Karen Tweed – Essentially Invisible to the Eye

ESSENTIALLY INVISIBLE TO THE EYE is Karen Tweed’s latest recording and, in being entirely solo, is a departure from her extensive collaborative work which has dominated her career since the early 1990s.

Born in London in 1963 to an Irish mother and English father, Karen took up the accordion at the age of eleven. Since turning professional in the late 1980s, she has appeared on over thirty albums from her early days with The Kathryn Tickell Band to being a founding member of the pioneering all female Poozies, through the Anglo-Swedish ensemble SWAP, American collaboration Undertoe with Stuart Kenney, Marko Packard and Rodney Miller, to The Two Duos Quartet with Andy Cutting, Chris Wood and Ian Carr. Karen’s duo work with Ian Carr, Andy Cutting and also Roger Wilson and John Dipper has left many an audience mesmerised at her breathtaking musicianship, while her trios with Hannah James and Becky Price in Hell Said The Duchess and with Carolyn Robson and Kevin Dempsey are more examples of her diversity and creativity.

SEEKER LOVER KEEPER

Seeker Lover Keeper is the arresting meeting-of-minds of three of the finest female songwriters working today. Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby are all critically acclaimed, award-winning solo artists in their own right, and Seeker Lover Keeper is not just an album but a love token, a musical keepsake to cherish.

The seed for Seeker Lover Keeper was initially a way for the three long-term friends to tour together, singing each others’ songs every night. It was Sally who suggested instead that the three of them form a band, and Sally who came up with the name – “I just really love those three words together and how it suggested that one (of us) is the Seeker, one is the Lover and one is the Keeper.”

NEIL YOUNG Hates Mp3 Quality, Says We’re Missing 95% Of The Sound!

Reblogged from KLUV:

NEIL YOUNG is very unhappy with the quality of music these days. …

WordPress has now reactivated it’s “Reblog service” so we can now bring you some of the best bits we stumble upon from the wider WordPress community.

Double Celebration for The Outside Track

Acclaimed international celtic band, The Outside Track, are celebrating picking up the ‘Group of the Year’ award at both the Live Ireland Music Awards 2012 and the TIR Irish Music Awards.

The band were crowned on January 1 2012 and in fact celebrated a double success as their lead singer, Norah Rendell was also awarded the accolade of ‘Vocalist of the Year’.

Introducing Sam Sallon….

Sam Sallon, an up and coming acoustic singer/songwriter from North London, who is creating quite a buzz on the acoustic music scene. Sam has a new album that is scheduled to be released in April called One For The Road, which we’ll be checking out shortly.

Sam has quite a pedigree already as he has toured with Rodrigo y Gabriela, Pete Doherty, Nouvelle Vague, Dot Allison and Lyle Lovett. Last year he played Cheltenham Folk, The Secret Garden Party, Big Chill and Wilderness and Beacon Festivals.

KATIE MELUA ALBUM NEWS

‘Secret Symphony’, the brand new album by Katie Melua, will be released on March 5th, 2012. Katie Melua takes the stage in front of the Secret Symphony Orchestra, on this, her fifth album. Always happy to step away from people’s expectations, Katie delivers a superbly crafted set of tracks interpreting songs drawn from a wide spectrum of songwriters including herself and Mike Batt.

“This album was going to be my ‘singer’s album‘ says Katie. I had always wanted to do this one day; singing other people’s songs brings something out of you and your voice that isn’t perhaps where you would have gone vocally with your own material. It stretches you. As it happened Mike and I did write a couple of new ones, but the general idea was to find songs by great writers such as Ron Sexsmith (‘Gold In Them Hills‘) and a favourite song of mine, originally recorded by Bonnie Raitt (‘Too Long At The Fair’) plus some more well known ones like ‘Keeping The Dream Alive‘.”

One for Facebark!

Musician, Composer,Producer, Presenter and Raconteur Phil Cunningham has often brought a smile to our faces here at Folking.com. His legendary tale about Fergie MacDonald which we filmed a few years back at the Gostport and Fareham Easter Festival (http://www.eastfest.co.uk/) in his duo performance with Aly Bain had us in hysterics and has now had almost had 50,000 views (if you not seen it yet you can watch it by clicking on the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMUjJ_biMn8)

So this morning when I saw his latest video pop up in my facebook feed telling me about a lullaby he had written for Fergie I was intrigued…  I checked it out and BOL (Bark Out Loud) this Fergie is not Fergie MacDonald the extraordinary button accordion player and legendary ceilidh band leader but Phil’s dog who  decided to join the tune and provide the vocal part….. that is.. until he fell asleep!