Music / Folk & Roots
Bristol’s month in folk & roots – April 2024
If there’s a time of the year that fits folk music perfectly then it’s April and May.
Summer is, indeed, icumen in and things are getting very exciting. Some of the best folk musicians in the country play in Bristol during April and there’s some seriously exciting (and strange) treats too.
April is so good for folk and roots gigs at the brilliant Folk House that you could, in all honesty, stay within its walls for the whole month and be perfectly happy.
Things kick off with one of the most exciting live bands on the Folk-ish scene as Gaderene play on April 5. Wild foot-stomping beats, eighteenth century dance tunes and perfectly delicious madness are guaranteed.
Dallahan (on April 12) forge Irish and Scottish traditional folk music to Balkan rhythms and dashes of jazz, pop and North American tunes. Their latest album, Speak of the Devil, is a world folk masterpiece.
Bristol’s very own mini folk supergroup, Tarren, play on April 21. A brilliant live band, they use traditional folk music as a place to start from but push it off into all sorts of interesting places.
Pisky Led (April24) were formed in Cardiff but are heavily influenced by Cornish musical traditions, already favourites at a number of Welsh festivals (including How the Light Gets in) they’re going to be great.
The highlights of the entire month, however, happen right at the end. Eliza Carthy is, simply, the greatest folk musician in the country. Over the years, Bristol has seen her with her Big Machine band, in trios and with the wonderful Restitution band but, this time, she’s solo, just her and her fiddle.
If you want to see incredible English folk music played with infectious delight then Carthy is as good as it gets. She plays on April 26.
As if one legendary musician wasn’t enough Peggy Seeger is in conversation on April 28. Peggy Seeger! What more could anyone want?
There will, doubtless, be loads of stories about her formative years, her legacy and her activism. Thrilling stuff.
They’ve played in Downend before but Christina Alden and Alex Patterson make a very welcome return on April19. One of the most exciting folk duos around, their music is rich with intertwining harmony, sensitive accomplished musicianship and a creative song-writing style that is both delicate and moving.
Deeply inspired by the world around them, they have a keen environmental eye to craft stories with the natural world at its heart, reflecting on the relationship between humans and the wild.
They are supported by local folk/Americana Trio, The Lost Trades, who bring a little bit of Laurel Canyon to North East Bristol.
Bristol’s sea shanty favourites, The Longest Johns, play at the newly refurbished Beacon Hall on April 6 and this is bound to be a gig full of bouncing and lusty singing.
Headlining Bristol’s Folk Festival last year, The Longest Johns were simply brilliant and their new album, Voyage, is equally wonderful. You’ll remember that, in 2021, they had a huge hit with their version of Wellerman but every song is a stone-cold, sea-tossed classic.
Bristol’s finest, quirkiest little venue, The Jam Jar, has a couple of fantastic Folk-ish nights out in April too.
The Urban Folk Quartet (on April 11) are “definitely 100% the best folk dance band in the world ever” and smash together all kinds of frantic dance-y things as well as some top quality folk tunes.
Expect Funk grooves and Afrobeat, Middle Eastern melodies as well as some seriously wonderful Celtic fiddle driven stuff.
Slightly less dance-y but just as brilliant, Blair Dunlop plays on April 17. A seriously good singer-songwriter, he has a new album out soon and, if new single Let’s Get Out of The City is anything to go by, it’s going to be superb.
Detta Kenzie was last seen in Bristol at Downend Folk & Roots, supporting Kitty Macfarlane. Her voice is absolutely extraordinary, beautifully controlled and filled with warmth and wonder.
The Devon based singer songwriter plays St George’s on April 26. This one will be an absolute treat for those that love Cara Dillon, Kitty Macfarlane and The Wicker Man.
For something just a little more Country, The Fleece have The Wandering Hearts on April 7. They are part of the UK Americana scene that spawned Ward Thomas, The Staves and The Shires and are just as infused with quality pop tunes and sunshine.
Veterans of huge festival shows, from Black Deer to C2C, the show at The Fleece will be very special. They are supported by Pearl Charles, a singer-songwriter from California who fuses 60s rock to 70 Cosmic Country. It’ll be worth getting there early.
If all of that sounds a bit traditional, then there are two shows that feature two of the most interesting Folk bands currently making music.
Shovel Dance Collective play Strange Brew on April 17 and they “nurture a passion for the folk musics of the British Isles and Ireland with experimental tendencies, exploring the ways in which traditional music holds queer histories, proto-feminist narratives and the voices of working people.
They are simultaneously traditional and experimental, seeing folk music as a living communal activity, inviting and generous to those it speaks to.” They are, also, ridiculously exciting.
If that wasn’t enough then Milkweed play Cafe Kino on April 19. A shadow-y duo who describe themselves as slacker-trad, they have released three cassette only albums of gloriously odd cut-up weirdness.
They are newly signed to Broadside Hacks and that, surely, is recommendation enough. They are the sort of band that makes you tingle.
Main photo: Barry Savell
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