Lymm Folk Club

We will have twenty minutes each from our pre-booked performers (maximum of nine), with a raffle break somewhere!

As with the Songwriting Competition, we will draw the running order by 'raffle' as each slot comes up. This is to discourage people from only turning up in time for their own slot, as no-one will know when their turn will be. Quite simply, anyone who isn't available when their slot is drawn forfeits their opportunity!

We will be at the Spread Eagle from around 1.00pm setting up the PA, but there will be no sound checks beforehand - the sound check is part of your slot. Again, this is to discourage people from extravagant requirements - there will be vocal microphones, instrument microphones, DI boxes and XLR lines to choose from.

Last year we introduced a competetive element which proved to be popular - the audience were asked to vote for their favourites. This year. the 'winner' will be offered a club gig on Thursday 2nd August 2012 - non-negotiable, so if you're not available on that date we'll simply ask the runner-up, and so on! The audience will vote for three in order of preference, the first choice being given three points. Hopefully this should avoid a tie-break situation! A tie may be settled by the actual number of votes a performer has received in total, or on the whim of the Organiser...!

Three years ago I thought I might try to write a poem or two and now I love writing poetry. Formerly a Head of an Infant & Nursery School, I am now retired and see the world quite differently.

I belong to the Warrington Poetry Group, which meets each month. We share our poems and learn from each other. In the same way Lymm Folk Club has welcomed me as a friend and poet. Such a special privilege on Singers' Night to bring my poems to life.

Hopefully I shall continue to improve and give pleasure to anyone who is happy to listen.

- Dee Lehmann

A singer/songwriter who until recently was singing with north Manchester groups Redmayne and Feet in Mouths.

Malc Smith - acoustic, classical and electric guitars and Keith Boswell - flute & vocals are part of a Jethro Tull tribute band, but as the duo we play and perform the acoustic songs of Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull.

We have been established for a while, and cover some of the more complex and diverse music of Ian Anderson's solo work, and also the popular and well known early Tull acoustic songs.

As 'Prof Panglos' (four of us making up the Tull Tribute band, name taken from a comic strip - part of the Thick As A Brick album) we have played at various venues, including Knutsford Little Theatre and Alexanders Bar; Chester. The duo has played at Lord Eldon, Knutsford.

"He has a lovely voice and is an excellent songwriter... the kind of voice you could just listen to for hours"" - Ali O'Brien, Sounds of Folk.

Apart from a few well chosen songs from other songwriters he admires and traditional songs, Chris mostly performs his own, well crafted songs.

Mick Hare and John Condy are Pepper Street, a dynamic, young(-ish) duo who perform their own songs and cover versions of material by some of the finest contemporary acoustic atrtistes.

They are residents at Sale Folk Club and perform regularly at guest nights there. They've also been sighted at other folk clubs in the North West.

Recently they have performed with Janice Bell, appearing together on Sounds of Folk on Oldham Community Radio 99.7fm.

Janice will probably be accompanied by Pepper Street and other assorted reprobates (more info to follow)...

Tony and Kate are no strangers to Lymm Folk Club!

No doubt you will recall this young, up-and-coming duo who are beginning to make a name for themselves!!

Kate is a brilliant singer-songwriter, and scrapes a mean fiddle, whilst Tony sings and plays Cittern - and tells some really groan-worthy one-liners!!

Gray is a migratory Wirral-based singer / songwriter and a regular at Bromborough Folk Club, but is just as likely to turn up in Banbury, Aylesbury or Wolverhampton.

As well as his own distinctive songs, he performs covers of "brilliant songs that nobody else seems to play..."

You can find him on soundclick.com and myspace.com.

With influences such as Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Karine Polwart, Joan Baez, Sandy Denny, Anne Briggs, Steve Tilston and Bridget St. John, Sue is a singer-songwriter to be reckoned with!!

Find her on soundclick.com

Tonight's concert is a 'double header'!

Pete Shirley is the embodiment of the traditional English singer-songwriter - a troubadour with a story to tell and a song to sing. In fact, he's more English than warm beer, fish and chips, high petrol prices and year-round rain!

He learned his trade in the folk clubs of his native North Staffordshire, writing and singing about the many aspects of life's journey; stories and songs about travelling, love, work, faith and everyday hardships.

Tales of austerity and struggle that in lesser hands could veer towards the melancholy, but Pete is made of sterner stuff! Armed with guitar and bouzouki, he breathes an air of hope and optimism into everything he performs!

Pete took part in last year's Acoustic Concert, and there was a three-way tie for first place – Zoe Mulford and FolkLaw were the others. So we decided all three should be awarded gigs! He also won the songwriting competition in 2012, so it's fair to say the good people of Lymm like the lad!

