobro, Emil first appeared on the South Florida music scene in 2000. Fans hear haunting, subtle hints of Delta bluesmen Son House and Blind Willie Johnson, but Emil ultimately creates a unique style all his own by integrating country blues, folk and bluegrass sounds into his repertoire.
Routinely taking the lost art of slide guitar in a new direction, Emil has composed a wealth of slide guitar tracks for media production libraries. His instrumental tracks have been published by LA Post Music in Los Angeles, Westar Music in Canada, Songs to Your Eyes Los Angeles and Strange Fruit in South Africa. Emil recently became the first American musician to be published by London’s KPM / EMI, one of the world’s largest production libraries. Among the many television and cable network shows Emil has supplied music for NBC’s “Dateline,” “The Voice,” Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” UFC’s “Ultimate Insider,” ”American Pickers,” and several international wildlife and nature documentaries.
PAUL LAMB & CHAD STRENTZ – Saturday 7th Dec, 7pm £12.
December blues…in a good way!
Award-winning British recording artists! Respected worldwide as Europe’s top Blues musician and entertainer, Paul Lamb was inducted into the British Blues Awards Hall of Fame (alongside the likes of Peter Green, John Mayall & Alexis Korner) and continues to bring his infectious brand of music to fans around the globe…..
Vocalist and guitarist Chad Strentz is one of the best Blues singers in Europe. He started out as a rockabilly hound at the age of 15, then toured extensively with the King Snakes. You will find in his voice and guitar playing a blend of music ranging from blues, soul, rockabilly and more.
