ENORMOUS news! 🎉🎉🎉
I am the winner of the 2023 Christian Raphael Prize, chosen from up and coming acts at Cambridge Folk Festival
I'm feeling so grateful and excited!
If you want to keep in touch and get exclusive updates, join my mailing list, link in bio 😁
Just sitting in my car at 6:30am waiting to start my day job.
Little reminder that even though it might not seem like it, loads of musicians are working several jobs to keep afloat, so your support coming to gigs/buying merch/raving about us is so important. And valued 🩵 tysm
stick fiddle 🎻 let's hear a tune on it
here's a very old Northumbrian tune, peacock followed the hen. What do you think of the sound?
#stickfiddle
#fiddle
#northumbrian
Gushy Christmas post ❤️💚
Winding down after an incredible year. My first solo tour, first proper release Learning a lot of music tech stuff from scratch. Sharing my music with lovely, encouraging people. Working with marvellous humans
I hope you have cosy + chill holidays🎄
wowww look what beautiful book arrived on a beautiful day 🌞
I can't wait to dive into this and learn some blazing/tender/banging/sweet/powerful tunes! 🎻
thanks for putting in the work to make this piece of treasure -
@kathryntickell
and team
#womenintrad
how come a 200 year old song is about inc*l culture and drink spiking?
in my song Oxford City I didn't change a single word of the lyrics from the manuscript. but it's still depressingly relevant
I will sing about this until it's fixed
Basking in the sunshine🌞
I didn't have expectations for my debut single, so that it's had radio play and lovely comments is amazing.
I'm really happy that music that comes straight from my soul, that's 100% authentically me, chimes with others.
Hope you have 🌞 in your day too
🪩 what's it like backstage?
- beautiful+friendly+busy
🪩 why are there clothes everywhere
- because I can never choose what to wear so have to travel with a small wardrobe
🪩 when can I watch?
- 10:30pm,
@BBCTwo
/iPlayer
Thank you so much
@BBCLater
🪩 any more questions?
genuine question is anyone interested in long (talkin 15 minutes long) weird experimental stuff?
it's niche so maybe it would be good for zoning out to or contemplating life while you're in the bath🛀
the tune is Tilly Trip by Breesha Maddrell, from Folk Tunes From The Women
Never So Red is out now! 🪩🐟🩵
I have so much to say about all the huge feelings I have around this, the gratefulness, joy, anxiety, pride, I have in sharing this with the world.
For now I'll hold back and just let you listen ❤️
Tell me what you think
how it looks on tv
vs
how it looks behind the scenes
the people operating the cameras are so amazingly skilled at getting shots from loads of different angles and it was choreographed so slick.
what do you think about the difference between behind the scenes and the final show?
1/3 an alternative take on
@spotify
wrapped
what if instead of focussing on cold, hard, algorithm-driven stats, we stopped to think about the constant hard work and passion artists put in, every day? ...
stick fiddle 🎻 what does it sound like??
here's an old time tune called little pine siskin.
the sound of the stick fiddle is so different from the usual fiddle sound. what do you think?
#stickfiddle
#fiddle
#oldtime
saying goodbye to summer, it's been an incredible ride, and here's a photodump featuring me mainly in charity shop clothes, all over the country 🌞
Thank you so much if you've seen me live and listened to my music, means a lot 💙
photo 1
@JonWilksMusic
photo 3
@antmiles
handmade unique CDs/little pieces of art
making more before my gig at
@sidmouthfolkfestival
tomorrow
each one is screen printed individually by me and my sister. I burned them on my laptop, and I'm writing the track names in colour pencil
would you buy one?
#folkmusic
yes lad culture is in folk music too, and nobody is better off for it
enter Elder Beer Cafe in Heaton and the inspirational
@janice_mandolin
@HollyClarkemus
and loads more wonderful people
hope to see you there 💙
Song in vid: Bonobos by
@Kinnaris5
QUITE a lot happened in 2023 🧵
🪩 my first solo tour in Feb, thanks to working with
@fancourtmusic
- I met so many amazing people who came to see me perform, and one of them I wrote a tune for. photo from
@aces_bar
by Tony Birch
What is that?? 🎻 it's a stick fiddle, which I got so I can bring a fiddle travelling wherever I go.