Wakefield-based Sarah Horne and James Cudworth play a mix of their own arrangements of traditional & contemporary folk as well as their own material. Sarah plays violin/fiddle & sings, James sings & is a multi-instrumentalist; he plays guitar, clarinet, harmonica, bass, drums, ukelele, stomp box, mandolin, saxophone & penny whistle, some of them all at once!

They started performing together in June 2009 and have been very busy since playing at parties, weddings, local venues & lots of festivals. They also like to play at folk clubs when their schedules permit.

Our residents Stewart and Janice Bell (assisted by Pepper Street) set the scene for a great evening's entertainment!

John Kirkpatrick  really needs no introduction, he's been around the folk scene forever! Winner of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 'Musician of the Year 2010', he has been involved with seminal bands such as the Albion Country Band, Magic Lantern, The Richard Thompson Band, Umps and Dumps, Steeleye Span, and Brass Monkey, was one of the musicians on the legendary 'Morris On' album, and makes guest appearances on almost everyone else's albums from time to time!

John has been an inspiration to many squeezebox players over the years, including our own Bernard Cromarty (for which John most profusely wishes to apologise!), and runs workshop sessions at festivals both in the UK and overseas.

Not only is John a virtuoso squeezebox player and excellent singer, he is also a well respected songwriter - so he's agreed to be one of our judges for the Songwriting Competition...

Our residents Nick & Lin Tysoe and Nelson Peach ensured the evening started with plenty of chorus singing!

Bells of St. Mary's

John proved, yet again, not only what a brilliant squeezebox virtuoso he is, but an all-round entertainer to boot!

For his encore he did his infamous impression of a concertina-powered helicopter with the Bells of St. Mary's!

Tonight's entertainment will be provided by whoever turns up! Lymm Folk Club is blessed with a wide variety of singers and musicians, but you can come along and listen if you don't feel like performing! We do ask that the audience doesn't walk around or chat whilst each performer takes their turn, though - it's only fair!

A well-attended Festival Singers Night this year!

If you missed these talented youngsters last year (see picture above, and click on it for some video!), you've got another opportunity to see them when they return to the Rugby Club!

BBC Young Folk Award finalists 2009,  Jaywalkers  are Jay Bradberry (fiddle, vocals and guitar), Mike Giverin (mandolin, guitar and backing vocals) and Lucy Williams (slap bass)!

Nelson Peach opened for us this evening with a lively set of songs and tunes, followed by Bernard...

This year's audience for Jaywalkers was twice the number of last year's, and it seems highly likely the audience will double yet again next year - they won themselves a lot of new fans this evening!

A set by American songwriter Zoe Mulford is like a small volume of short stories - evocative, beautifully crafted, and endlessly varied. Whether her starting-point is Franklin’s doomed polar expedition or the neglected contents of her own refrigerator, her vivid storytelling and down-to-earth humour take listeners on an enjoyable journey. Backing her clear voice with guitar or claw-hammer banjo, she draws on the traditional music of the US and the British Isles to make sense of modern life. She was raised near Philadelphia but now lives in Manchester, England and plays on both sides of the Atlantic. Her most recent album, "Bonfires", celebrates the folk tradition from North Carolina to Liverpool.

Janice opened for us with an impassioned version of 'Don't Explain', then invited Pepper Street to join her... Mick Hare and John Condy. The set included Mick's 'Song of the Planet', but John, fortunately, had remembered to bring his bottleneck (slide) with him, so didn't need to borrow Janice's nitro spray!

Bernard's set included an attempt to re-educate the good burgers of Lymm in speaking Lancashire dialect with the 'Coal Hole Medley', and two of Ted Edwards' songs - 'Coal Hole Cavalry' and 'Ladybird' (by request)!

Zoe Mulford's fan club helped boost an already good-sized audience, and they also helped with the chorus singing! The weather didn't do us any favours, but Zoe managed to lift the mood of the evening so that we didn't really notice how humid and muggy the room had become.

In the second set, Zoe invited John Condy up to play blues harp (okay, mouth organ - as if you didn't know!) in 'Just Before I Go', her hilarious take on the break-up of a relationship... which she assures us is not autobiographical!

What a way to end Lymm Folk Club's part of the Festival, dancing the evening away!

This year our caller will be Rob Phillips, with Nelson Peach, Bernard and JJ providing the music.

PLEASE NOTE: There is no bar, but you may bring your own drinks... or nip down to the Spread and stock up!

Not a particularly big crowd, but it didn't stop us enjoying ourselves, as they were all dancers! Right from the 'off', everyone was up on the floor dancing - as you can see from the pictures.