Watford Folk Club

Hello from Watford Folk Club!!

Somewhat belatedly we are pleased to announce the theme for the 2021
Watford Folk Club Song Writing Competition

::: TRAINS AND BOATS AND PLANES :::

Hopefully, you will be inspired by the gradual easing of lock down which allows us to actually use these vehicles.
(By the way, we do not expect songs to necessarily include “Trains and Boats and Planes”!)

The competition is open to receive entries until
midnight on Friday 1st October.

The entries will be whittled down to ten finalists who will compete on
Friday 19th November.

Each finalist will play a warm up song in the first half of the evening, and then perform their competition entry before three celebrity judges in the second half.
After a short break, the winner and runner up will be announced!!!

The club is usually packed and comments from the audience include compliments on the slick organisation of the final as well as the friendly atmosphere with some visiting the club for the first time. One comment in our visitors’ book read ‘very enjoyable evening- the best folk club I have seen for many a long year!’

Watford Folk Club is rightly proud to have been instrumental in promoting songwriting and creativity since we’ve been running our song writing competition, which has been described by one of our audience as ‘a great education in the art and style of songwriting.’

The competition is now a firmly established feature in the Folk calendar and many of the songs have entered the Folk canon.

Songs may be submitted by two methods:

1. Either on CD with artist/artists’ names and song title written on it by mail with accompanying entry form and lyrics to:
   Watford Folk Club Song Competition 2021
   6 Avon Close
   Watford
   WD25 0DN   
2. Or a digital audio recording, (MP3/WAV/AIFF format or similar) plus attached entry form and lyrics by email to: watfordfolkclub@outlook.com quoting “Watford Folk Club Song Competition 2021” in the subject box.

More details and entry forms will be available here soon

Looking forward to receiving your entries!!

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

PLEASE NOTE that if Covid regulations prohibit a live performance we will run the finals online.

We’re coming back!

On April 23rd we are pleased to present an online New Roots Night in conjunction with Folk at The Maltings.
Four New Roots Finalists will be performing:

Lilian Grace
Lilian Grace is a young singer songwriter who specialises in unaccompanied traditional English folk song. Her songs are full of haunting vocals and rich harmonies and are, on occasion, augmented by her minimalist use of concertina. Although still only 20 she has already self-released an E.P. of protest songs and has performed extensively as a solo artist. Death and the Lady, a collection of four traditional songs is due to be released on Wildboar Records autumn/winter 2019. She is presently working on an album of self-penned titles exploring the lives of influential women who have been forgotten or written out of history.

Robbie Sherratt
Robbie Sherratt is a fiddle player from the Staffordshire Moorlands. His debut album ‘Provenance’ draws from traditional music and melodies in and around his home county. Currently, Robbie is studying for a Master’s degree in Folk music at Sibelius Academy, Finland where he is honing his fiddling, teaching, and composing. He performs regularly in concerts and dance events in Finland, England and Estonia with duo Eva Väljaots and Robbie Sherratt and with the Helsinki Ceilidh Band.

Cathy Bennett
Cathy Bennett has been part of the Cornish folk scene all of her life and for the two years before the pandemic, she did lots of gigging all over Cornwall and beyond with her band Black-Eyed Nancy. She has now moved to Sheffield and New Roots was her first endeavour as a soloist. She sings a mixture of traditional and recently composed songs in both Cornish and English and also plays the viola, sometimes using it to accompany her singing. She also sings in a vocal trio with Katy Coope and Callum MacKellar.

Callum McKellar
Callum McKellar is a singer from Cornwall now living in Devon with a repertoire of unaccompanied songs focussed around the South-west and the West Midlands. He grew up attending folk festivals and began making music when he was around 15, when he joined a Morris side and began getting involved in singing in pub sessions. Around the same time, he was also singing for musical theatre productions, and in a folk acapella group as part of Wren Music. He has also been a performer and workshop leader with Streams of Sound since 2015.

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They are all looking forward to performing for us and having seen their New Roots entry videos, we’re sure you’ll want to see them perform.

MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW

This Friday, 20^th November
We will be streaming the competition live on YouTube.
Starting at 7:30pm
Watch here

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Chris Flegg

The Stout Brothers

Sing-around