It fits in hand luggage, weighs pretty much nothing and in terms of the string length is the same as a standard fiddle
nifty eh!
#fiddle
#violin
#stickfiddle
This is the big news I've been waiting to share!
I'm playing at Cambridge Folk Festival
@CamFolkFest
🎻🍻🥳🌞
This is an absolute dream and I'm determined to give you a good performance - who's coming?
tickets here -
#CFF2023
#electrofolk
Tune by mighty NE English fiddle player Sophy Ball
Tune collection by
@kathryntickell
in response to a massive lack of exposure for female-written tunes in the folk scene
I hope this book inspires more women and non-binary people to create and shout about themselves ...
1/4 I'm ashamed to realise that making time to listen to music, not whilst driving/exercising/working, just listening to music for enjoyment and inspiration, is something I've not been doing. An important part of my soul I've been neglecting.
Same, anyone?
rehearsal in the park? yess with my mobile setup I can take anywhere 🎧
this is me going through part of a new track before going on
@sohoradio
why be shut indoors when you can rehearse in the company of the park life and park dogggggs
#soho
#london
#radiosoho
#mobilestudio
Little message from last night when I was majorly flagging
Thanks so much if you were part of my tour, I'm really looking forward to more gigging when I can 😁🎻
If you saw a gig and liked it, spread the word so I can keep gigging and sharing music with more great people!
you asked for it - an unplanned experimental [rough] 12 minutes of sampler+fiddle, with the tune Tilly Trip by
@breeshaIOM
get it here -
slowly expanding and unfolding, good to zone out to
I never meant to share this so it won't be around for long
The face of someone who just dropped a load of great news on the mailing list :D
If you're not part of it then join for occasional friendly emails. I only get in touch when there's something to be excited about!
Be part of it -
things were so simple when I was a humble fiddle player 🎻
now I've got all this stuff to plug in man it takes ages!
kind of nice to have 5 mins just to say hello to all the gear before practising though, like saying 'hey, how are you, cooool, let's make music together!'
Disaster in the form of a pothole trying to stop me doing the next chunk of my tour
unexpected trip to the garage, slathering bus journey back in the fresh breeze
at least I noticed the first buds of spring
Nothing will stop me! Next:
🎻 Manchester
🎻 Stroud
🎻 Leamington Spa
This will be a good one!
I can't quite explain how important
@TheUnthanks
are for me. Their sound shapes my creativity and influences my music in a very good way
❤️💛❤️💛Should they play my debut single, Over the Border on
@BBCRadio2
Folk Show?
#folkmusic
things come out at night at
@SidmouthFolkFestival
I really thought the procession was just gonna walk straight into the sea and evaporate into mist like mythical creatures
didn't happen (probably for the best) but it was still really a vibe
#folklore
#ritual
#folk
#weird
1/3 I had a sarangi lesson today with the talented and soulful people at
#BabatheSchoolofMusic
🧡
I've never heard
#sarangi
up close before and it's really something magical with more than 30 sympathetic strings. some similarities to fiddle and some big differences...
gave myself time off over xmas, next thing I know I've eaten my bodyweight in malteasers truffles and am making a drum track from ring pull sounds 🤷♀️
The look of gratefulness captured beautifully by Lalionne Photography.
Every gig I really feel honoured that the audience is there, that you listen and share and come into the musical world I create.
See me tomorrow night at
@arts_hermon
And Sunday at
@soupmanchester
Good morning :)
Here's the beginning of a song you might know, using samples of my fiddle, going in an unexpected direction.
I'm looking forward to performing the whole thing live soon, with live fiddle 😁
#tradfolk
#electrofolk
#wednesdaythought
Overheard in folk club bogs:
"Aye but he's gettin a new band started now"
"Oh?"
"There's him, Kevin an a fiddler. A *female* fiddler."
"A *female* fiddler?!"
"Aye!"
Are we that rare a breed? 😂🎻
#femalemusician
#womenintrad
Have you seen my brand new mixtapes at my gigs? They've been snapped up faster than I expected but I've still got some me left which come with me on tour.
This is how me and my sister made them. They're screenprinted by hand one by one so each one is unique 🎻😁
I am so overjoyed, so so happy that loads of you bought Never So Red before it's even released!
🪩
Check your post soon 👀
I really appreciate the support in this way, since it's a hard old slog being an independent musician at the moment. It's encouraging and heartwarming.
