A SIX-piece band, with a repertoire that extends from folk to cabaret, comes to the Beehive Centre in Honiton on Saturday 22nd August. Nothing Concrete, based in the French Pyrenees, is led by Scottish songwriter Fergus McKay. Rooted in original songwriting, the band brings together a wide range of influences, blending blues, world music, jazz,…
WHEN the great Martin Carthy unexpectedly retired, as he was due to go on tour with his daughter Eliza, she decided to continue the tour as a tribute to her father, and will be one of the major draws at this year’s Lyme Regis Folk Weekend, from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th August. Eliza Carthy…
JURASSIC Fields, a feel-good family festival billed as the “the jewel in the crown of a West Dorset summer of sounds,” returns to West Bay for a packed weekend of great music and food, from 14th to 16th August. With camping right next door to the West Bay Fields festival site, just a short walk…
BURTON Bradstock’s arts festival is renowned for the wide spectrum of music played by ensembles and soloists, led by violinist and artistic director David Juritz, alongside an exhibition of West Country arts, ceramics and crafts in the historic village hall. This year’s 44th annual festival runs from 15th to 23rd August. The majority of the…
BRIDPORT is celebrating the raucous, chaotic, energetic, musical blast that was punk and the infectious, joyful sounds of reggae with an exhibition at the arts centre featuring photographs by Adrian Boot, and a couple of punk rebooted gigs on 21st August, in collaboration with Clocktower Records. The two-band gigs feature Nasty Fishmonger, a folk-punk fivesome…
PHIL Beer, multi-instrumentalist and best known as half of the hugely popular folk duo Show of Hands, is currently pursuing his own musical thing, with gigs in the south and west between now and late October. Phil is at Sixpenny Handley village hall, from 7th to 9th August at Dartmoor Folk Festival, Friday 25th September…
THE north east of England has for many years (centuries, if you include the Border Ballads) been a hotbed of folk music – home to the Waterson-Carthy dynasty, Fay Hield, Kathryn Tickell, The Unthanks, Lindisfarne … The list also includes Rachael McShane, an original member of folk big band Bellowhead, who travelled from Newcastle on…
IFORD Opera – now If Opera – celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, from 6th to 16th August, returning for a second year to Church Farm, Wingfield, near Bradford-on-Avon, with a programme which combines wit, tragic drama, Viennese sparkle, baroque boozing and the golden age of jazz and swing. The opening night, Thursday 6th August,…
RENOWNED folk singer, cellist and viola player, a founder member of folk big band Bellowhead, Rachael McShane brings her own band, The Cartographers, to Dorset for three dates, 18th and 19th July and 23rd August, at Studland, Marnhull and Buckland Newton village halls. Hailing from the north east of England, McShane rose to prominence with…
WHITCOMBE Manor hosts the annual Dorchester Arts summer party with music, on Sunday 19th July from 1pm, with star performer Liza Pulman providing the entertainment. The beautiful 300-year old manor is the home of best-selling crime and historical novelist Minette Walters, and her husband Alec. Liza Pulman returns to Dorset after a sold out appearance…