Sharon Shannon & Seckou Keita: Sacred Earth

Legendary Irish accordion maestro Sharon Shannon brings a new live show on UK tour 2019. Joined by her band, Jim Murray acoustic guitar, Jack Maher electric guitar, vocals and Sean Regan, fiddle, percussion and beatbox, Sharon will perform music from her many albums throughout the years, including 2017’s Sacred Earth.

Recorded at Real Worlds Studios and produced by Robert Plant producer, Justin Adams, Sacred Earth features many tracks with African influences and indeed African musicians as collaborators and guests.

Seckou Keita from Senegal playing Kora and percussion was one of the key collaborators. Now Seckou joins Sharon and her band, as a special guest on the Sacred Earth UK tour 2019.

Folk at the Flavel welcomes back a true Flavel favourite, one of the finest acoustic and slide guitar players in the world, Martin Simpson. Martin will be featuring new tracks from an album being recorded for release over the summer. The sell-out audiences at Martin’s previous visits to the Flavel have seen that whether playing American old-time music, blues, a Dylan song or his own material he is a guitarist of immense subtlety.

Martin has been nominated an astounding 31 times in the 16 years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - more than any other performer. There is no doubt that, after 45 years as a professional musician, Martin is better than ever.

Afro Celt Sound System

Afro Celt Sound System have announced a five-date club tour to promote their new album Flight with the band bringing their exhilarating live shows to Portsmouth, Cardiff, Exeter, Nottingham and Holmfirth. 

This European and African based collective have been a ground-breaking force in music ever since they started, finding kindred spirits across international talent and forging a reputation for their breath-taking shows along the way.

Afro Celt Sound System LIVE features the core band members Simon Emmerson, Guinean vocalist, kora and balafon virtuoso N’Faly Kouyate and charismatic dhol master Johnny Kalsi alongside a host of other world-class musicians from the collective.

Sometimes folk, sometimes not, India Electric Co. use traditional instruments in contemporary styles to explore diverse themes from Eastern Europe, Irish traditions and modern urban alienation to end up with something “quirky and glittery – a veritable musical magpie’s nest.” – BBC Radio 3.

Their 2015 debut album release was followed by a world tour with Midge Ure, with whom they’ve worked extensively. With live sessions on BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music, performances at Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival, the duo are now embarking on their own headline tour.

“Exceptional talents.” Songlines Magazine
“Fresh and gobsmacking!” Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music
“Two of the most extraordinary musicians, a phenomenal duo” – BBC Radio 2

CRABSTOCK  …. On the banks of the sunny Kingsbridge Estuary at the Crabshell Inn Kingsbridge an all day celebration of  folk music in all its forms. Full programme to follow but there will be concerts, sessions and an evening ceilidh. Not to be missed.

Rory McLeod
Mathews Communiy Hall, 90a Fore Street, Topsham, Exeter EX3 0HF
Doors 7.30pm
Tickets £15.00/£12.00 from WeGotTickets
Rory McLeod is an ex circus clown and fire eater; a one-man-soul-band and poet; rhythmic storyteller; multi-instrumentalist telling unpalatable truths about broken hearts and social injustice - in songs that are percussive, bold, lyrical, deeply personal, and have an unexpected edge to them.

Accompanied by spoons, harmonica, guitar, trombone and tap-dancing shoes. He has a natural troubadour’s talent for weaving magical, musical, storytelling spells accompanied by his own bizarre solo orchestra of distinctive instruments.

This is a rare opportunity to see Rory in Topsham.

Clive Carroll

Acclaimed guitarist and composer Clive Carroll has created a sound world all his own, with a signature blend of warmth and humour that belies his dazzling technical skill.  Clive’s masterful compositions feature influences mined from the delicate cadences of Elizabethan lute classics, the imaginative eccentricity of Frank Zappa, visionary classical composers such as Bartok and Ligeti, and hints of jazz and Delta blues!

Clive made his musical debut at age two as a banjo-strumming cowboy singing nursery rhymes, and went on to earn a 1st Class Honours Degree in Composition and Guitar from the famed Trinity College of Music in London.

He has toured and worked with guitar greats such as John Williams, Tommy Emmanuel, Xuefei Yang, Ralph Towner, and John Renbourn—as well as pop icon, Madonna!

Nick Harper
Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Bovey Tracey TQ19 9AL
7.30pm for 8.00pm.
Tickets £12.00 - for information and tickets go to website

Boo Hewerdine
Ashburton Arts Centre, West Street, Ashburton TQ13 7DT
7.00pm
Tickets £10.00+ advance from WeGotTickets or £12.00 on the door.

As a recording artist, Boo’s first tentative steps came with the band, The Great Divide before the formation of his much-loved eighties group The Bible and a career that subsequently bloomed such that he is now in constant demand as a musician, songwriter, producer, teacher and live concert performer.
Brit Award winning, former Fairground Attraction singer (and Scottish national treasure) Eddi Reader (MBE) is the perhaps the artist Boo Hewerdine is most regularly associated with, as a songwriter, musician and producer. Together they enjoyed international success with the (Hewerdine written) hit single ‘Patience of Angels’ in 1995 and Boo also produced Reader’s ‘Sings the Songs of Robert Burns’ in 2003, an album now viewed as a folk classic. In 2017 Hewerdine continues to enjoy playing live and writing new material with Eddi Reader and will release his first studio album himself in the Spring, titled ‘Swimming in Mercury’, astonishingly his first in 8 years.
Scottish songwriter Findlay Napier employed Boo to work on his 2017 recording based on life stories of real Glasgow people and recorded completely live. Boo having collaborated with Findlay on his previous album VIP (Very Interesting Persons) which received rave reviews, including a shortlist for Best Album of the Year in The Telegraph and the two songwriters also tour together. Put simply Boo Hewerdine is one of the greatest songwriter performers in the business and a unique talent.