🩵
Cover art postcards fresh from the printers, on recycled card and with download codes for each song.
I'm so happy with these, they're really good quality! Get them at my upcoming gigs :)
Artwork for close the coalhouse door by Jen Workman
#artwork
#folkmusic
#tradfolk
🎄merry christmas🎄
Thanks for sticking with me in 2022, the year I started releasing my own solo music 🎻
More stuff coming up in 2023, hope you share it with me 😁
Join my mailing list for <monthly updates, you'll be the first to hear my big news
👇
Blurry photo but nice to look back at, from my gig in
@gritartslt
Lowestoft on Saturday.
Thanks if you were there! I'm really enjoying meeting people in the audience and chatting about all sorts.
#livemusic
#folkmusic
Guess who was mentioned on the
@BBCRadio2
Folk Show last night..!
@themarkrad
announced that I won the Christian Raphael Prize. I am -so- grateful to Christian and his family.
To keep in touch with me join my mailing list, link in thread
I know it's well past Christmas but I have to share this absolute piece of treasure I found in a charity shop in Consett.
If you need me I'll be dancing around the living room for the foreseeable future
#remix
#nineties
#vinyl
#livingroomdanceparty
Thanks to Chris for this photo of me at Cobalt Studios in Feb
This was the first gig of my first tour+I was shaking like a sheep shiteing razor blades, as the saying goes in my family. The gig was amazing tho and I was so chuffed that loads of people were into what I'm doing
❤️
This was a totally DIY photoshoot at home and instead of money just took loads of patience, resilience, time and effort (with my partner roped in to take photos)
📸 cables I already have for live gigs
📸 top £3.99 from
@TKMaxx_UK
📸 editing I did with
@ibisPaint
and
@canva
The most beautiful train journey I've been on, Shimla-Kalka in the north of India.
Weaving in and out of trees and hills, being close to nature is inspiring and I'm using my on-the-go studio to record musical sketches
#railway
#trees
#travellingmusician
throwback to June and to the incredible studio of the equally incredible
@jimmoray
this is just before we recorded Oxford City, which is released in a week and a day!
presave if you like (it helps the song hopefully reach more people 🙏)
life goal announcement!
@jimmoray
is such a source of inspiration to me, was the first artist to show me just how inventive and innovative it's possible to be with traditional music. And now I'm supporting him on a run of gigs in April 😁
....
The overlords of s m are telling me to post more often to keep my page 'healthy'😁
Got to think about my own actual health too & at the moment I'm in the middle of arranging music so is it alright with everyone if I get back to writing music now? Ok bye❤️
#independentmusician
I'm going off-grid for a while 🌿
I'll be back in late October, so until then I'll be quiet online.
For the best chance to keep updated, join my mailing list, and as a bonus you can download my latest single for free.
✍️
See you in a bit! 💚
#folkmusic
🌞 Summer is coming in and I am gonna be playing all over the place! 🌞
I am beyond happy with how fun, varied and soulful my summer promises to be, and I'm hoping to share a lot of that with you. (1/4)
Good morning everyone 🌞
Today it's
#bandcampfriday
, when
@Bandcamp
waive their fees for music sales.
If you fancy buying my new single, Over the Border, now would be a lovely time!
The link is in my bio.
Not an
#AprilFoolDay
trick I promise!
final gig of tour tonight 😭
I'm wrapped up warm ready to make my way to Allendale. Almost sold out but there are some tickets left on the door 🎫
It's in St Mary's church, there's gonna be wine and amazing cosyness
see you there?
@AllenValleyFolk
#livemusic
#allendale
#snow
Feeling groggy after a 10-hour train journey - can anyone suggest a chill tune or two that I can nourish my soul with? 🎵
I am very happy to see though that the pattern game is strong in this hotel. I think they might be genuine 60s
#train
#travel
#folk
small win alert
1/3
in the music industry sometimes there's a gulf between how it seems like it's going and how it's actually going. for me in particular streaming is not something I'm excelling in...
I'm performing at the majestic
@cecilsharphouse
for
@jimmoray
Festival
This is a dream and I can't really believe it.
If you'd told me a couple of years ago that this would be happening, I'd tell you to stop taking the pith 🍊😉
#trad
#MondayMotivation